Times are changing for Bigfoot hunters
As evidence for the reality of Bigfoot remains objectively poor, with promising finds deteriorating under scrutiny, the future for scientific cryptozoology looks troubling for those who committed their reputation to finding a biological creature.
Several events in the history of bigfoot studies have boosted or burned the potential reality of the sasquatch. Three recent developments, in particular, shifted the tenuous foundation on which bigfoot researchers derive any public currency and social credibility. I argue that the general tide is turning on those who promote the idea of biological bigfoot. The biological concept is being replaced by a cultural version of bigfoot, which may work just as well financially. But first, it’s worthwhile to revisit some of the past key evidence examples that were intended to bolster the reality of bigfoot and what happened to them. Then, I present three examples to show how bigfoot research has lost critical parts of its foundation in the 2020s.
Jerry Crew and the Wallace prints
In 1958, the giant hairy creature of the Pacific Northwest gained its infamous moniker after huge prints were found in Northern California by Jerry Crew and then publicized by the Humboldt Times newspaper who named the printmaker “Bigfoot”. This finding set the scene for what was to come over the next 10 years – giving shape and structure to what was previously viewed as a tall tale or myth. In 2002, the family of Ray Wallace, who owned the company doing the work where the tracks were found, admitted Wallace had made the trackways himself with fake feet. The reveal made news at the time and was fairly influential. The average uninvested citizen heard the news and thought, “Bigfoot is a hoax.” Not so for the invested believers. The Wallace hoax claim was ultimately disregarded by many Bigfooters as they had already compiled significantly more trackway evidence that, in their minds, nullified this incident.
Photo by Dave Rubert
Dale Lee Wallace of Toledo reveals the original feet made from Alderwood his Uncle, Ray L. Wallace, used to make the now-famous bigfoot tracks in 1958.
Skookum cast
The Skookum cast was discovered in fall of 2000 by the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) during an expedition to the Skookum Meadows area of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington. On location for a TV show, the muddy area was baited with fruit with the intent to capture prints. The resulting large print was interpreted by bigfoot researchers as a body imprint, which was cast and studied. Those involved saw significant detail in the print. Just a few months later, others familiar with wildlife traces concluded this was an elk wallow, complete with elk hairs. There was no other corroborating evidence for a sasquatch. Bigfooters had mixed feelings about the cast, but the hype about the body imprint ultimately faded away due to the elk conclusion and the hard-to-accept story about it being bigfoot-generated.
Jeffrey Meldrum with an annotated Skookum cast. BFRO.
Critical literature
In 2004, a book landed on the scene explaining how Patterson did his infamous film (PGF). The Making of Bigfoot by Greg Long was supported by investigative work and extensive interviews that laid bare the fact the Patterson was an unscrupulous character. The book revealed that Bob Heironimus was in the Patty suit in the iconic film clip. Later in 2012, the scholarly book Abominable Science by Loxton and Prothero detailed how Patterson had constructed the film based on the 1955 account of William Roe. It matched liked a storyboard of what Patterson would later film. Long, Loxton, and Prothero’s works were pilloried by Bigfooters who refused to engage with the confounding or outright damning evidence. They rejected Long’s claims of the suit and the filming while conceding that Patterson was no angel. The two books were critical parts of the Bigfoot story but the believers would consistently dismiss any red flags that degraded the legacy, continuing to mostly consider the PGF as legitimate bigfoot evidence. After steering clear for decades, Bob Gimlin eventually began to make the rounds to the cryptid conventions telling a dramatic story of being there. Gimlin became a revered figure, bolstering the legitimacy of the PGF once again.
Ketchum’s DNA circus
In 2008, Melba Ketchum, a veterinarian at a forensics laboratory, was picked to analyze a suspected yeti hair from Bhutan collected as part of Josh Gates’s adventure show, Destination Truth. Over the next few years, Ketchum received additional samples and funding from various sources to conduct more analyses of hair, blood, saliva and tissue of supposed hairy hominin creatures. This included a sample from Justin Smeja who claimed he shot two bigfoots (he didn’t). After promising blockbuster results that would withstand scrutiny, many Bigfooters followed her every word. As of 2012, she had vociferous defenders and a publicist but others were deserting her and her trail of empty promises. The resulting paper was rejected by Nature. In February of 2013, the fiasco culminated in a sloppy paper published in a “journal” she set up for her sole purposes. Accompanying the official version of the paper was a video which supposedly showed a sleeping sasquatch – a brown, furry figure on the forest floor. DNA was supposedly obtained from this individual, named Matilda. The video was laughably bad and the DNA results were terribly botched, showing nothing of value. The paper was roundly destroyed by genetics experts. Ketchum ironically expressed that the creature had a partly supernatural origin. Years later, she ended up in further professional trouble and is now thoroughly discredited, with the episode almost entirely forgotten. Several bigfoot-curious people who followed the Ketchum saga were disgusted and either dropped out of the scene for a while or disappeared entirely.
Canonical stories
Two specific witness stories remain a solid part of the bigfoot/sasquatch canon. Albert Ostman told a dramatic but unverified story that he was abducted by a family of sasquatches in 1924. He came forward decades later in 1957 when nothing could be confirmed and bigfoot was now a media commodity. The Ape Canyon incident, also of 1924, described how several men were attacked by “wild apemen” in a cabin at Mt. St. Helens. Fred Beck publicized his version of the account in 1967. Beck considered the creatures “supernatural beings” but this aspect was frequently left out of the retelling by those who thought of bigfoot as a human-adjacent hominin. The Ape Canyon attack was disputed by the forest rangers but remained a graphic story repeated countless times to demonstrate the reality of these creatures.
Not Finding Bigfoot
Additional key videos, photos, recordings, tracks, and eyewitness accounts still make up the body of evidence presented for the reality of bigfoot. Yet, even the “best” evidence does not hold up well to scrutiny. Beginning in 2011, a new audience was exposed to the legend and the idea that bigfoots were EVERYWHERE thanks to nine years of a semi-scripted “reality” show called Finding Bigfoot. The show successfully placed the idea of bigfoot as a real animal back into the public consciousness. Those on the show made an effort to look like they knew what they were doing and serious about it. They encouraged people to tell their stories, which sound highly convincing. The kicker was… they never found bigfoot (to the degree that the scientific world would be satisfied). Thanks to TV, the internet, and the surge of amateur paranormal investigation as a popular pastime, bigfoot was again a hot topic and now regularly “sighted” across the continent. More researchers signed on to look for evidence themselves.
Around 2000, the internet ushered in a new means of communication allowing people with fringe ideas to find each other. The internet platforms not only were a way to hear new opinions, claims, and findings, but also leveled the field whereby anyone could be heard and present themselves as qualified “experts”. The situation created new self-styled bigfoot influencers and a place for the bigfoot-curious researchers to find information. In the 2020s, Bigfoot and other cryptids became more mainstream as cultural icons, as celebrated local folklore, and as commodities. The efforts to bring accounts of anomalous creatures to the masses transformed into an explosion of casual cryptid interest by a new generation. This new model of cryptids was less about discovery of a real animal and more about the performance of investigating mysteries and the joy of indulging in edgy beliefs, an aesthetic derived from the cryptid TV shows and social media platforms.
2025 may mark the beginning of a definable shift in Bigfootery as highlighted by three major developments. Time will tell how the community responds.
Death of Dr. Jeff Meldrum
Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum was the scientific face of bigfootery. A credentialed university researcher, Meldrum went to many bigfoot related events every year, was the in-demand spokesperson for the reality of bigfoot on TV, started a journal, and embraced his role as leading bigfoot expert. He also provided a measure of reason by rejecting dubious claims such as those by the aforementioned Melba Ketchum as well as Russian Yeti promoters. When Meldrum passed away in September of 2025, it was a shock and a heavy blow to the community of Bigfooters. There is no equivalent figure to fill his shoes. While others continue to reference his legacy and opinions, they cannot replace the familiar bearded professorial guy calming telling you that he knows bigfoots are real because of “science”.
There are not many candidates who could step up to fill the role of scientists of bigfoot studies. Active scientists are generally unwilling or unable to commit to work on what, for all intents and purposes, appears to be a dead end zoological subject. After 60 years of questionable, weak, and hoaxed evidence, the subject has instead slipped into a pop cultural phenomenon that people see as fun, with a few hundreds, perhaps, who consider themselves serious researchers. Like a bigfoot Pope, (an admittedly inappropriate metaphor) Meldrum kept the faith alive, providing guidance and authority. He encompassed a role that seems unlikely to be filled soon, if ever. But the lure of being the most important fish in a small pond may be tempting (e.g., Avi Loeb).
Absence of evidence
Every day that goes by without a biological finding means that Bigfoot is more likely to not exist. After nearly 60 years, we have no better evidence for its reality as a biological entity. If people are actually experiencing a Bigfoot as they say they are – in their backyards, crossing roadways, watching in the forests, moving around with their offspring, signalling to each other across distances – there should be actual evidence of their existence. Instead, we have useless visuals, prints without a print-maker, and scads of eyewitness accounts certainly influenced by cultural contagion that prompts people to see a Bigfoot when it is unlikely to be that at all. We now have the technology to watch game trail traffic, and to use drones and infrared equipment. We can map out all areas on earth remotely and in most places in person. Even though the number of serious seekers has increased, no biological sign of an unknown ape has been secured. Yet, Bigfooters insist discovery is close.
Lewis and Bartlett’s book Bigfooters and Scientific Inquiry (2026) does a good job of showing how Bigfoot knowledge claims are constructed through absences: whatever cannot be attributed to other causes is interpreted as possible evidence of Bigfoot. Such a framing can work for constructing a hypothesis – such as, the missing cause is a “Bigfoot”. However, that hypothesis has yet to be confirmed. It has failed, so far.
Typical collection of data isn’t enough. Images and video will need corroborating evidence to prevent being discarded out of hand, DNA testing will need funds, deep analysis, and continued efforts. Gathering even more eyewitness accounts is worthless when the volumes already existing have never have led to a capture. Only a body or body part will do.
Instead, the process continues as it has for six decades – amateur speculation, excuses, and criticism of existing scientific processes. Seekers see a bigfoot everywhere but find it nowhere. Bigfooters who wish to maintain the position that a bigfoot can be found will have an ever more difficult time justifying their efforts and maintaining any credibility if the same tired old evidence is all that gets presented. In reference to Meldrum’s passing, the field lacks scientific leadership.
PGF film hoax reveal
The vehement reaction by some Bigfooters to the assertion that the Patterson film has been solidly and conclusively demonstrated to be a hoax (by Patterson and Gimlin, et al.) has been a textbook example of cognitive dissonance. (See Long hidden evidence blows up the reality of the Patterson Gimlin Bigfoot film) While it is fair to say we should wait for the Capturing Bigfoot documentary to be available to assess it, it is NOT reasonable to also throw out excuses of how the debunking itself must have been faked. These same people who are denying the premise and claims of Capturing Bigfoot, as well as previous evidence of a hoax, will, ironically, take eyewitness accounts of bigfoot at face value. How will they square their rejection of facts from a physical film that everyone will be able to see? America is awash in obvious examples of how far people will reach to soothe their cognitive dissonance these days.
The hoax denialists claim the new pieces were AI generated, that the footage was from Roger’s other documentary, even that Patty Patterson is too old to remember and Clint Patterson is not a reliable claimant. None of this is remotely reasonable in the big picture. So far we have no public disputes of the claims from Bob Gimlin or the Pattersons. To me, that is the crucial point. They know it’s a hoax and this is the end of the line for this key piece of evidence. That realization hits hard with those for whom searching for a real animal has become an inherent part of their identity (and their revenue stream).
Eliminating the PGF doesn’t automatically correlate to the end of bigfoot. We still have the unsolved problem of people seeing and experiencing what they say they have. However, looking back at history, people also were sure they saw fairies, demons, angels, aliens, and spirits. This is not an easy enigma to unravel. The previous point of “absence of evidence” comes into play. Bigfooters cannot make their biological argument without outrageous mental acrobatics, distractions, and slight of hand.
A key piece of evidence revealed as invalid does not take down the whole system, but it makes some people on the inside start to doubt and many more on the outside say, “See! We told you this was nonsense.” Social ridicule also has the tendency to squelch further sighting reports and involvement. So, while some Bigfooters insist this too shall pass, I don’t think it will. What happens in response to the public release of Capturing Bigfoot will be illuminating.
Still the #1 cryptid
As documented on this blog, bigfoot and other cryptids are more popular than ever before. However, finding a body is not a primary goal. Cryptid tourism is flourishing. Places are embracing their local monster lore even if the creature is an absurdity that has no basis in biology or reality. People appear to be looking for connection, experiences, and entertainment, maybe even a sense of enchantment in the world. They want to believe. This works much better when the mystery remains active. As we see daily, even when the explanation punches us in the face, we would rather continue to believe our constructed “truth” instead. Cryptid media is on fire and there are more movies, books, and online content to peruse, including merch so you can advertise your belief to those around you. Cultural bigfoot is not equivalent to physical bigfoot, but it’s not nothing. And, it’s still important.
Those with museums, podcasts and YouTube channels, even TV shows, will still rake in the viewers who yearn for the mystery and experience. Conventions and festivals will still attract fans. Bigfoot remains the #1 North American cryptid. Bigfoot is iconic, and commodified, Americana that is not going away soon. The PGF, if not a film of a real bigfoot, is a universally-successful hoax. And that’s really something.
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