Bigfoot
Filmed bipedal “Sasquatch” figure at Bluff Creek in 1967
Bigfoot—also known as Sasquatch—is the most widely reported and persistently investigated cryptid in the modern world. Unlike many legendary creatures tied to a single region or era, Bigfoot occupies an enormous geographic and cultural footprint, stretching across North America, with its strongest concentration in the Pacific Northwest. What separates Bigfoot from folklore is not spectacle, but volume: thousands of sightings, physical traces, and decades of serious inquiry.
Long before the name “Bigfoot” existed, Indigenous nations across the continent told stories of large, hairy, human-like beings inhabiting forests and mountains. Among the Salish peoples, Sasquatch was described as a powerful but reclusive forest dweller. Other tribes spoke of similar beings—sometimes dangerous, sometimes neutral—often associated with stolen food, warning cries, or footprints found near camps. These accounts were not framed as myths, but as real entities that demanded caution and respect.
The modern Bigfoot era began in 1958, when construction workers near Bluff Creek, California, discovered enormous humanoid footprints embedded deep in mud. The tracks measured over sixteen inches long and showed dermal ridges similar to human fingerprints. Local newspapers picked up the story, and the term “Bigfoot” entered public consciousness. What began as curiosity quickly escalated into a phenomenon.
The most famous encounter followed in 1967, when Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin filmed a large, upright, hair-covered figure walking across a creek bed in Bluff Creek. The creature—later nicknamed Patty—turns briefly toward the camera, revealing musculature, gait, and proportions unlike any known human or ape. Despite decades of scrutiny, no definitive proof has emerged that the film was a hoax. To this day, it remains one of the most analyzed pieces of cryptid evidence ever recorded.
Beyond film, Bigfoot sightings often include physical interaction with the environment. Witnesses report heavy bipedal footsteps, powerful tree knocks, and low-frequency vocalizations that induce fear or disorientation. Footprints are frequently found in remote areas—sometimes appearing in snow, sometimes crossing rivers or rocky terrain where hoaxing would be impractical. Hair samples and scat have been collected repeatedly, though none have yet been conclusively identified as belonging to an unknown primate.
One chilling category of encounters involves close-range sightings. Hunters, hikers, and loggers describe seeing a massive figure watching them silently from treelines. Many report an overwhelming sense of dread or being “targeted,” followed by the sudden disappearance of the creature without sound. In rare cases, witnesses claim rocks were thrown or paths deliberately blocked, suggesting intelligence rather than animal instinct.
Skeptics argue Bigfoot sightings are misidentified bears, hoaxes, or psychological projection. Yet bears do not leave human-like footprints, walk upright for extended periods, or vanish so completely despite widespread trail cameras and development. Nor do they explain the consistency of descriptions across decades and regions.
In the Pacific Northwest, Bigfoot is treated less as a monster and more as a presence—something that avoids people but observes them. It is rarely described as aggressive, yet never friendly. It exists on the boundary between discovery and disappearance.
In Dread Lore, Bigfoot represents the most unsettling possibility of all: not that something supernatural stalks the woods, but that something natural—intelligent, powerful, and unknown—has been sharing them with us all along. It leaves no lairs, no bodies, and no answers. Only footprints leading back into the forest, where they abruptly stop.