Persuasive Essay On Bigfoot
The subject of an eight-foot tall, six-hundred pound bipedal hairy ape, roaming the lands of the North American forests, and other regions, not only excites but intrigues the minds of so many. People all over the world know this creature by the coined term ‘Bigfoot’ but can also be referred to as Sasquatch and or yeti. This creature is by no means the story of something new but dates back to hundreds of years ago. This first recorded Bigfoot dates all the way back to 1811, in Canada. David Thompson was a trader for the Northwest Company, a fur trading business, struggling to cross the Rocky Mountains near present day Jasper, Alberta. On January 7th, 1811 Thompson wrote a journal entry about mysterious tracks seen on his cold wintery evening
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"I saw the track of a large animal which had four large toes about three or four inches long and a small nail at the end of each. The ball of his foot sank about three inches deeper than its toes. The whole print is about fourteen inches long and by eight inches wide and closely resembles a large bear's track.” Thompson might have been the first to record this phenomena but most certainly was not the last. According to the Geographical Database of Bigfoot Sightings & Reports , new information on this mysterious creature is sighted till this very day. Bigfoot occurrences are frequent all over our globe. In land parts such as: China, Nova Scotia, and even the British Columbia had multiple reports of this hairy brute. Bigfoot sightings are prominent about everywhere, but no amount of sightings can be match the Northern Western areas of the United States and Canada. Washington State in particular has over 620 reports in just the last couple of years with one town. These reports range from eye hair samples to hairy humanoid footprints just like the one Thompson described in 1811. Every year more and more people join in on the crusade of finding a capturing an existing Bigfoot.
Unfortunately, in the efforts of the many scientists, archeologists, and dedicated Bigfoot believers, no one has succeeded in completing this task. This brings up the lifelong question on how a Bigfoot can exist for what happens to be over hundreds of years and no concrete evidence of the creature existence has been brought to light. Especially with such social media capabilities, and video capture devices this should in fact excel the process right? Well, since the majority of creditable Bigfoot findings are linked to the Pacific North West, people must understand how much land you are actually dealing with. Washington’s state has over 42.5 million acres of forest. Oregon another hotspot to the bipedal mystery contains some 30 million acres of forest. Due to the number of acres that are untraveled in both these areas and mountain ranges it makes sense as to why finding a Bigfoot or a Bigfoot corpse can be so challenging.
Informing an audience on a subject that does not exist can be difficult because the human needs to see it to believe it. Nevertheless, there are numerous pieces of evidence that lead to what people conclude to be Bigfoot. I simply would like to highlight these proofs and in the end summarize how and why a Bigfoot must and can exist in our environment. Things to be discussing later on will include: footprints, video capture, fur/data samples, and the most common piece of evidence,
sightings.
Footprints
One of the strongest pieces of evidence we can refer to for the explanation of a Bigfoot are leftover footprints. After all, the term Bigfoot does refer to the colossal prints we find in sand, snow or mud. Hundreds of large footprints have been discovered while many have been photographed/preserved as plaster moldings for a later dissection. The consistency of these prints are quite overwhelming while others show no similarities at all. It is a strange and usual thing to discuss especially due to the many hoaxes over the years that potentially shatter Bigfoots credibility. Some tracks may have four or five toes, which can be aligned while others show splayed toe prints. Nevertheless, a sample of over one-hundred footprint casts and around fifty photographs of footprints have been assembled and examined over the many years, as well as several examples of fresh footprints.
Blue Mountain Tracks
1996, near the Umatilla National Forest in Washington state, forty decipherable footprints were found crossing a muddy farm. These prints were said to be 13.75 inches long and 5.25 inches wide. But the most bizarre thing about these prints was the stride length or the step to step lengths. This creature was said to have around 1.0 to 1.3 meters of step length. Convert these numbers to inches and that’s 40 to 51 inches every step. To put this into perspective according The American College of Sports Medicine reports that the average walking human step length is around 31 inches. At maximum that difference of 20 inches is monumental in terms of measurement sizes. Although it would have been nice to distinguish every print in the mud, due to rainy weather conditions many prints perished upon arrival. Fortunately seven casts were able to be preserved and in time studied to discover that this creature was in fact walking through the farm. Additionally information such how the creature’s foot had been flat and a pronounced elongated heel segment was determined.
Mount Adams
Although most prints of a Bigfoot are indeed footprints, a rare case of body prints will occur in the timeline. An elite team of investigators from the Bigfoot Field Research Organization (BFRO) went on an intense expedition to find one of these wonders of the world. The team set out for Mount Adams one of the dense forests of Washington State. They found what they believe to be the first body print of a Bigfoot. According to these religious Bigfoot scientists and hunters, the team discovered in impression made in the soft land of what appears to be the side profile of a Bigfoot. The team concluded that the creature must have laid on its side on the edge of the muddy bank to catch some fish. Many discuss as to why a Bigfoot would take on the approach of laying down to catch its prey. It could have simply walked over and snatched it. Some say the beast might have been too big to bend over or was simply exhausted from travel.
Fur Samples An assembly of veteran Sasquatch hunters under the group called the Sasquatch Genome Project, has been gathering DNA samples on the controversial title of Bigfoot for quite some time. Under the supervisor of Dr. Melba Ketchum, with her professional career including thirty years in genetics research and forensics, her team has gathered over 100 DNA samples that she believes could very well be different specie’s of Bigfoot. The team found fur/hair samples that were acknowledged as purported Sasquatch samples. The thing that made these samples extra important than others is the special morphology about them. This Morphology separates them from known human and animal DNA. One-hundred and elven different specimens of purported Sasquatch hair, blood, skin, and other tissue types were analyzed from the Sasquatch Genome Project's study. The findings were quite immense and the team decided to send their research to thirty-four different hominin research sites in fourteen U.S. states along with two Canadian provinces. The spin was that Ketchum did not inform each site on what the samples actually where. This way, each research facility would take the matter more serious and have the curiosity to discover watch Ketchum had gave them. The sites took the bait and about every facility reported that the samples where in fact cases of human DNA. Although one site reported that the sample expanded into something called genome sequence, which is basically figuring out the genetic order of DNA. These DNA samples had been found to not be similar to any other species ever to be recorded. The facility referred to these samples as evidence of a genetic hybrid, a hybrid than is unknown on scientist’s charts. The researchers concluded that “the creature may have been a homo sapien that had mated with an unknown primate some 15,000 years ago.”
Sightings The most prominent and influential Bigfoot sighting ever to be caught on camera was the Patterson-Gimlin film. This film was taken by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin in 1967 with a Kodak 16mm camera. The story behind the footage begins both men, who were avid travelers and Bigfoot hunters getting a lead on some prints earlier in the year near Bluff Creek. The men appeared near the site on horseback, and what they found is what every Bigfoot seeker hopes to see some day. The footage features a female Bigfoot walking near the Klamath River in California. At frame 352 you can clearly see that the giant ape has breasts and is looking right at our two men. Till this day the authenticity of the film has never been verified nor has it been disproven. But many claim it was more of a hoax than a nonfiction. One of the biggest deceptions of this film is the beast journeying alongside the foliage is it fact a man in a costume. In 1998, the British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC) gave their best attempt with recreating the so called costume by hiring some of the best Hollywood monster costume creators. Even with 1998 costume technology with things like remote controlled soft-tissue prosthetics to recreate muscular moments while in the costume, the comparison is lackluster. Figure 5 represents the Patterson-Gimlin ape alongside the BBC version.
I’ve illustrated a line across both pictures to show just how long the Patterson figures arm really was compared to our big man in a suit on the right hand side. Additionally the costume designer admitted that the film looked like the “cheap 60’s artificial fur” so that’s what they used. The results aren’t even comparable to the Patterson figure, especially how the fur doesn't create the same reflectiveness or the fact to change color as the fur moves in the sunlight.
The film also provides evidence for an elongated heel and a midtarsal break which is the ability of non-human primates to lift their heel independently from the rest of the foot. The beast of 1967 left a considerable amount of fresh left and right footprints that both Patterson and Gimlin took advantage of. Amazingly years prior to the 1967 sighting, castings and photographs of what is believed to be the same Bigfoot where taken. Below, figure 6 and 7 show skeletal anatomy representing the midtarsal pressure ridge in which the heel impression is different to a human of what these photographers captured. This red circles indicate that Bigfoot lacks a fixed normal human arch, but instead displays a “high degree of midfoot flexibility at the transverse tarsal joint.” Basically meaning that since it’s not a human it cannot lift its heel without lifting the rest of its foot. Many Bigfoot casts show this same correlation, in which results to Bigfoot existing or we have an extremely dedicated hoaxer.
Allegheny National Forest
During a late night on September 16, 2007 an automatic infrared trail camera placed by Rick Jacobs in the Northwestern Pennsylvania Allegheny National Forest captured is what to be believed as a juvenile Bigfoot. The hunter had sprinkled a mix aroma on the ground to attract some deer and bear in order to acquire some photos. He certainly got dear and even some bear cubs but also got what seems to be some sort of small primate. Immediately after this surfaced the web, Jacobs was told “there is no question it is a bear with a severe case of mange," by Pennsylvania Game Commission, Jerry Feaser. Although the comparison below of a bear with severe case of mange and primate do share some similarities at the surface, it’s not until you dive into the picture to really grasp the differences.
Although Mr. Feaser sounds like he knows exactly what he’s talking about, talented scientists and professors have researched the photos extensively. They’ve provided some calculations that not only compare to this sighting but to the Patterson Gimlin spotting as well. When observing figure 8 and 9 of course you can see a great comparison. Now look at figure 12 below, the shape of the animal really begins to change.
Within this picture, this creature has its face pressed down into the ground, smelling the decoction left by the hunter. If a bear attempts this positon, it simply cranes its neck forward, like a large dog snuffling the ground, while apes having smaller necks require them to lean forward almost completely to touch their noses to the ground as figure 12 shows creature doing. As I discussed earlier, some very talented researches have performed a comparative limb to torso study. It has been shown and proven in the video that bears have a much lower ratio of limb to torso than primates, with averages in the middle 60% for bears, and primates averaging a around 110%. The video illustrates the math of the ratios for both primates and bears. Again, the video goes as far as to solidify the facts by including math of the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot caught on tape in the 1967 and found this Bigfoot to have a similar ratios as the beast Jacobs has captured.
Conclusion
Bigfoot’s entire existence can no longer be denied. The question of whether Bigfoot is real can only be answered if man himself truly believes in the facts that surround him. As more and more proof is produced, scientists from around the globe join together to show their support for the evidence suggesting Bigfoots existence. These same scientists risk the uncertainly of their work being thrown to the side for the lack of credibility because of the vast majority of the public eye not believing in the subject. Although one thing is certain that scientists till this day don’t understand. How a Bigfoot can remain hidden the way it does for so long? A big question that no one can provide evidence supporting. While there may be no physical body ever to be found, I truly believe there is sufficient evidence to prove that there is something out there, and it is certainly no myth. Time can only tell as more proof is put forward and more eyes and hearts become open. Maybe then can we one day stand next to the giant ape himself.
"I saw the track of a large animal which had four large toes about three or four inches long and a small nail at the end of each. The ball of his foot sank about three inches deeper than its toes. The whole print is about fourteen inches long and by eight inches wide and closely resembles a large bear's track.” Thompson might have been the first to record this phenomena but most certainly was not the last. According to the Geographical Database of Bigfoot Sightings & Reports , new information on this mysterious creature is sighted till this very day. Bigfoot occurrences are frequent all over our globe. In land parts such as: China, Nova Scotia, and even the British Columbia had multiple reports of this hairy brute. Bigfoot sightings are prominent about everywhere, but no amount of sightings can be match the Northern Western areas of the United States and Canada. Washington State in particular has over 620 reports in just the last couple of years with one town. These reports range from eye hair samples to hairy humanoid footprints just like the one Thompson described in 1811. Every year more and more people join in on the crusade of finding a capturing an existing Bigfoot.
Unfortunately, in the efforts of the many scientists, archeologists, and dedicated Bigfoot believers, no one has succeeded in completing this task. This brings up the lifelong question on how a Bigfoot can exist for what happens to be over hundreds of years and no concrete evidence of the creature existence has been brought to light. Especially with such social media capabilities, and video capture devices this should in fact excel the process right? Well, since the majority of creditable Bigfoot findings are linked to the Pacific North West, people must understand how much land you are actually dealing with. Washington’s state has over 42.5 million acres of forest. Oregon another hotspot to the bipedal mystery contains some 30 million acres of forest. Due to the number of acres that are untraveled in both these areas and mountain ranges it makes sense as to why finding a Bigfoot or a Bigfoot corpse can be so challenging.
Informing an audience on a subject that does not exist can be difficult because the human needs to see it to believe it. Nevertheless, there are numerous pieces of evidence that lead to what people conclude to be Bigfoot. I simply would like to highlight these proofs and in the end summarize how and why a Bigfoot must and can exist in our environment. Things to be discussing later on will include: footprints, video capture, fur/data samples, and the most common piece of evidence,
sightings.
Footprints
One of the strongest pieces of evidence we can refer to for the explanation of a Bigfoot are leftover footprints. After all, the term Bigfoot does refer to the colossal prints we find in sand, snow or mud. Hundreds of large footprints have been discovered while many have been photographed/preserved as plaster moldings for a later dissection. The consistency of these prints are quite overwhelming while others show no similarities at all. It is a strange and usual thing to discuss especially due to the many hoaxes over the years that potentially shatter Bigfoots credibility. Some tracks may have four or five toes, which can be aligned while others show splayed toe prints. Nevertheless, a sample of over one-hundred footprint casts and around fifty photographs of footprints have been assembled and examined over the many years, as well as several examples of fresh footprints.
Blue Mountain Tracks
1996, near the Umatilla National Forest in Washington state, forty decipherable footprints were found crossing a muddy farm. These prints were said to be 13.75 inches long and 5.25 inches wide. But the most bizarre thing about these prints was the stride length or the step to step lengths. This creature was said to have around 1.0 to 1.3 meters of step length. Convert these numbers to inches and that’s 40 to 51 inches every step. To put this into perspective according The American College of Sports Medicine reports that the average walking human step length is around 31 inches. At maximum that difference of 20 inches is monumental in terms of measurement sizes. Although it would have been nice to distinguish every print in the mud, due to rainy weather conditions many prints perished upon arrival. Fortunately seven casts were able to be preserved and in time studied to discover that this creature was in fact walking through the farm. Additionally information such how the creature’s foot had been flat and a pronounced elongated heel segment was determined.
Mount Adams
Although most prints of a Bigfoot are indeed footprints, a rare case of body prints will occur in the timeline. An elite team of investigators from the Bigfoot Field Research Organization (BFRO) went on an intense expedition to find one of these wonders of the world. The team set out for Mount Adams one of the dense forests of Washington State. They found what they believe to be the first body print of a Bigfoot. According to these religious Bigfoot scientists and hunters, the team discovered in impression made in the soft land of what appears to be the side profile of a Bigfoot. The team concluded that the creature must have laid on its side on the edge of the muddy bank to catch some fish. Many discuss as to why a Bigfoot would take on the approach of laying down to catch its prey. It could have simply walked over and snatched it. Some say the beast might have been too big to bend over or was simply exhausted from travel.
Fur Samples An assembly of veteran Sasquatch hunters under the group called the Sasquatch Genome Project, has been gathering DNA samples on the controversial title of Bigfoot for quite some time. Under the supervisor of Dr. Melba Ketchum, with her professional career including thirty years in genetics research and forensics, her team has gathered over 100 DNA samples that she believes could very well be different specie’s of Bigfoot. The team found fur/hair samples that were acknowledged as purported Sasquatch samples. The thing that made these samples extra important than others is the special morphology about them. This Morphology separates them from known human and animal DNA. One-hundred and elven different specimens of purported Sasquatch hair, blood, skin, and other tissue types were analyzed from the Sasquatch Genome Project's study. The findings were quite immense and the team decided to send their research to thirty-four different hominin research sites in fourteen U.S. states along with two Canadian provinces. The spin was that Ketchum did not inform each site on what the samples actually where. This way, each research facility would take the matter more serious and have the curiosity to discover watch Ketchum had gave them. The sites took the bait and about every facility reported that the samples where in fact cases of human DNA. Although one site reported that the sample expanded into something called genome sequence, which is basically figuring out the genetic order of DNA. These DNA samples had been found to not be similar to any other species ever to be recorded. The facility referred to these samples as evidence of a genetic hybrid, a hybrid than is unknown on scientist’s charts. The researchers concluded that “the creature may have been a homo sapien that had mated with an unknown primate some 15,000 years ago.”
Sightings The most prominent and influential Bigfoot sighting ever to be caught on camera was the Patterson-Gimlin film. This film was taken by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin in 1967 with a Kodak 16mm camera. The story behind the footage begins both men, who were avid travelers and Bigfoot hunters getting a lead on some prints earlier in the year near Bluff Creek. The men appeared near the site on horseback, and what they found is what every Bigfoot seeker hopes to see some day. The footage features a female Bigfoot walking near the Klamath River in California. At frame 352 you can clearly see that the giant ape has breasts and is looking right at our two men. Till this day the authenticity of the film has never been verified nor has it been disproven. But many claim it was more of a hoax than a nonfiction. One of the biggest deceptions of this film is the beast journeying alongside the foliage is it fact a man in a costume. In 1998, the British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC) gave their best attempt with recreating the so called costume by hiring some of the best Hollywood monster costume creators. Even with 1998 costume technology with things like remote controlled soft-tissue prosthetics to recreate muscular moments while in the costume, the comparison is lackluster. Figure 5 represents the Patterson-Gimlin ape alongside the BBC version.
I’ve illustrated a line across both pictures to show just how long the Patterson figures arm really was compared to our big man in a suit on the right hand side. Additionally the costume designer admitted that the film looked like the “cheap 60’s artificial fur” so that’s what they used. The results aren’t even comparable to the Patterson figure, especially how the fur doesn't create the same reflectiveness or the fact to change color as the fur moves in the sunlight.
The film also provides evidence for an elongated heel and a midtarsal break which is the ability of non-human primates to lift their heel independently from the rest of the foot. The beast of 1967 left a considerable amount of fresh left and right footprints that both Patterson and Gimlin took advantage of. Amazingly years prior to the 1967 sighting, castings and photographs of what is believed to be the same Bigfoot where taken. Below, figure 6 and 7 show skeletal anatomy representing the midtarsal pressure ridge in which the heel impression is different to a human of what these photographers captured. This red circles indicate that Bigfoot lacks a fixed normal human arch, but instead displays a “high degree of midfoot flexibility at the transverse tarsal joint.” Basically meaning that since it’s not a human it cannot lift its heel without lifting the rest of its foot. Many Bigfoot casts show this same correlation, in which results to Bigfoot existing or we have an extremely dedicated hoaxer.
Allegheny National Forest
During a late night on September 16, 2007 an automatic infrared trail camera placed by Rick Jacobs in the Northwestern Pennsylvania Allegheny National Forest captured is what to be believed as a juvenile Bigfoot. The hunter had sprinkled a mix aroma on the ground to attract some deer and bear in order to acquire some photos. He certainly got dear and even some bear cubs but also got what seems to be some sort of small primate. Immediately after this surfaced the web, Jacobs was told “there is no question it is a bear with a severe case of mange," by Pennsylvania Game Commission, Jerry Feaser. Although the comparison below of a bear with severe case of mange and primate do share some similarities at the surface, it’s not until you dive into the picture to really grasp the differences.
Although Mr. Feaser sounds like he knows exactly what he’s talking about, talented scientists and professors have researched the photos extensively. They’ve provided some calculations that not only compare to this sighting but to the Patterson Gimlin spotting as well. When observing figure 8 and 9 of course you can see a great comparison. Now look at figure 12 below, the shape of the animal really begins to change.
Within this picture, this creature has its face pressed down into the ground, smelling the decoction left by the hunter. If a bear attempts this positon, it simply cranes its neck forward, like a large dog snuffling the ground, while apes having smaller necks require them to lean forward almost completely to touch their noses to the ground as figure 12 shows creature doing. As I discussed earlier, some very talented researches have performed a comparative limb to torso study. It has been shown and proven in the video that bears have a much lower ratio of limb to torso than primates, with averages in the middle 60% for bears, and primates averaging a around 110%. The video illustrates the math of the ratios for both primates and bears. Again, the video goes as far as to solidify the facts by including math of the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot caught on tape in the 1967 and found this Bigfoot to have a similar ratios as the beast Jacobs has captured.
Conclusion
Bigfoot’s entire existence can no longer be denied. The question of whether Bigfoot is real can only be answered if man himself truly believes in the facts that surround him. As more and more proof is produced, scientists from around the globe join together to show their support for the evidence suggesting Bigfoots existence. These same scientists risk the uncertainly of their work being thrown to the side for the lack of credibility because of the vast majority of the public eye not believing in the subject. Although one thing is certain that scientists till this day don’t understand. How a Bigfoot can remain hidden the way it does for so long? A big question that no one can provide evidence supporting. While there may be no physical body ever to be found, I truly believe there is sufficient evidence to prove that there is something out there, and it is certainly no myth. Time can only tell as more proof is put forward and more eyes and hearts become open. Maybe then can we one day stand next to the giant ape himself.