A collection of archived news articles describing reports of wild men and giants from 1680-1922.

Whether presented comedically in popular culture or explored as a serious scientific curiosity, giant, hairy, manlike creatures have become well known entities in these modern times. These bipedal monsters have been called by many names - most commonly "Bigfoot" and "Sasquatch" - but these terms have only been in our popular vocabulary since the 1950s. Long before that time people were seeing and documenting the creatures. Many old newspaper accounts tell of encounters with "wild men," "gorillas," "ape-men," and "hairy giants," issuing unearthly howls and leaving mysterious footprints in their wake. No matter the names given to the creatures, from the descriptions of their appearance and behavior, consistent from the earliest newspaper articles to modern reports, people have been seeing Bigfoot for as long as we have been keeping records. This volume collects newspaper articles from California, Oregon, and Washington dating from the 1850s through the 1920s. Herein are tales of huge gorillas roaming wild in the California hills, hairy giants haunting Oregon, and wild men attacking women in Washington. Read about a gorilla-like creature killed by hunters who described its appearance in great detail; a wild man who visited the campus of a major university on several occasions; and a strange dreamlike tale of a young man abducted by a hairy biped and taken to its underground lair.

"Though the terms 'Bigfoot' and 'Sasquatch' have only been in our popular vocabulary since the late 1950s, people have been seeing large, bipedal, hairy monsters for as long as we've been keeping records ... Collecting newspaper reports from the 1830s through the 1920s, the articles in this volume show that Bigfoot is not new, nor is it a phenomenon confined to the Northwest United States and Canada. Bigfoot creatures seem to have been roaming Pennsylvania for as long as anyone can remember"--Back cover.

For years, scientists and researchers have studied, speculated about, and searched for an enigmatic creature that is legendary in the annals of American folklore. Now, learn the truth about... BIGFOOT! In this fascinating and comprehensive look at the fact, fiction, and fable of the North American "Sasquatch," award-winning author Loren Coleman takes readers on a journey into America's biggest mystery -- could an unrecognized "ape" be living in our midst? Drawing on over forty years of investigations, interviews, and fieldwork on these incredible beasts, Coleman explores the modern debates about these powerful, ape-like creatures, why they have remained a mystery for so long, and what we can learn about ourselves from these animals, our nearest cousins! From reports of Bigfoot's existence found in ancient Native American traditions, to the controversial Patterson-Gimlin film of a Bigfoot in the wild, to today's Internet sites that record the sightings almost as soon as they occur, Coleman uncovers the past, explains the present, and considers the future of one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the natural world.

This is not a book about Bigfoot. It's not a compilation of sightings out to prove the giant cone-headed legend of the forest exists. Rather it is a book that looks behind the folklore to uncover the facts . . .and not only the facts but the very first facts and evidence. Most people know that the modern legend of Bigfoot evolved out of the old Indian stories of the Sasquatch. But what most people do not know is that Sasquatch represented two tribes of primitive Indians that lived deep in the mountainous Saskahaua District of British Columbia. One tribe spoke something akin to the Douglas dialect. To the Indians they were giants. The irony, however, is that to the shorter races of the Pacific Northwest giant always meant 6 and a half feet tall. Anthropologists, sociologists and journalists have written books and chronicled sightings and endorsed footprints that depended on White Man's mistake of thinking giant meant something 8 or 9 feet tall. But author Gian J. Quasar takes up the pen of an historian for Recasting Bigfoot and exposes 50 years of modern myth. Seeking primary sources he discovers the actual footprint of the Sasquatch was preserved long before the hype of Bigfoot and popular myth. Following this true but radically different footprint he is able to build the image of the real Sasquatch and reveal the origins of the frightening "animal human" described in old frontier journals and Indian histories. Despite 50 years of hype and hyperbole this is really the first book on the true Sasquatch. What underlies the bloated legend of Bigfoot is actually far more disturbing and intriguing than the popular myth-- disturbing because for 50 years "researchers" ignored the real footprint in order to chase their own created chimera; intriguing because there really was something startling to find. Recasting Bigfoot is both an expose of Bigfootery and a search for the identity of both tribes of "Sasquatch men.""

Last August, two men in rural Georgia announced that they had killed Bigfoot. The claim drew instant, feverish attention, leading to more than 1,000 news stories worldwide—despite the fact that nearly everyone knew it was a hoax. Though Bigfoot may not exist, there’s no denying Bigfoot mania. With Bigfoot, Joshua Blu Buhs traces the wild and wooly story of America’s favorite homegrown monster. He begins with nineteenth-century accounts of wildmen roaming the forests of America, treks to the Himalayas to reckon with the Abominable Snowman, then takes us to northern California in 1958, when reports of a hairy hominid loping through remote woodlands marked Bigfoot’s emergence as a modern marvel. Buhs delves deeply into the trove of lore and misinformation that has sprung up around Bigfoot in the ensuing half century. We meet charlatans, pseudo-scientists, and dedicated hunters of the beast—and with Buhs as our guide, the focus is always less on evaluating their claims than on understanding why Bigfoot has inspired all this drama and devotion in the first place. What does our fascination with this monster say about our modern relationship to wilderness, individuality, class, consumerism, and the media? Writing with a scientist’s skepticism but an enthusiast’s deep engagement, Buhs invests the story of Bigfoot with the detail and power of a novel, offering the definitive take on this elusive beast.

In Bigfoot Exposed, biological anthropologist and primate physiology specialist David J. Daegling objectively examines the northwest American myth of Bigfoot. Using scientific methodology, Daegling systematically and persuasively repudiates the evidence purportedly demonstrating the creature's existence, and ultimately concludes that Bigfoot exists only in the popular imagination.