The Legend of Bigfoot

Stories of large, hairy men bigger than any normal human have existed for centuries. Native Americans have told such stories since long ago, and sightings of such beasts date back to the 1830's. However, it was not until the 20th century that individuals truly began investigating the story of what is now known as Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

The Sasquatch

The term Sasquatch dates back to the 1920's and the investigations of researcher J.W. Burns. While investigating myths of a number of different Native tribes in British Columbia regarding stories of man-like animals, he saw that the names for these creatures among the different tribes while not the same were all very similar. Burns coined the term "Sasquatch" to refer to the different creatures that these tribes spoke of, and determined that they were all truly the same creature.

The stories of what Burns would call "Sasquatch" existed among these Native tribes for generations upon generations. They generally spoke of a large, hairy man who lived in the forests. Many of these stories were used asmoral lessons, warning of the dangers of this beast.

The first use of the term "Sasquatch" in the media was a 1929 article in MacLean's, a popular Canadian magazine. Following the publication of this article, interest began to rise in the idea of the Sasquatch in Canada, although nothing on the scale of the Bigfoot hysteria that would come in later decades.

The Bigfoot

The story of Bigfoot arose independently of the story of the Sasquatch. In Humbolt County, California in 1958, a large footprint was found at a construction site by Jerry Crew, a bulldozer operator. In the first story about the incident, "the tracks of old Big Foot" were mentioned in the first sentence. This is the first example of the term Bigfoot used in print.