Bigfoot Afoot in 2003
Author: Dina ElyPublished on: Dec 10, 2003
Some things never go out of style. Bigfoot, aka Sasquatch, aka Yeti, has been puzzling people for centuries in every corner of the globe. 2003 brought no end to the Bigfoot mystery.
Unfortunately, 2003 brought no solution to the mystery, either. It didn’t even bring any major clues. Bigfoot is as elusive now as he has ever been, and the answer to the ultimate question of his existence depends on who you ask. Science is relatively open-minded. Bigfoot looks an awful lot like the "missing link" between man and ape, so evolutionists have nothing to lose by finding definitive proof that Bigfoot really is roaming the globe.
For those of us who believe, for whatever personal or sentimental reasons, that Sasquatch exists and only manages to elude our clumsy attempts at capturing proof, I provide to you a by no means complete run-down of 2003’s Bigfoot sightings. Consider it the tip of the iceberg.
The Top 10 Bigfoot Sightings in 2003
1. Bigfoot was spotted in Beijing, China. This sighting was big enough to hit CNN in June. Several Bigfoot sightings were reported to, and reportedly investigated by, Chinese authorities. The creature was sighted in a nature reserve in the Hubei province.
2. In September, two pre-teen children saw Bigfoot in Hiouchi, CA. Almost simultaneously, others reported seeing Bigfoot in Klamath, CA. Both places are part of the greater Del Norte County. Does that name ring a bell? It should. It’s where the most legendary—and most controversial—Bigfoot film ever produced was recorded in 1967.
3. A Yeti’s paw was found in Siberia in October. Well, that’s what the locals are calling it, anyway. A mountain climber found the severed paw embedded in permafrost high in the Altay mountains. Scientists used X-Ray to determine the paw is several thousand years old, but were unable to identify the creature to which it belonged. It’s interesting to note that in the Congo not long before, a previously unidentified type of ape was discovered.
4. Again in October, in Bennington, Vermont, Bigfoot was sighted by several people in cars, as they drove past the creature. Despite the fact that Bigfoot has been reported in Vermont since at least 1879 (when the New York Times published an account of Bigfoot in Vermont), most the eyewitnesses are skeptical. It seems a local joker is famous for pulling pranks on the townsfolk, and most feel that the Bigfoot in question was really the prankster in a gorilla suit. Or was it?
5. A flurry of Sasquatch sightings in the Vancouver Islands, Canada, had enthusiasts hopeful that DNA evidence of Bigfoot’s existence would be procured in 2003. The best method to capture Bigfoot DNA? Wait for someone to see Sasquatch scratching an itch on a tree, then scrape DNA samples off the bark. No luck so far.
6. Once more in October, Bigfoot finally got some serious press: the National geographic gave Bigfoot the once-over with an article interviewing a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University who insists that Bigfoot is real. Read the story here. OK, so it’s not a traditional sighting, but it’s a sighting on the news stands.
7. And yet again in October (what is it with Bigfoot and October?) an entire train load of passengers were delighted to see Sasquatch strolling along a riverbank near their route as they traveled to Durango, CO, on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge historic railroad. Despite the commotion from the train and its gleeful passengers, the creature didn’t so much as glance in the locomotive’s general direction.
8. And then in—yep, you guessed it—October, major news media (such as ABC, CBS, and CNN) were all in a race to get the story about a Bigfoot sighting in otherwise sleepy Decatur, Arkansas. The creature sighted, though otherwise fitting the Bigfoot profile, was unusually small (in contrast to the typical 8 or 9 foot stature of Bigfoot). Hope springs eternal, however, that witnesses may have seen a juvenile Bigfoot. One enthusiast was quoted as saying "They’re not born nine feet tall." (Benton County Daily Record)
9. July brought two exciting Bigfoot sightings, in vastly different parts of the world. One sighting was in China, where six people including a journalist saw the creature, and the other sighting was in Tennessee. The Chinese sighting included a patch of "foul-smelling urine-like liquid" near where Bigfoot was seen. Meanwhile in Tennessee, Bigfoot was staring at a woman through the window of her trailer home. An investigator from a nearby conference managed to capture a mold of the fresh footprint.
10. Yeti DNA tests proved inconclusive for scientists later in July. Hairs found in a footprint reputedly belonging to the Sumatran Yeti did not match any known creature. Of course that doesn’t rule out the existence of Bigfoot. It merely rules out the chance that Bigfoot is an already-identified animal, and deepens the mystery...
Perhaps 2004 will bring more substantial clues? I, for one, will be watching the news wires next October, in case the Bigfoot Flap of October, 2003 occurs annually!