Does Bigfoot exist?

October 1, 2008
BRO Staff
October 2008

Illustration by Wade Mickley
As interesting as it may be for such creatures to exist, there simply is no way that a specimen as large as a Bigfoot could have gone undetected until now. The United States is too populated, too technologically advanced, and too developed for any creature, other than microbes, to have escaped detection until now. There are also way too many gun owners who would have killed one by now. Sure, I would like to believe as much as anyone. However, common sense overrules my child-like wonder in this case.

—Keith Koger, Charlotte, N.C.
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There is no way something like Bigfoot can exist in these days and times without us knowing about it. There is a much better chance of UFOs and aliens.

—Ed McKeown,
Roanoke, Va.
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P.T. Barnum once said, “A sucker is born every minute.” If you put on a show, people will come. Even the famous 8mm movie with the fuzzy picture of his buddy in a gorilla suit was admitted by the lone survivor to be a fraud.

—Joseph Gracia, Silver Spring, Md.
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There are many local and faraway stories concerning Bigfoot. I’ve spent many hours reading various accounts, even some relating to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Although the tales are riveting at times, I am unconvinced, although I still believe an imagination is a wonderful thing to have.

—Ed Staples, Waxhaw, N.C.
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I remember making Bigfoot tracks in the mud when I was a boy. Am I responsible for encouraging these Sasquatch hunters? If we can find dinosaur turds that are thousands of years old, we should be able to produce some more convincing evidence before we cry wolf—or giant skunk-ape.

—James Gorman, Bluemont, Va.
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Bigfoot as envisioned probably does not exist, but there is likely some mutant life-form running around in the wilds.

—Jim Cermenaro, Vienna, Va.
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People have been claiming to see Bigfoot for decades, yet there is still no hard proof of his existence. I just watched a show on National Geographic about how pranksters used to make their fake bigfoot prints. These old-timers were really good, but what they were doing was really no different than Hollywood special effects.

—Travis Ratliff, Honaker, Va.
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One time while working in the Cascades, my wife noticed something standing near her out of the corner of her eye. There were no other people within miles. When she told her story to some of her fellow co-workers, some of them had witnessed a large hairy figure walking through a mountain prairie a little farther out in the backcountry. They did not want to say anything, afraid that people would assume they were on drugs or something. It was enough to make us believe. I have spent enough nights in the backcountry to know that we have not seen everything in the wild.

—Bryan Freeborn, Asheville, N.C.
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The recent hoax aside, there have been so many amazing similarities in the sightings, footprints, and accounts by eyewitnesses across the years. When we humans think that we know about everything in the natural world, we’re being very egotistical. We should realize we have much yet to learn.

—Joe McAlister, Greer, S.C.
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There is still a lot going on out in the woods that we don’t know of or understand just yet. Our capacity for openness should be as vast as the unknown. We’re enfolded by a realm of mystery in the natural world.

—David Wooldridge, Lowesville, Va.
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Bigfoot DNA is only strand away from being a human being. A chimpanzee is 33 strands away from being human. Those attention-seeking boys in Georgia did a disservice to the real science and search for Bigfoot.

—Patricia Locke, Lebanon, Tenn.
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It is extremely anthropocentric of humans to think that such a large creature could not exist without our having documented it. Nature has surprised us countless times in the past, and to think that there are creatures that we are unaware of is not the least bit unreasonable.
—Will Lindsey, Charleston, S.C.

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Online poll results:
51% say Yes | 49% say No