First Documented Ohio Bigfoot Sighting

Article: Fight with a Wild Man

  Date: January 1869
Publisher: Hillsdale Standard, Hillsdale Michigan
                 Minnesota Weekly Record

Gallipolis [Ohio] is excited over a wild man, who is reported to haunt the woods near that city. He goes naked, is covered with hair, is gigantic in height, and "his eyes start from their sockets." A carriage, containing a man and daughter, was attacked by him a few days ago. He is said to have bounded at the father, catch- ing him in a grip like that of a vice, hurling him to the earth, falling on him and endeavoring to bite and to scratch like a wild animal. The struggle was long and fearful, rolling and wallowing in the deep mud, have suffocated, sometimes beneath his adversary, whose burning and maniac eyes glared into his own with murderous and savage intensity. Just as he was about to become exhausted from his exertions, his daughter, taking courage at the imminent danger of her parent, snatched up a rock and hurling it at the head of her father's would be murderer, was fortunate enough to put an end to the struggle by striking him somewhere about the ear. The creature was not stunned, but feeling unequal to further exertion, slowly got up and retired into the neighboring copse that skirted the road.

Great Medicine and Bigfoot

There is an epic tale within the Cheyenne Indian culture. It tells the story of the creation of their people and their early history. It combines many tales and stories into one epic.

It can be read in its entirety here: http://pyramidmesa.com/chey10.htm
However for the purpose of this blog I will highlight the Bigfooty parts.

"The Great Spirit created three kinds of human beings: first, those who had hair all over their bodies; second, white men who had hair all over their heads and faces and on their legs; third, red men who had very long hair on their heads only. The hairy people were strong and active. The white people with the long beards were in a class with the wolf, for both were the trickiest and most cunning creatures in that beautiful world. The red people were good runners, agile and swift, whom the Great Medicine taught to catch and eat fish at a time when none of the other people knew about eating meat".

- - Very interesting that in this epic neither the hairy men nor white men knew of catching and eating fish.

"After a while the hairy people left the north country and went south, where all the land was barren. Then the red people prepared to follow the hairy people into the south. Before they left the beautiful land, however, the Great Medicine called them together. On this occasion, the first time the red people had all assembled in one place, the Great Medicine blessed them and gave them some medicine spirit to awaken their dormant minds. From that time on they seemed to possess intelligence and know what to do".

- - This section appears to indicate that the Great Medicine gave the red man intelligence that he did not give the hairy man, suggesting the hairy man stayed more primitive.

"The hairy people remained naked, but the red people clothed themselves because the Great Medicine had told them to. When the red men arrived in the south, they found that the hairy men had scattered and made homes inside of hills and in caves high up in the mountains. They seldom saw the hairy men, for the hairy ones were afraid and went inside their caves when the red men came. The hairy people had pottery and flint tools like those of the red men, and in the caves they slept on beds made out of leaves and skins". .."For some reason they decreased in numbers until they finally disappeared entirely, and today the red men cannot tell what became of them".

-- Although the hairy people disappeared completely they were smart enough to make tools and pottery.

This can of course be taken several ways:

• Bigfoot
• Neanderthal
• Just a story

Despite many tales of Bigfoot in Native American culture this appears to be a case of very primitive man. While there is scientific evidence of tools and pottery in early humans it is not the case with Bigfoot even now in modern times.

Cannibal Bigfoot

 

In 1847 painter and explorer Paul Kane was in the Pacific Northwest making scetches of both nature and Native Americans to take back home to Toronto and turn into paintings. Kane also kept a journal describing his travels and scetching subjects. It is in this journal that we first learn of the Skookums.

March 27, 1847:
"When we arrived at the mouth of the Kattlepoutal River, 26 miles from Vancouver, I stopped to make a sketch of the volcano, Mt. St. Helens, distant I suppose, about 30 or 40 miles. This mountain has never ben visited by either whites or Indians; the latter assert that it is inhabited by a race of beings of a different species, who are cannibals, and who they hold in great dread...these superstitions are taken from a man they say went in to the mountains with another, and escaped the fate of his companion, who was eaten by the 'skookums', or 'evil genii'. I offered a considerable bribe to any Indian who would accompany me in its exploration but could not find one hardly enough to venture there".

It is very interesting to note that this is the only early reference to Bigfoot being a cannibal. This doesn't mean it is a cute cuddly creature however. In fact, Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest were often afraid to settle  on certain lands because they feared the Bigfoots would attack them. My personal feeling is that this would not be cannibal related but more of a territorial issue. Animals kill others commonly for encroaching onto lands that are "theirs".

This is also the first telling of a Bigfoot story that adds the element of them being more supernatural than a bipedal ape-like creature living in the woods.

The First Bigfoot Track

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Before you start shouting things at your screen like:

• "snow melting distorts prints"
• "you have no idea how long they were there" and
• "the Tooth Fairy isn't real either"!

Just take a deep breath, listen to the story, and take back what you said about the tooth fairy...

In 1811 explorer, fur trader, map maker, and surveyor David Thompson was crossing the Rocky Mountains near what is now known as Jasper, Alberta. He began his life long career of surveyor and map maker when he was 14 years old and left England for the British Columbia region under employment of the Hudson Bay Company.  Throughout his life he kept a journal detailing his travels throughout the region. It is from these journals that we find the first documented footprint in the region.

"I saw the track of a large animal, has four toes about 3 to 4" long, small nail, ball of foot sank in about 3" deeper than his toes, the hinder part of his foot did not mark well, the length 14" by 8" and resembled a large bear track".
David Thompson journal entry: January 7th, 1811

I know that is not the most compelling description of a bigfoot track...but just wait it gets better!

Later on in life, about 40 years later, Thompson penned the "Narrative" a book based on his travels and journals. In this he recounts the track and experience again:

"the Men and Indians would have it to be a young mammouth and I held it to be the track of a large old grizzly bear; yet the shortness of the nails, the ball of the foot, and it's great size was not that of a bear, otherwise that of a very large old bear, his claws worn away, the Indians would not allow".

Later on in the book he tell of another time he and his group came upon similar tracks:

"as the snow was about 6"in depth the track was well defined and we could see it for a full hundred yards from us, the animal was heading north to south. We did not attempt to follow it, we had not time for it, and the hunters, eager as they are to follow and shoot every animal, made no attempt to follow this beast, for what could the balls of our fowling guns do against such an animal?"

 

I know that this is for some, conclusive proof. While there does seem to be discrepancy that this was not the track of a large grizzly bear there is no part of the story that leans toward it being Bigfoot either. After doing some research and discovering a large part of his parties were made up of Native Americans from the region there is not one recording in his journals or books that this was a beast of their legends that dwells in the forests. Given Thompson's descriptions of the lands it seems that if he was told of something with that much significance, especially after viewing a footprint, he would have reported it since he penned descriptions of other legends from the region.