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.