Bigfoot - There's something in the woods

The modern day mystery began in 1924 with the story of Fred Beck, a woodsman, and his team of hunters as they chased the Sasquatch through an area of Washington State known to locals as Ape Canyon.
His story was widely reported, and though it has since been written off as an over-exaggerated account of an attack by hikers, it planted the seed of Bigfoot in the imaginations of a generation of Americans.
In 1958 speculation about the beast reached fever pitch as the international media descended on the small town of Bluff Creek, California, after the discovery of a series of large footprints.
Casts of the giant prints were shown to TV cameras and newspapers, and soon the whole Pacific Northwest of the US became consumed with the hunt for Bigfoot.
Though the footprint find would later be widely discredited as a scam devised between a logger and the editor of a local newspaper, Sasquatch became a phenomenon.
However, it wasn't until 1967 that serious video footage of the creature came to public attention.
The notorious Patterson film shows a large, hair-covered animal which seems to walk and stand in a way uncommon to any human.
Debate has raged over the authenticity of the footage, and scientists have been quick to debunk the Sasquatch conspiracy theory.
They claim that it is a Cryptozoological fantasy, a myth given the oxygen of publicity by overzealous hunters and devious conmen looking to make a quick buck.
While many scientists accept that early man may have lived in the same habitat as a giant ape with similar dimensions to Bigfoot, a 8-10 ft tall hairy creature with simian and humanoid characteristics, they utterly reject the suggestion that such a mammal could survive today, particularly as the numbers required to maintain the survival of the species would mean hundreds of Sasquatch are breeding in the woods of Washington and Oregon.
The case of the bigfoot hunters has not been helped by a string of bogus videos and even fake body finds, which have made it easy for mainstream science to paint them as fringe elements with no concrete evidence for their beliefs.
But can we be sure that Bigfoot doesn't exist?

For the past century the woodsmen of the Pacific Northwest USA have searched for the elusive Bigfoot.
Most are convinced that whatever the giant ape/bear/monster may be, it IS out there. There are more than 400 sightings of the Sasquatch each year, yet still no proof of Bigfoot's existence has come to light.
The reason, say theorists, for the lack of credible sightings and video evidence is that the creature is nocturnal, unlike most other primates known to science.
Many theories have been put forward about where the Sasquatch comes from.
Some indigenous tribes see it as a deity, others fear it as a manifestation of the wrath of satan, while the more extreme conspiracists believe it is an alien sent to earth from another planet.
The only truly convincing theory, and the one most widely accepted among hunters, is that Bigfoot is the last surviving link in a chain of prehistoric primates.
The theory runs that the Gigantopithecus, an ape which lived in Asia around 9 million years ago, crossed the land bridge that existed between Russia and Canada and settled in the Northwest region of the US.
As the species died off, it evolved into the Bigfoot creature that theorists say still stalks the woods today.
In support of their theory, endless sound recordings, sightings and the occasional blurred tapes have been put forward as evidence.
However, the Bigfoot hunters still await their holy grail, a genuine Sasquatch carcass to prove to the sceptical scientific community that the creature is real.

- The 1967 Roger Patterson film has never been conclusively debunked. Indeed eminent anthropologist Grover Krantz has argued that it depicts a genuine unknown creature, and Idaho university expert Jeff Meldrum has ruled out the "man-in-a-suit" criticism of the film.

- In more than 40 years no-one has provided any evidence that the Patterson film involved a suit and despite huge advances in the fields of prosthetics and computer enhancement, no film has ever been able to replicate the alleged costume.

- While fake sightings abound, the number of genuinely mysterious sound recordings and images suggests at least some truth in the Sasquatch theory. Even if it isn't a prehistoric primate, there must be something in those woods.

- There is no fossil data to support the existence of giant apes in North America. No-one has produced a Sasquatch corpse or DNA sample that can support the existence of Bigfoot.

- The climate and habitat of North America is inhospitable to a giant ape similar to the one described in Sasquatch encounters. There is no consistent food source or appropriate climate in the USA for any of the modern species of ape, all of which survive in Asia or Africa.

- The 1958 Bluff Creek footprints were later revealed to be a hoax carried out by researcher Ray Wallace who used a giant wooden carving to make the tracks.

- The Patterson film has never been conclusively proven to show a Sasquatch. Hollywood director John Landis has claimed it was used to test outfits for Planet of the Apes, while stocky Washington native Bob Heironimus claims he wore a suit and posed for the film in exchange for $1,000 which he never received from Patterson. When interviewed by the BBC in 1998, Robert Gimlin, the business partner of Roger Patterson, admitted that his former friend, who died in 1972, could have hoaxed him.

- The sheer number of fakes has made it difficult for genuine theorists to make their views heard. The case of Matt Whitton, the Georgia cop whose fake Sasquatch corpse hoax drew international media attention in 2008 precipitated more ridicule for the already much-maligned bigfoot hunters.

The sceptics have a very strong case on this one. With little or no verifiable proof and nothing but a series of myths and rumours there is no way any serious scientist can honestly claim to be 100 per cent sure that Bigfoot is real. However, in classic conspiracy theory style there is just enough circumstantial evidence, just enough disputed material to make you think that maybe, just maybe this one could be true. Nothing is certain until a body is produced or unequivocal video footage is provided, but whatever the truth, one thing is clear, something strange is happening in the woods......