More Historical Newspaper Archives

[Trogluddite]

This forum highlights additional or lost historical newspaper articles about Bigfoot, Sasquatch, wild men, wild women, and other hairy bipedal beasts.  Former Bigfoot Forums member Tirademan (Scott McClean, RIP) originally posted his collection of newspaper articles in the Bigfoot Forums 1.0 Media - News & Magazine Articles subforum, which is archived at https://bigfootforums.com/topic/15747-amazing-historical-archives-found/.  The newspaper articles referenced in that thread are generally no longer visible, except for those saved by Gigantor in Tirademan’s Historical Newspaper Archives at https://bigfootforums.com/forum/130-tirademans-historical-newspaper-archives/.  Other newspaper articles which Tirademan posted are scattered, and buried, throughout different threads in the forums.  

 

This forum is an effort to consolidate and add to Tirademan’s prior work, thus providing additional reference material for members of the Bigfoot Forums.  To that end,

 

* Historical newspaper articles already included Tirademan’s Historical Newspaper Archives will not be duplicated here.

 

* Historical newspaper articles that can reasonably be identified as having been posted in Bigfoot Forums 1.0 Media - News & Magazine Articles will be labeled as Tirademan’s articles.  

 

* If historical newspaper articles are referenced in published books (e.g., Bigfoot in New York and New England; The Bigfoot Casebook), that book will be noted if I’m aware of the book. 

 

* Every single historical newspaper article about a single incident may not be published.  Some incidents, like the great Doerr Terrace gorilla hunt, generated tremendous coverage throughout a single state or wider; many newspaper articles are merely shortened versions of an original article.  Other articles are so short and vague as to be worthless as traditionary evidence.    

 

* This forum will be tightly controlled.  If you know of historical newspaper articles which might exist, or which were buried in other threads, feel free to send me a message or to list the request under this post.

 

Researchers who are interested in finding historical news reports can use https://www.newspapers.com/ or http://www.newspaperarchive.com/, both of which may require a subscription.

Edited July 28 by Trogluddite
Improve readability (twice)

[Trogluddite]

Random observations that I'll update from time to time:

 

* For some period of time, the "wild man of Borneo," likely an orangutan, was a popular sideshow in even the smallest carnival or "shop of horrors."  However, there being a general shortage of orangutans in the United States, many places hired someone to portray the "wild man."  I've run across many such stories, but will only be posting one or two that are particularly noteworthy.

 

* Similarly, people with mental health problems who subsisted as best they could in the woods were often identified as a "wild man."  Again, I'm not posting the many stories I've encountered where it appears clear that it is a person, not a Bigfoot, described.  For example, if the "wild man" uses a rifle or runs a local speakeasy, its an interesting story but its not relevant to the Forums.

 

* Also there are cases where violent criminals are identified as a "wild man."  In at least one of those cases, the author of a book used a truncated version of the story which made it sound like an attack was committed by an unknown, upright, hairy bipedal creature.  But upon finding a longer version of that story, it is clear that the "wild man" was a common rapist. 

 

* Lastly, for now, it's surprisingly difficult to find a specific story.  I went through Tirademan's posts in the Archives and cross-referenced them to those articles saved by Gigantor to identify those that are missing.  Even with fairly specific information and a limited time frame specified, its possible that the search will be completely fruitless with no results or overwhelming with an avalanche of results. 

 

* UPDATE 6 Aug 2025: I had no intention of diving down this rabbit hole.  However, when reading books about historical reports about possible Bigfoot in the northeast US, I prefer to have the original newspaper article where possible.  These often include more details, including in some cases, details that make clear that the encounter as described in the book is missing key information.  And when looking for one encounter, I inevitably "encountered" more articles that were not captured by Tirademan or by the authors of various books.  As those started building up, I approached the Forums management about creating this library to save the encounters for future use.  

 

* UPDATE 13 Aug 2025:  I'm not sure how Tirademan did it, but I lack the computer skills to put the masthead from a paper along with the article.  I also did not keep information on the newspaper or date of publication in many cases.  However, I should be able to add such information as I clean out virtual closets and shoe-boxes full of these clippings.  Please feel free to send me a message or add a comment if I'm overlooking Tirademan or any other member who highlighted a given story. 

Edited August 13 by Trogluddite
Minor update