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 or buried throughout different threads in the forums.  

 

This forum is an effort to consolidate and add to Tirademan’s prior work, 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 by Tirademanin Bigfoot Forums 1.0 Media - News & Magazine Articles will be labeled as his 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* Every single historical newspaper article about a single incident may not be published.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 https://newspaperarchive.com/, both of which may require a subscription.

Edited September 10 by Trogluddite
Improve readability (thrice), then to fix a link.

[Trogluddite]

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

 

* The "wild man of Borneo" (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.

 

* People with mental health problems who subsisted as best they could in the woods or on the edge of towns were often identified as a "wild man" or "wild woman."  The many stories that are clearly discussing human beings will not be posted in this forum.  For example, if the "wild man" uses a rifle or runs a local speakeasy, its an interesting story but its not relevant to Bigfoot researchers.

 

* There are many cases where violent criminals are identified as a "wild man" or used the alias "Big Foot."  These will not be posted here. 

 

** EXCEPTION: There are several cases where the authors of books used truncated versions of a story about a sideshow artist, a recluse, or a criminal and make it sound like a bona fide unknown upright, hairy bipedal creature was involved.  Newspaper articles that make it clear that the "wild man," "wild woman," or "mysterious creature was a human being may be included hear to help debunk such abuses. 

 

* It's surprisingly difficult to find a specific story.  Most newspaper articles Tirademan posted in the Bigfoot Forums 1.0 Media - News & Magazine Articles subforum are not clearly identified and to the best of my knowledge, his e-book Big Newsprints is no longer available.  Even with fairly specific information or keywords, a search may be fruitless. 

 

* UPDATE 6 Aug 2025: I had no intention of diving down the rabbit hole of finding more historical newspaper articles about Bigfoot.  However, when researching historical reports about possible Bigfoot encounters in the northeast US, I prefer to have the original source material, which often include more details than an author chooses to include in a book.  When looking for some of these encounters, 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. 

 

* Update 10 November 2025.  The website is telling me that there are now over 400 posts in this section.  You may see less, as I've learned as I went along to set posts up for future release dates.  I'm very happy to have recovered some of Tirademan's original articles and to have added new ones to the collection of evidence.

 

If you know of a historic encounter that I haven't captured, feel free to message me. 

Edited September 10 by Trogluddite
Minor updates for readability (twice).

[Trogluddite]

The link to the historic archives of New Zealand's The Press is http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast.  Selections from that paper will appear in due time. 

[Trogluddite]

Two links for researchers in southern Oregon.

 

A general history of southern Oregon, you can search Bigfoot and get results - https://www.truwe.sohs.org/files/index.html. 

 

A copy of historic Oregon newspapers is available at https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/.