When Did Bigfoot Become Popular? What Year?

[TD-40]

This thread is to discuss, or estimate, what year(s) bigfoot started to become well-known in society. I've read eyewitness accounts such as that of Ape Canyon. The story seems pretty far-fetched, but then again it occurred 90 years ago. How prevalent was the folklore, legends, and stories of bigfoot back then? Probably not a lot. What is the likelihood that a group of miners would fabricate such a story when possibly nobody else they knew could have ever known of such creatures? What would motivate guys to make up a story like that... BACK THEN?

 

When Patterson and Gimlin had their PGF experience in 1967, how well known was bigfoot back then? If it wasn't well known, why would two guys go to to the expense and trouble of fabricating a story like that? Remember, Albert Ostman said he waited years before talking to anyone about it, during a time when bigfoot was not well known.

 

I think today, it is easy to fabricate experiences and stories because you can tell your next door neighbor about it and he might laugh about it. Why? Because everyone today has heard of bigfoot.

 

There is a threshold somewhere in history when bigfoot stories became more common in society. Business would call this "market penetration." Do you tend to believe the stories that are really old, such as the pre-PGF era, more than today's media-savvy world when hoaxes and misIDs are more common?

 

So when did Bigfoot enter popular culture and folklore? Do you tend to believe the reports from long ago more than today?

Edited January 26, 2014 by TD-40

[Guest]

TD-40  Also, the 1957 account of Jerry Crew. I can remember my father reading the S.F. Chronicle to the whole family at the dinner table.

[JDL]

You should look into Ivan Sanderson's Abominable Snowmen, Legend Come to Life.  Here's a guy who traveled the world documenting what he referred to as ABSM's and had no clue that there was an "ABSM" in America, his own back yard, until the Jerry Crew flap occurred in '58.

As I recall, Sanderson devotes some time to analyzing how bigfoot becomes part of the public consciousness.

[TD-40]

But was it PGF that put bigfoot into the mainstream? or was it more of a general trend over time?

 

The bigger question is if the lack of public awareness makes the stories like PGF, Ape Canyone, and Albert Ostman more credible? I think it does because you don't make up that kind of story if nobody else knew anything about sasquatch.

[GuyInIndiana]

But was it PGF that put bigfoot into the mainstream?

 

Not likely. Look at the late 50's and Wallace <sp?> faking the tracks he claimed to have faked. What inspired that back in the 50's? There had to be some sort of undertone in the PNW culture that included the belief they existed, or why would he have just thought to do that out of the blue?

Edited January 26, 2014 by GuyInIndiana

[Guest]

GuyInIndiana- Wallace may have been a fake but Jerry Crew swore the tracts he encountered the morning after a mad Sas threw loaded 55 gallon drums down the gulley and equiptment being thrown around was beyond human strength. Many Sas footprints from the site were verified and documented. Hey. if you have time try to look up the Jerry Crew article;and also noted articles by John Green and Rene Dahendien(?).

[hiflier]

Hello TD-40,

The John Green database cites 43 reports from 1774 up to 1900. Some of those are sourced in the BFRO database as well. Most if not all are newspaper accounts although the newspapers, many on the East Coast and Midwest, look to not be national so other than say, a New York or Boston, perhaps Phiadelphia distribution, the general public might have been unaware. Farmers and woodcutters were aware but I doubt many of their accounts made it too far into mainstream.

Edited January 26, 2014 by hiflier

[TD-40]

Sure, accounts go way back and with some limited media attention. But if you mention "bigfoot" today, everyone will have an opinion on it. But it hasn't always been that way, and I am wondering when bigfoot started to become more mainstream and how that might make older stories more credible.

 

Albert Ostman--he waited years before telling anyone about it and during a time when bigfoot was not well known.

Ape Canyon--another bizarre story coming that occurred when bigfoot was not well known.

PGF--occurred when there were someone undertones of bigfoot reports in the area and perhaps in folklore and legens, and may have been the catalyst that made bigfoot more mainstream.

 

(Interestingly, the kidnapping of Ostman and the Ape Canyon stories both occurred in 1924 and within reasonable geographic distance of each other, Mt Saint Helens and Toba Inlet of BC.)

Edited January 26, 2014 by TD-40

[dudeman]

My ex-wife is Seminole, and in talking to some of the elders. Sightings go back to at least the mid 1800s in my part of Florida.

[Guest thermalman]

It would be my belief that the PGF would have been instrumental in enlightening the entire public to the possibility if BF. And from then on, more of the older stories and claims became more socially intriguing.

[Guest]

BF is in the same arena as UFO's and LochNess. The current 'popularity' is almost certainly because of Finding BF, and maybe some 'Monsterquest' to prime the pump. One show that was pre-finding BF was pretty good, from 2002.  Coast to Coast had a few BF stories as well, but just listening to Blogtalks, they barely scratch the surface, with an average 2 BF stories a year.

 

I'd say finding BF, although people I talked to a year or 2 ago when I mentioned it would change the subject or ignore what I just said. LoL

[chelefoot]

Not likely. Look at the late 50's and Wallace <sp?> faking the tracks he claimed to have faked. What inspired that back in the 50's? There had to be some sort of undertone in the PNW culture that included the belief they existed, or why would he have just thought to do that out of the blue?

Maybe to cast doubt on the claims of sightings that were being made at the time?

 

How soon after he laid the tracks did he admit to hoaxing them?

[MIB]

TD-40:

 

Good question.   The answer varies depending on where you are.   There was regional awareness of the stories long before there was national awareness.   In some areas ... Nor Cal / SW Oregon, for instance ... based on newspaper reports, there have been stories as long as there have been European-descended people with printing presses.   And of course there are the oral traditions of native people.   So, how to say this right?   I think this is something that was already here "waiting", not something we created upon our arrival.

 

My suspicion, regarding national consciousness, is it stems from Hollywood.   Being somewhat adjacent to the Nor Cal area, picking newspaper articles and maybe even recreating in the areas along the Klamath tributaries, Hollywood saw BF as a new twist to slip into film, both big screen and TV (Six Million Dollar man, etc).  That, in turn, pushed it into national consciousness whether accepted or just seen as a component of myth.  It has snowballed from there.

 

++++
 

Regarding Ray Wallace ... apparently guilty of hoaxing, but definitely busted claiming credit for hoaxes he could not have perpetrated.  I doubt we can ever be certain what his impact truly was.  

 

edit to add:  When it comes to Ray Wallace, I can't embrace him "admitting" to hoaxing, I have to qualify it by saying "claiming" to have hoaxed.  Maybe that says what little confidence I have in ANYTHING he said ... even his confession is suspect. 

 

MIB

Edited January 26, 2014 by MIB

[indiefoot]

I give "The Legend of Boggy Creek" a lot of credit for making the phenomenon a national topic.

[Guest]

The topic for the most part has been regional up until the late 50s and Jerry Crew. The 60's brought us the magazines like Fate, Pursuit, and Argosy. These brought those regional stories to life, which sparked the adventurers namely Patterson. The Patterson film vaulted the subject into popular thought as the film was shown around the country. The 70s brought Bigfoot into pop culture with the movies, docudramas and researchers coming out with their books on the subject. The 80s were all the above, the 90s brought us the internet and the explosion in Bigfoot databases, stories, and information. The turn of the century brought us the blog groups, conferences, radio, and tv. The subject has been evolving and growing interwoven into the fabric of the nation to where it's hard the know when it all began.