Huge 'Bigfoot' News From This Day

A still from the famous Patterson/Gimlin film showing
an alleged Bigfoot that they encountered at Bluff Creek.

44 years ago --- on October 20, 1967 -- Yakima, Washington resident Roger Patterson, then 34, and his tracking assistant Bob Gimlin, then 36, emerged from the Bluff Creek area of northern California with a strip of colored 16mm film of what many have taken to be a female Bigfoot.

This short film has provided evidence for those who believe in Bigfoot and is arguably the most famous film clip purporting to demonstrate the existence of unknown creatures. It has been featured in numerous television shows and films and ads, on the cover of books and magazines, and web sites. The Patterson film has been one of the major pillars of belief in Bigfoot for the past 44 years. When people think of "Bigfoot," the creature in the film often comes to mind.

This documentary by Nat Geo shows the Patterson-Gimlin footage to

be the most convincing piece of evidence for the existence of Bigfoot.

Above is a documentary on the Patterson-Gimlin footage by National Geographic, first aired in January of 2010. The show begins by telling us a story about a man named Patterson who took film footage of a Bigfoot in Northern California in the late '60s. Of course, debunkers immediately said it was a hoax -- just a guy in a suit. The show pretty well put the hoax claim to rest.

Without going into all of the details of each point, the main points were that Hollywood "creature suit makers" say the technology to make a suit look and act like the creature in the film did not exist in the late '60s and still doesn't. Anatomical experts say the proportions are wrong for a human and right for an ape. Finally, it is possible to calculate the actual height of something in an image if you know the distance from camera to subject, the size of the image on the frame of film and the focal length of the lens. The camera used at the time came with 15 and 25 mm lenses. The 15mm lens was in use and the distance was stated to be 100 feet by the guy with Patterson. Combined with image size in the frame (I think they said it was .44") this leads to a height of 7'6", give or take a bit. Further, the length of primate feet is generally about 15% of body height. Plaster casts of Patterson's Bigfoot footprints were measured at 14" and that comes out to about the same height. There aren't many 7'6" humans.

The show also mentioned the numerous blood and hair samples that have been collected over the years. They have found that some of the hair samples do not match the hair of any known forest animals like bears, elk, pumas, etc. These hair samples are from primates but are not from any known primates like humans, gorillas, chimps, orangutans, etc. The same holds true for some of the blood samples. Of course, in science, proving a sample isn't something does not prove it is something else but the process of elimination certainly leaves the question open.


Here's a brief history of the Patterson/Gimlin film below:

The Patterson/Gimlin footage is a short piece of 16mm film obtained by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin in 1967. It was obtained in the remote canyon of Bluff Creek, California, very close to the border of Del Norte County and Humboldt County.

Both Patterson and Gimlin lived near Yakima, Washington. Patterson had been trying to obtain film footage of a bigfoot for many years. During the period he had also written a book entitled, "Do Abominable Snowmen of America Really Exist?" He hoped some decent film footage would help answer that question.

In this book he calls attention to the unusually large amount of testimonial and circumstantial evidence pointing to the existence of large, forest-dwelling primate species in North America.

Bob Gimlin, a highly experienced outdoorsman, was a close friend of Patterson. He accompanied Patterson on several horsepacking expeditions in pursuit of film footage.

Equipped with a 16mm hand-held Kodak movie camera, the two set out in October, 1967 for a horsepacking trip in northwest California. Their search focused on the Bluff Creek area, because a number of tracks had been found there in prior years while logging roads were being built. Road construction workers had noticed large human-like footprints on the soft exposed soil of the new roads. The tracks were first reported to the press by construction worker Jerry Crew in October, 1958.

A local newspaper reporter came up with the name "Bigfoot" to describe the maker of the largest tracks. Tracks of six different individuals were repeatedly found on the new logging roads. The sizes ranged from 12.25 inches long to 17 inches long.

In the early afternoon of October 20, 1967 as Patterson and Gimlin, on horseback, followed a trail in the creek bottom, they spotted a bigfoot apparently drinking from the creek. Patterson's horse reared in alarm as the bigfoot stood up and began to walk away. Both the horse and Patterson fell to the ground, with Patterson briefly pinned by the fallen horse. Patterson quickly worked himself free and grabbed his hand-held movie camera.

While running toward the retreating bigfoot, Patterson shot 24 feet of film. Gimlin sat ready with his rifle in hand.

Not wanting another spooked confrontation with this bigfoot, Patterson and Gimlin decided not to pursue it into the forest. At that point they felt they had the footage they came for anyway.

After the footage was brought back to town and developed, a handful of investigators from the US and Canada returned to the film site and measured the tracks and other objects to help accurately gauge the size of the figure in the footage. The calculations suggested a height of 7 foot, 3.5 inches. The footprints were 14.5 inches long by 6 inches wide.

The film has been studied by many scientists in different countries. Their opinions are divided. No one has ever been able to objectively demonstrate that the figure was a man in a costume, either by producing a matching costume, or by pointing out anything in the footage itself suggesting a costume.

In the late 1990's several different people came forward to sell contradictory explanations, rumors, confessions or accusations of a hoax. All of these stories were thoroughly debunked. The various "confessors" were most easily debunked by some of the researchers who actually investigated the scene soon after the incident, and knew what questions to ask of anyone who claimed to have been there.

The full history of the examination and treatment Patterson footage is a fascinating story of detective work, scientific examination and media hoopla. Hopefully it will be fully documented while the people who know the full story are still with us.

Roger Patterson died in January, 1972. He always maintained that the figure in the footage was a real bigfoot. Bob Gimlin, who still resides in Yakima, continues to maintain that the footage is authentic.