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Eastern Bigfoot:
Of Momo and Marked Homonids
By Loren Coleman
FATE :: November 2000
Reports of hairy, humanlike creatures comparable to the legendary Yetis of Tibet are older than American history. In a study published in The INFO Journal in 1970, Mark Hall and I noted: “A vast folklore and a belief in a race of very primitive people with revolting habits is found from northern California up into the Arctic lands themselves. This tradition covers not only the whole stretch of the Pacific Coast, but much of the rugged territory to the east, even into Greenland. Generally, these subhominids are described as very tall, fully haired, and retiring. Sometimes they are described as carnivorous.”
First nations’ folklore and cultural artifacts (such as masks, totem poles, and carvings) exist in abundance, demonstrating the prehistoric knowledge of these creatures.
Native accounts discuss these half-men with words peculiar to each linguistic and tribal group. Among Euro-Americans, early reports talk of these beings with words such as “wild men,” and, later, “gorillas.”
The first known written account of such a creature in western America dates back to 1811 and appears in the journal of one David Thompson, surveyor and trader for the Northwest Company of Canada. But accounts from the eastern U. S. appear soon thereafter. In fact, the oldest North American newspaper account appeared in the Exeter Watchman of New York on September 22, 1818.
The item reported the sighting of a “Wild Man of the Woods” near Ellisburgh, New York, on August 30, 1818. The creature was said to bend forward when running, to be hairy, and to leave footprints showing a narrow heel with spreading toes. These were followed by reports of smaller, hairy, child-sized creatures seen in Indiana and Pennsylvania in the 1830s. Beginning in 1834 in Arkansas, a giant wild man was seen by many people in the Ozarks. The Memphis Enquirer of May 9, 1851, reported on one of the later Arkansas sightings of the previous March, noting: “This singular creature has long been known traditionally in St. Francis, Greene, and Poinsett counties, Arkansas sportsmen and hunters having described him so long as 17 years since.” The wild man was said to be of gigantic stature, hairy, and with shoulder-length hair on his head. The manlike beast reportedly stared at those in pursuit, ran away very quickly, and leapt 14 feet at a time. Footprints found measured 14 inches long.
Sightings of these hirsute hominoids have continued up to the present day. Researchers have attempted to standardize the names used. The term “Neo-Giant” has been used by Ivan Sanderson, Mark Hall, and myself to describe creatures observed in the western part of the country, including the Pacific Northwest’s “Sasquatch” (a name coined by Canadian journalist J. W. Burns in the 1920s) and the now very popular “Bigfoot” (a moniker first used by Bluff Creek construction workers and widely disseminated by California newspaperman Andrew Genzoli in 1958). But something else is haunting the East.
Today, practically every state and province in North America has logged its share of so-called “Bigfoot” reports. In the past several years sightings have increased dramatically, and probably will continue to grow. From the 1960s through the 1990s, sightings of these “Bigfoot” increased in many parts of the continent, but the ones in the eastern U. S. and Canada are some of the most problematic in mysterious America. Something different from the classic or traditional Neo-Giant is being seen. Could a different regional subspecies, or even varied species, be responsible for these sightings? ...
Read the rest of this article in the November 2000 issue of FATE
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