You have probably seen the famous footage of Bigfoot, which shows an apelike creature ambling through the California woods, casting a brief, leisurely glance at the camera before disappearing off screen.
A man in Illinois saw something different last month.
He says he saw a creature that was fast, athletic and massive, covering a two-lane road in two quick strides. The man said that it was covered in black hair and had long limbs, but was gone before he could register what was happening.
The man, who lives near Peoria, said that he was freaked out by the jump into the darkness. I said to myself, " Bigfoot!"
In a year when the Pentagon investigated the existence of unexplained flying objects, the alleged Bigfoot incident reminds skeptics that other unexplained phenomena are still out there.
The sasquatches are doing well. In the past year, they have been the subject of a conference in Florida, where they are known as skunk apes, and have been featured in several documentaries and TV programs.
A state lawmaker in Oklahoma tried to pass a law that would establish a Sasquatch hunting season and announce a $3 million reward for the capture of a live Bigfoot, though he admitted it was a stunt to attract tourists.
He said on the floor of the statehouse that they want the world to come to Oklahoma and help with the bounty.
The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization has had more than 300 reported Bigfoot Sightings, and Illinois has been known to play the publicity game. The owners of the Shawnee Forest Cabins, Doug and Carrie DeVore, put up a 7-foot statue known as "Salty" on their property several years ago and it has since become a roadside attraction.
Carrie DeVore said she didn't realize until later that the nearby Shawnee National Forest is a hub of Bigfoot Sightings.
She said she was sure there were people who had seen something. I hear the earnestness in their voices when they call me up, but I was a geologist before I got into the cabin rental business, so the other part of me is like, 'We would find some evidence, wouldn't we?' It remains to be seen.
The engineer who says he spotted the Bigfoot last month asked not to be named because he didn't want to be known as Mr. Bigfoot.
He said he saw a creature bound across the road just across the river from his vehicle. He couldn't see its eyes or face, but it turned toward him.
The man said he was sober and not a Bigfoot enthusiast when he spotted the bigfoot. He acknowledged that when friends went back to look for tracks, they didn't find anything.
Matthew Moneymaker of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization graded the man's encounter as a Class A, or very reliable, one because of the close proximity of the encounter and the lack of red flags about the man's credibility.
Moneymaker, who has produced or hosted several Bigfoot-related TV shows, said he started his organization in the mid 1990s after he spotted a Bigfoot in a patch of woods.
He said the group has received hundreds of reports from the Pacific Northwest each year. He believes that the primate is a species that crossed into North America from Asia during the Ice Age.
The fossil record does not support that, according to Paul Garber, an anthropologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He said there was no evidence that giantopithecus ever made it here.
He said a large primate would leave telltale signs of its presence, from droppings to bones to the remnants of apes sleep. Moneymaker said that the lack of definitive proof could be due to Sasquatches living in extremely remote areas, but that is also true of other big apes.
The human impulse to rationalize odd sights that defy explanation is what he attributes to Bigfoot-like creatures that exist all over the world.
He said he believed the guy saw something. The visual evidence is what we have. The physical evidence that would be consistent with ape behavior is what we tend not to have.
The man said he thought it was a bear running at full tilt, but it wasn't, and it had no bear tracks. He said it resembled the classic image of Bigfoot, and others who live in the area have told him they have seen similar creatures.
The man said that he hoped that was not true.
He said that he wouldn't recommend someone to come to central Illinois to make a hoax. There are too many hunters. There are too many people with guns. It would be dangerous.
