All language subtitles for The UnXplained s03e07 Strange Lines in the Sand.eng

It hides in the shadows.

A giant, hairy creature
that walks on two feet

and watches us
with glowing eyes.

Does bigfoot really exist?

Part ape, part man?

As crazy as it seems,

there are many who believe
that not only

is such a creature real
but they've seen it,

tracked it,
even photographed it.

But then, if bigfoot
does exist, what is it?

Where does it come from?
How many are there?

And perhaps more importantly...

...Should we be afraid of it?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

Bigfoot researcher
matt moneymaker and a colleague

are investigating
reported bigfoot sightings

in a wooded area
near the town of kent.

After spending years
pursuing bigfoot

in hopes of seeing one himself,

matt is eager to find out
whether there really is

a giant creature in these woods.

We were staked out

along a road, the guy I was
with was about 60 feet away.

And at about 2:30 a.M.,

something comes walking
down the road.

I see something.

He sees it first
through night vision.

Matt rushes over to investigate,

and is stopped dead in his
tracks by the sound of...

...Inhuman growling.

This thing steps out.

A very big, tall,
hair-covered thing...

...Standing out there
growling at me.

When you've got
something that big

that close to you, you could
see it well enough to know

that must be a bigfoot.

So I just kind of backed up

and walked away.

I was pretty happy
at that point,

because I'm thinking,
"if this one's gonna do that,

"reliably, then this is a place

"that we're gonna get
some video footage of them

if we're coming here
with the right kind of gear."

But when matt returned

with camera equipment
to document the encounter,

the creature had vanished.

Although matt was not
able to photograph

the large, hairy beast
that he witnessed,

he remains convinced that what
he saw was, in fact, bigfoot.

It's one of those things
that sounds so over-the-top,

but after I had
a face-to-face encounter,

I knew it was exactly
the same thing

that all the witnesses
around there had described.

The encounter inspired matt

to found the bigfoot field
researchers organization,

or bfro.

The roots of it are people
who were sharing information.

We were sharing
sighting reports, mainly,

from different parts
of the country.

And I came up
with the idea that,

"why don't we put all these
into a website?"

you know, sort it
by county and state

so people can look up reports.

And when we did that,
it worked really well.

Lots of people started
submitting reports.

According to the bfro,

there have been more than
3,500 credible bigfoot sightings

since 1960.

Although science has yet
to prove the existence

of the legendary man-beast,
that hasn't stopped bigfoot

from becoming
a full-fledged phenomenon.

Bigfoot is literally everywhere.

There are bigfoot stories
in nevada.

There are
bigfoot stories in nebraska,

florida, texas.

Literally every part
of the country

has its own stories and legends
of bigfoot.

It's likely, wherever you live
in this country,

you are within a hundred miles
of a place

that purportedly has a bigfoot.

If these sightings
are of a real creature,

then what exactly is bigfoot?

And how did this
phenomenon begin?

Bigfoot is generally
reported to be

a very large, very furry, uh,
hominid creature.

Something like a person,
uh, but not a person,

seen very often remotely
in the forest.

And with various stories
about sightings

or about footprints that
really are pretty widespread

in many, many communities in
the united states and in canada.

Before 1958, people didn't
use the word "bigfoot."

but it was in 1958
in northern california,

guys building a road

found footprints
around their gear

when they would come
back in the morning.

And a guy named jerry crew
made plaster footprints

of these tracks and showed them
to a reporter in eureka,

and they dubbed it "bigfoot."

that was where the name
first originated

and got
into american vocabulary.

Photos of jerry crew's cast

of giant footprints made
headlines across the country.

Many americans came
to believe that a tall,

bipedal, apelike creature
roamed the forests

of the pacific northwest.

I grew up in washington state,
where it's hard

to underestimate
bigfoot's power.

Bigfoot is the mascot
of different companies.

Bigfoot is all over billboards.

As a young boy
in washington state,

I fully believed
in bigfoot's existence.

In 1967, interest
in bigfoot surged

when an investigator
named roger patterson

captured incredible footage
of a creature

that matched
the description of bigfoot

near bluff creek
in northern california.

Patterson's film became
an instant sensation,

but skeptics claimed
that it had to be a man

in a monkey suit.

One of the issues when it comes
to people believing

in bigfoot existing

is, let's face it,
mainstream sciences

shun away from this topic.

However, amateur researchers
are trying to pick up the slack,

bridge that gap

between amateur and
mainstream science.

Bigfoot researchers
claim that the vast majority

of bigfoot sightings
are sincere,

and that hoaxes represent
only a small fraction of reports.

They also point out that
stories of bigfoot-like animals

are not merely a recent fad.

Believe it or not,
more than 3,000 years ago,

the ancient babylonians
told stories of a creature

that sounds an
awful lot like bigfoot.

Except they called it enkidu.

Enkidu is a...

Hairy,
wild man creature with super strength,

and he's fearsome,
he's ready and willing

to defend this wild
territory that he inhabits.

The king, gilgamesh,
becomes his soulmate, basically.

Best friends.

So,
this king becomes this amazing hero

through his relationship
with this wild man

that has shown him

how to negotiate the boundaries
between humanity and wildness.

Since that time,
descriptions of so-called "wild men,"

half-human, half-ape beasts,

have popped up throughout history,
all over the world.

In the caucasus,

there was something
called the alma

that was a big monster,
a nature creature.

In australia,
there's the aboriginal version

which is called a yowie.

There is the yeti
in the himalayas.

So there are local variations,

but the story is more
or less the same.

Very big, seemingly animallike,

or is it human or
is it some hybrid?

There's the point.

In north america,

there are native american
legends that go back centuries,

long before the discoveries
made by jerry crew

or roger patterson.

We know that sasquatch,

the preeminent bigfoot
creature that we have

in the united states,
located in the pacific northwest,

that very word, "sasquatch,"
comes from a salish tribal word

that means "wild
man" or "hairy man."

The natives of the
northwest say that there are creatures

that walk upright
and only at night.

And can speak in their language.

I found,
in speaking with indigenous peoples,

that they don't describe
them as an animal at all.

They call them the first ones,
or the old ones.

"these were the tribe that
was here before we got here."

An ancient tribe
that predates humanity?

It's a fascinating notion,

one that bigfoot researchers
are eager to investigate.

And there are some who
will risk going into the deepest

and darkest forests to try
and capture the huge creature,

even though it may
not want to be found.

Future u.S.
President teddy roosevelt

publishes the wilderness hunter,

a book about his
youthful adventures

in the dakota territory.

His memoir contains a
story that was told to him

by an old mountain man,
who, years before,

had encountered an apelike
creature deep in the woods.

There were some trappers
and they kept having

encounters kind of in the dark

with what they thought
were these huge creatures

that were leaving
huge manlike footprints.

One of the guys decided
to go off and check traps,

and the other one
would hide back at camp

and see what was
coming in every time

that they would leave camp.

When the guy came
back from checking traps,

he found his friend dead,

his body broken over a log,

and it looked like it had
just been pummeled.

And they attributed it to

an eight-foot-tall,
600-pound ape.

The disturbing
encounter recorded by roosevelt

is one of the earliest
accounts of american pioneers

coming face-to-face

with what many native
americans called...

Sasquatch.

If the story is true,

it seems like sasquatch
wasn't very friendly

towards humans who
encroached on its territory.

There are vastly different ideas
within the bigfoot subculture

about bigfoot's disposition.

Some believe that bigfoot is an angry,
homicidal predator.

And if you come into its domain,

it will try to kill
you if it can.

Others believe that
bigfoot is merely an animal.

And just like a grizzly bear
might become aggressive

under the right circumstances,
it could.

Over the past century, more

of the american
wilderness has been settled,

with the construction of new housing,
industry,

and infrastructure.

But if we have been
encroaching on bigfoot's habitat

for so long,
then how come no one has ever

recovered the body of one?

It's been estimated perhaps
2,000 of these things exist

throughout the
pacific northwest.

Sounds like a lot,
but it really isn't.

Considering two
of the major ranges,

the cascade range
and the coast range,

make up 68,000 square miles,
mostly uninhabited.

When you distribute
2,000 of anything

in 68,000 square miles...

You'd be lucky to run
across one in your life.

People who
believe that bigfoot is

a biological
creature will simply

talk about how stealthy it is,

that it's very good at moving

through the woods
without making any noise

and therefore can
slip away at will.

Is bigfoot simply
too elusive to be captured?

Perhaps.

But that hasn't stopped an army

of so-called "bigfoot hunters"

from trying to track it down.

The role of citizen scientists

is potentially a
very significant one.

It may well be that
major discoveries

will be made not by
scientists in this arena,

but by citizen scientists.

Modern bigfoot hunters

use techniques such
as wood knocking...

...Playing purported bigfoot
screams while in the woods.

These are things that many
modern bigfoot investigators

believe will draw any
nearby sasquatch to you.

I think the
future of bigfoot research,

in a lot of ways,
rests with new optics with thermal imagers.

And especially with drones,

thermal imagers
attached to drones.

I really do see a
future where the next

big, profound piece of footage

is gonna be gotten by a drone.

Many bigfoot hunters

are very much
devoted to the idea

that the creature
that they're looking for

is an undiscovered animal.

They believe that if
they try hard enough,

they could capture
sufficient evidence

to prove the issue
once and for all.

Bigfoot hunters
have set their sights

on catching the beast itself.

But the most compelling
pieces of evidence

that we have right now
are the huge footprints

that have been
found for decades.

And according to
anthropologist dr. Jeff meldrum,

these impressions in the ground

prove that there really is

an enormous primate
roaming the forest.

My research
expertise centers around

the adaptations
of the human body

for bipedalism... the habit
of walking on two legs.

So that put me in a
very apropos position

to address what is probably

the most prolific and,
in my opinion,

by far the most
compelling body of evidence

for the existence of sasquatch,

namely the footprints.

Dr. Meldrum's interest
in bigfoot footprints started

in 1996 when he and a
colleague came across

a remarkable line of footprints

in southeastern washington.

As we walk out there,
here's this unmistakable line

of footprints in the mud,

these 15-inch footprints,

and the hair stood up
on the back of my neck

as I realized a
sasquatch actually

walked by here last night.

The evidence was really
unmistakable to my eye

with my background and training.

Dr. Meldrum immediately made

several casts of the
intriguing footprints.

The first of many such casts

that he has made
throughout his career.

Based off his research,

he has concluded that by
analyzing a variety of factors,

such as how the foot imprints
irregularities into the ground

or the spacing of
the toes in the dirt,

it is possible to determine
when footprints have been faked

and when they were really
made by a 15-inch foot.

So here we are over 20 years later,
and

in addition to the
seven footprint

casts that I made
on that afternoon,

there are over 300 casts
to keep them company here

in the specimen
drawers in my laboratory.

It's just been an amazing road

that has yielded,
due to this extraordinary sample,

the emergence
of a model of a foot

that is not simply
an enlarged facsimile

of a human footprint
but rather shows

all the distinctions
of a foot adapted

to transport a
800-to-1,200-pound

bipedal primate

through the rough,
irregular, incline terrain

of the mountainous forests

they are said to inhabit.

If bigfoot is making

giant footprints in the forest,

then is it a creature
that can be explained

by conventional science?

Bigfoot researchers
believe the answer is yes.

And they claim that
bigfoot is an animal...

That has already been found.

Explorer robert von
beringe is leading an expedition

up mount sabyinyo

when he comes upon
a troop of gorillas.

Which is extraordinary,
because according

to mainstream scientists at the time,
gorillas aren't

supposed to live
in the mountains.

For years, when reports came out

about mountain gorillas,
people said,

"they're lying,
they're hoaxers,"

until we finally had specimens.

And now the mountain
gorilla are part

of the public and
historical record.

The discovery of the gorilla

is actually a very good example

of the manner in which

the existence of an
unknown primate species

was eventually recognized
by western science.

And science requires
a type specimen

in order to justify

the recognition
of a novel species.

For bigfoot researchers,
the discovery

of the mountain
gorilla is an example

of how the assumptions
of mainstream scientists

are not always correct.

And they argue that if the
mountain gorilla survived

in the african mountains,
unrecognized by science

until 1902,
that it's possible that bigfoot

is alive in the vast
forests of north america.

It just hasn't
been verified yet.

But is bigfoot really
an unknown creature?

Or is it simply another
name for a creature

we've known about for decades?

There's various theories as
to what this type of primate is.

But it most likely is
related to this line of apes

out of southeast asia,
the most famous of which was called

gigantopithecus,
the largest apes that ever lived.

Gigantopithecus
was a species that existed

during the late pleistocene,
perhaps until as recently as

200,000 to 300,000 years ago,

according to the fossil record.

It was a giant primate of
literally king kong proportions

that could have stood ten
feet tall and weighed in excess

of a thousand, 1,200 pounds.

The theory that
what we call "bigfoot" is actually

gigantopithecus has
profound implications.

If true,
it would mean that the existence of bigfoot

has already been
scientifically verified.

There's just one problem.

According to paleontologists,
gigantopithecus became extinct

a long time ago.

Gigantopithecus
has often been characterized

as a creature that fed
exclusively on bamboo

and, hence,
went extinct when those bamboo forests

also expired.

But much more
insightful analyses

of the fossilized teeth
of gigantopithecus

suggests that it had a
diet that was quite diverse.

Which is quite interesting,
to have an animal that size

that still had a very diverse,
omnivorous diet.

But even if gigantopithecus

has somehow survived into the present,
questions remain.

Such as,
how did such a large creature migrate

from the bamboo
forests of southeast asia

all the way to north america?

If bigfoots are descendants
of gigantopithecus,

or a line of apes like it,

they probably came
over the land bridge

the same way that
native americans did,

back when siberia and
alaska were connected

and all sorts of animals
were able to cross over

the bering strait.

Bigfoot
researchers are steadfast

in their support of the
gigantopithecus theory.

But most experts reject the
idea due to lack of evidence.

But what if the
evidence does exist,

and scientists simply
aren't looking for it

in the right places?

Naturalist john mionczynski
is spending the summer

working for the
u.S. Forest service.

I was employed by
the u.S. Forest service

and the wyoming game
and fish department

on a cooperative study.

The project was set up so
that I would live in the wild.

Late one night,

john feels what he
thinks is a large bear

pressing against
the outside of his tent.

I was approached by
something that cast a shadow.

The moon was just coming up,
it was almost a full moon.

I clearly saw a
hand with four fingers

and an opposed thumb,
like a human hand.

And it was large.

It was twice the
size of my hand.

It was getting aggressive
with its movements

on the side of the tent.

I hit it with the
back of my hand.

Whatever it was had backed off.

It ran back behind some trees.

So I was totally perplexed.

I have to say that,
the thought of sasquatch

never occurred to
me at that moment.

When john reported
the encounter to the forest service,

he learned that there had
been a rash of similar reports.

His boss, afraid the sightings

might be the work
of a prankster,

asked him to investigate
and interview the witnesses.

- I - eventually interviewed

about 25 people.

The most interesting
one was a young man

in a little cabin up
against the mountains.

He had reported

seeing one of these
behaving aggressively

in front of his cabin.

And he shot it.

And he'd thought he'd killed it,

but it got up
immediately and ran off.

John visited the cabin and,
incredibly,

found that there were hair
samples left near the house.

He collected the
hairs and brought them

to walter birkby,
a well-known forensic anthropologist

and leading expert
on hair analysis.

The analysis came
back a few days later

and walter birkby said,
and this is a quote,

"this is my first stumper.
These hairs are primate."

and he was certain about that.

The result was controversial
because a hairy primate

is not of an animal
native to wyoming.

That kind of suggested
the idea of bigfoot.

Solid,
physical evidence of a primate in wyoming?

You might think that
the scientific community

would be thrilled
by such a discovery.

But john quickly
realized the perils

of making that assumption.

The head
of the research division

actually chewed us out.

Pointing his finger
at us and saying,

"if your names
are ever associated

"with this word bigfoot again,

I will personally see
to it that you're fired."

if hard evidence of
bigfoot really exists,

then why are scientists
so eager to dismiss it?

Maybe it's safer to think

that it's all just a
delusion or a hoax.

Or perhaps bigfoot doesn't fit
into their preconceived notions

of the world.

In any case,
some evidence is difficult,

if not downright impossible,
to ignore,

as you shall see.

Researcher robert collier

is leading a bigfoot expedition

in a remote part
of the wilderness.

It was about dusk,
getting a little bit darker.

And all of a sudden we hear
these horrendous footsteps.

As we looked in front of us,
what we saw had two legs.

And it looked like the
conical shaped head,

the broad shoulders.

And it's sitting right
there. I'm looking at it.

Robert and his
companions were astonished

by the two-legged
creature moving near them.

But what happened next
was even more extraordinary.

Soon as that happened,

it was like somebody had
parked their car down there

and turned on headlights.

Lit up the whole area.

And I remember looking at that

and the lights stayed on,
one, two,

three, off.

Then it just went silent.

But we were in such
shock and pure amazement

from that, from that sighting.

A sudden,
brilliant illumination deep in the forest?

Just before the mysterious
creature robert saw

seemingly disappeared?

While it may sound
like a fantastical story,

this wasn't the last
time robert observed

such a strange occurrence.

This last expedition,

I experienced more lights.

We had some activity
one night and I remember,

at one point,
bigfoot turned its body

and it looked back at me.

And then this blue light...

It was a blue streak
through the forest...

And it shot off to the right.

I still can't wrap
my head around it.

But still other people
experience that

and they're seeing
the same things.

People are starting to
see these white orbs.

The blue lights, the streaks.

So,
there's the common denominator in there.

Robert and others who
have seen these inexplicable lights

may not have all the answers.

However, the phenomenon

suggests an
intriguing possibility.

You see, most researchers
speculate that bigfoot could be

some form of ape and man

or a mix of both.

But what if those theories
are missing the target?

If bigfoot is real,

could it be totally different

from any kind of creature
that we're familiar with?

Perhaps the answer can
be found by examining

one of the most notorious
bigfoot encounters in history.

Gold prospector fred beck
and some miners are working

on a claim not far
from mount st. Helens,

when they hear a bizarre noise.

Fred and one of his friends

heard strange whistling sounds

and all of a sudden
saw a hairy creature

peek its head out
from behind a tree.

The men instantly
pulled out their guns

and started shooting
at the creature...

...Which howled and
screamed as it ran away.

And this attack on the
creature seemed to provoke it,

because that evening

fred and his friends in
their cabin were assaulted

by what seemed to be a group of sasquatch,
or bigfeet.

They heard pounding on the roof.

Fred described the
creatures as tall and hairy,

having apelike faces and
being entirely hair-covered,

and between six
to eight feet tall,

running around on two legs.

The men soon
realized that the cabin

would not necessarily protect
them from their attackers,

because the creatures
bombarded the cabin

with huge rocks
from the cliffs above

and then tried to get inside.

In one especially
terrifying part of the story,

a creature reached its
hand through the cabin

and tried to grab an ax,
but fred grabbed

the head of the ax and turned it

so the creature
couldn't pull it through.

The next morning,
as it neared daylight,

the attacks finally stopped.

And fred and his friends
decided to make their escape.

And this story made
its way into the papers.

And ever since then,
this area has been known as ape canyon.

For some,
the so-called ape canyon incident

proves that bigfoot
possesses intelligence

that exceeds that of any
known animal and rivals our own.

But to others,
the incident suggests something

much more incredible.

If you actually look back

to fred beck's own works,
he did not think these creatures

were actually
undiscovered animals.

He thought they
were spiritual entities

from another plane of existence.

He claimed they would
find a footprint track

that would suddenly end
in the middle of a sandbar,

suggesting that a creature
had just simply disappeared

as it was walking.

So, from his perspective,
this was not an undiscovered ape.

It was a mystical creature
from another dimension.

A mystical creature
from another dimension?

But how is such
a thing possible?

And doesn't that
theory contradict

mainstream bigfoot research?

The idea that bigfoot
might be able to disappear

into another dimension,
that is very threatening

to that view that it's simply
an undiscovered animal.

And, in fact, people oftentimes
make fun of bigfoot hunters

and say,
"you're just like ghost hunters,

you're just like people who
see fairies and demons."

and when you add paranormal
elements to a bigfoot story,

you open them up
for that very criticism

that bothers them so much.

Most of the
contemporary traditions

assign bigfoot or sasquatch

to the natural world.

In other words,
it's not a supernatural character.

Most of the native traditions

would be more of
the spiritual world

or more of the
supernatural world.

That this figure is
more than simply

a large hominid
living out there.

They've ascribed, uh,
some powers to them,

spiritual powers.

They can change into
different things at times,

which aids in their ability to
seem to vanish on location.

Uh, shapeshifters, if you will.

And so they have

a whole different respect for them,
spiritually.

Does bigfoot really
have mystical powers?

And could this
fantastical notion

help to explain
things about bigfoot

that have, up till now,
stumped researchers?

There are those who believe
that the answer is yes...

And that one big reason

why bigfoot has
otherworldly abilities

is because he really
is from another world.

Bigfoot researcher joe
fex visits a rural appalachian farm

owned by a woman who claims

that she has encountered bigfoot

not once, not twice,
but many times

over a period of years.

Janice carter coy claimed

bigfoot would come
down the mountain,

visit this barn that was
about two miles away,

and that they would come
visit her grandfather's farm.

Eager to find out

whether janice's incredible
story could be true,

joe decided to do a
nighttime stakeout on her farm.

That night, joe and janice
were sitting around a firepit

when joe noticed
something... Strange.

As we're talking,

I see between
these barn structures

two very bright,
very vivid lime green lights.

And they're floating
across this open area

between these structures.

I thought,

"wow, tennessee has got
some pretty extremely large

lightning bugs out here."

But the green lights

started to come closer to him

and joe realized that what
he thought were fireflies...

Were actually glowing eyes.

I could see

the structure of a very large,

long-haired, shaggy...

What looked like a
very muscular ape.

And I looked over at janice

and she's just looking
at me with this grin.

And she says,

"he wants to know if you're
going to go back to colorado

and tell people
you saw fireflies."

how janice would even know that

that thought even
entered my head,

brief as that thought was,

I really have no idea.

Shatner joe was
astonished to see

that janice seemed to be able

to mentally communicate
with the creature...

Which was somehow reading his mind,
too.

Janice said, "he wants you
to come back to the ditch line.

He wants to see you.
He wants you to see him."

and I thought, "oh,
this is insane."

but she gives me
this big flashlight.

So I started walking over there

and back out behind the house,

and I pointed the light forward.

And here, in this open area,

stood this guy that had to be

about eight or nine feet tall.

I've never heard or
seen anything like it

in my entire life.

You'd think that after
standing toe to toe with bigfoot,

joe would remember everything
about such an encounter.

But as it turns out,
joe's memory is a little fuzzy.

I don't know what happened
at the tail end of that.

I just remember standing

back at the camp,
talking with janice.

I don't remember walking away.

I don't remember...
How did that end?

Which is, to me... even now,
all these years later...

Is really bizarre.

To many observers,

joe's description of bigfoot
sounds less like a primate

and more like
something... Paranormal.

Joe fex's story actually

sounds a lot like a ufo
abduction account to me.

When you claim that
there's some period of time

that you simply
cannot account for...

In alien abduction lore,
this is called "missing time,"

and it's believed that the
aliens will erase your memory

for a certain period
of the encounter.

There are other stories
within the bigfoot realm

where people claim to have
had encounters with ufos

or even had an abduction.

Could bigfoot
actually be an extraterrestrial?

Some bigfoot researchers
would argue the answer is yes,

and that the strongest evidence
lies not in what happened

during joe's bigfoot encounter

but what happened after.

Two weeks later,
at maybe 10:30, 11:00 in the morning.

I go into the shower

and I come back
out of the shower,

uh, dry off real quick,

relax for a minute.

I have a cup of coffee.

I unconsciously
reached back here

and I could feel something.

I realized there was
a relatively deep hole

that I could fit my pinky into.

It didn't feel like a wound.

It felt perfectly fine.

It didn't hurt at all.
There was no sensation.

An inexplicable
hole in your head

isn't something that's
easy to understand.

But after considering
every possibility,

joe recognized that what
happened to him was bizarre

but not exactly unheard of.

All of these things
are extremely familiar

in the field of ufos

and the subfield
of ufo abductions.

They have similarities in
their patterns of behavior,

similarities in the environment
and the circumstances,

similarities in
the side effects.

I don't know if these
things are related,

but there is a correlation.

Joe fex may not
have any definitive answers

about bigfoot or
about his experience.

But what he does have

are some intriguing
possibilities to consider,

thanks to the information
that he has exchanged

with other bigfoot researchers.

And there are some who believe
that this kind of cooperation

will finally prove
that bigfoot is real.

The oregon coast mountain range.

Here, not far from the
shore of the pacific ocean,

lies a densely wooded area that,
once a year,

is the site of an
invitation-only conference

attended by international
experts in their field.

It's called...

Beachfoot.

It was in 2003

that I had this thought,

"you know,
what would happen if you could get

"all of these
well-known researchers

locked in the same
room at the same time?"

the amount of brain trust
there would be amazing.

The beachfoot gatherings,

where scientists
get to discuss openly

their research and findings

concerning bigfoot...

I think it's a very
important step

which will open up the subject

to other scientists
who are interested

in studying this
kind of phenomenon.

One of my
most enjoyable activities

at such an event is, sometimes

I teach a workshop
on "tracking 101."

those are opportunities
where non-academics,

non-phds,
can strive to emulate the scientific method

in their own search

for the evidence
they presume to find.

Gatherings like beachfoot

prove that the legend of
bigfoot is alive and well.

But how is that possible

when no conclusive evidence
of bigfoot has ever been found?

What drives our interest
in this enduring mystery?

The reason I believe

that the sasquatch subject
has such staying power

is that there's so many
witnesses out there.

There's many parts of the country where,
if you go

and ask people if
they've ever seen one,

so often you'll hear,

"no, I haven't,
but I know somebody who has."

so,
there's many people out there

who at least know
someone they trust

who has told them that
they've seen these things.

And that has had
the effect of changing

people's opinion
about the subject

of what would otherwise be
just total skepticism everywhere.

Bigfoot matters because

it would be tangible
proof of a solved mystery.

Finding a real bigfoot,

a real creature,

would be like discovering

another piece of the world.

And it's... It's us
reaching for another piece

of that unknown

that's always just
beyond our reach.

So, now, what do you think? Huh?

Is bigfoot real,

or is it all just part
of an elaborate hoax?

I guess that depends on
what kind of a person you are.

If you're the open-minded type

who believes that the
world is filled with wonder,

then you probably
believe it's real.

If you are the hard-nosed,
cynical type,

then you're convinced
it's all nonsense.

But then there is a third type.

The type who has
actually seen bigfoot

in the fur-covered flesh.

For you, bigfoot is real,

and your experience
has convinced you

that there is much
about this mysterious creature

that, for now,
remains unexplained.