The hairy hominid keeps researchers busy

By Liam Easley

With an increasing number of us enjoying nature walks, runs and hikes, the distant snapping of a twig can be interrupting, and it catches our curiosity - was it a bear or just a squirrel? Some might even guess it was bigfoot.

Colorado has a history of bigfoot sightings, and according to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, Colorado alone has had 128 reported sightings between 1926 and 2019. Of all the counties that have had reports, Park County took the lead with 13 sightings, but the creature had deeper roots than that. Multiple Native American nations of Colorado have similar, older legends - the Ute know it as Seeatch and the Cheyenne know it as Maxemista.

As far as Colorado “bigfooters” go, a lot of enthusiasts will take photos of fallen branches and trees and attribute it to the elusive cryptid. According to researcher Dennis Pfohl, this kind of evidence detracts from real scientific research. Outside of deadfall, there are other, more reliable sources of evidence.

Today, investigators and scientists - some of which are known as cryptozoologists - are attempting to upgrade the status of the Sasquatch from legendary to factual. And thanks to the Colorado Bigfoot Research Group, scientific evidence has been coming to light. Pfohl, the founder of the organization, has spent two decades investigating the hairy hominid – a group that includes humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. He has presented some interesting insights into the mystery behind bigfoot.

Most importantly, scientists have allegedly obtained hair samples.

“Every single mammal on the planet that has been categorized shares a unique hair structure,” said Pfohl. “So, if you find hair in the wilderness and you take it to the right person, they can tell you if it’s a rabbit, or a deer, or a human. In the case of the Sasquatch, the good samples that have come through have shown to be human-like, but they do not match. So, we have numerous hair samples from all over the world that show there’s a primate that is undocumented.”

According to Pfohl, based on their bipedalism (creatures that walk on two legs), bigfoot is most likely a hominid. With their alleged hair being similar to ours and the observation that they are most likely bipedal unlike their quadrupedal (something that walks on four legs) great ape cousins, there is speculation within the cryptozoology community that the Sasquatch could be a missing link in our evolutionary history.

Additionally, footprints, which are much less common than people assume, yield evidence of a bipedal organism that is equipped to travel on rough terrain.

“Footprints are one thing that can tell a whole story,” said Pfohl. “There’s a living creature out there that leaves dynamic footprints, meaning they change and they morph. The foot is flexing and moving over terrain - that can’t be accomplished by a hoax. The bottom of the foot of a Sasquatch tends to be almost flat, which is the perfectly adapted foot to carry a large, heavy creature over rough terrain.”

Pfohl described a foot that has more contact points than a human foot. Human feet have two contact points because we are adapted for flat terrain. The alleged big foot has a larger surface area that provides many contact points.

People have yet to obtain a body (dead or alive) of bigfoot, making the topic an area of skepticism. However, investigators like Pfohl are bringing awareness to the possibility of the beast’s existence.

“With modern science, we tend to believe that science is the beginning and the end of everything,” said Pfohl. “We’re finding that there are a lot of things we used to think of as mythology or folklore that actually did exist - it wasn’t just man’s imagination. It kind of changes your whole paradigm of looking at the world, but I think it makes it a more awesome place to think that some of these legends actually do exist.”

For more information, follow the Sasquatch’s tracks on the Colorado Bigfoot Research Group Facebook page.

Liam Easley is a Wartburg College student studying journalism and communication. He will graduate in 2021. Liam also enjoys writing poetry, screenplays, short stories and music.