Bigfoot Festival Coming To Southwest Oklahoma

Sasquatch. Yeti. Wild Man. Skunk Ape. Salishan. Hairy Man. Genoskwa. Stone Man. There's hundreds of different names for the same legendary creature the world now knows as Bigfoot. Whether the stories are true or just some good old fashion fun of tall tales, I think everyone has lived vicariously through at least one of these stories. Oddly enough, while we think of this concept as a crazy story told just to creep out campers, the legend of Bigfoot is older than we think.

If you ask anthropologists, the story of Bigfoot has been around long before the creature had just a single name. In fact, you'd be surprised by how many Native American tribes and cultures across modern day America and Canada have stories surrounding this creature. There are even petroglyphs and painted rocks over a thousand years old depicting our beloved Bigfoot.

Even more curious, many of the stories and legends in different cultures all share similar details. A giant man like hairy beast that smells foul and walks upright on huge feet. No neck to speak of, very broad shoulders, and eyes that glow from yellow to red depending on who's version. How can they all have a similar story? Was it just a tall tale told at some inter-tribal get together that spread across the continent person to person?

Most of the world found out about it in the famed 1967 film that allegedly caught the beast traversing a section of creek out in Northern California. Everybody has seen this couple of seconds of film, and the argument about it and the existence of this thing still lingers today. Southeastern Oklahoma is also pretty famous for it.

I have an aunt and uncle that used to love camping. They'd spend more time in the wilderness than at home when they were still way into it as a hobby. Still, they claim to have had a Bigfoot experience out in our own wildlife refuge. Camping under permit in the restricted area, they both awoke one night to something making a ton of noise. They described it as the sound of something big running down the mountain they were camped on. The sound of shattering tree limbs was unmistakable, and the carnage they found after sunrise seemingly confirmed what they heard... but here's the thing, there were no hoof prints in the middle of all that destruction. It wasn't the bison, it wasn't cattle, and it wasn't spooked elk. It was something bigger and stronger making its way down the mountain in a hurry. Knowing them personally, I have to keep an open mind that it's entirely plausible.

If it interests you, and lets admit it, what kid wouldn't love learning about Bigfoot for a day? There's a Bigfoot festival type event coming up on October 9th in Anadarko. You'll hear stories, check out the research, and even go along on a Squatch hunt yourself if you have that kind of free time that weekend. Either way, it sounds like a fun something to do on a random Saturday, and you've got enough time to make a plan to be there. Here's the flyer.