In our cover story, Ben Radford asks, “Is Bigfoot Dead?” In the article, before considering the evidence, we first encounter a history of key developmental milestones, such as Bigfoot ’s 1958 birth in the pages of the Humboldt Times based on footprints discovered in California. In the years that followed, the idea of Bigfoot continued to develop with evidence such as the 1967 film of the beast’s stroll through a forest (fortunately captured on a nearby camera by two men trying to film a Bigfoot). Skeptical Inquirer wasn’t yet around to report on Bigfoot ’s first steps, but reporting was well underway by the time he reached maturity. Type “Bigfoot ” into the search tool at skepticalinquirer.org to find over 200 results from noted contributors such as Kenny Biddle, Michael Dennett, Sharon Hill, Eugenie Scott, and Robert Sheaffer. You’ll also find that Paul Kurtz wrote the first SI Bigfoot article, titled “Bigfoot on the Loose: Or How to Create a Legend,” in the Fall 1980 issue. Check out the heated follow-up two issues later with a cryptozoologist (“Beckjord on Bigfoot ”) if you’d like to see Kurtz respond to someone who has accused him of making more than twenty-five mistakes. (All SI past issues are available for download with your subscription!) And, more recently, we have monstrous insights from Joe Nickell, such as “Bigfoot Lookalikes: Tracking Hairy Man-Beasts” (September/October 2013).
But here’s the thing: I’ve been subscribing to SI since 2012, and I couldn’t remember a cover featuring Bigfoot in all that time. Given that the skeptical community has been criticized for focusing too much on frivolous topics, I decided to search to see when Bigfoot last made a cover appearance (you can search here too: https://skepticalinquirer.org/archive/). Folks, it’s been over two decades since Ben’s reporting made the cover in 2002. More searching revealed only two other Bigfoot covers across the forty-seven volumes (in 1999 and 1989). By comparison, 2021 was the last time a UFO was on the cover, and at least nine other covers have featured stories on encounters with extraterrestrials.
The U.S. government (previous issue) and the Mexican government (this issue) both appear to be taking claims of encounters with extraterrestrials seriously, but they seem to care less about Bigfoot. Perhaps their apathy is related to absent findings f rom shows such as Finding Big foot and the 10 Million Dollar Big foot Bounty. To be fair, Bigfoot recently made news again with a video f rom Colorado, but this one feels different, doesn’t it? Everyone seems to be in on the joke, or at least most people seem to now realize—thanks to decades of skeptical reporting—just how easy it would be for someone to put on a costume and have some fun.