Bigfoot Is Dead!

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).