Reading the news a few days ago, I came across an article that caught my eye. It was on Fox News and it claimed a map that shows where bigfoot lives in the US. Of course, I clicked on the link and began to read with the story of Charlie in my mind. A doctoral candidate from Pennsylvania State University, Joshua Stevens, has taken information about sightings in the US from the past 92 years to plot the points on a map in regards to population density. Stevens found that densely populated areas rarely report bigfoot sightings, with most sightings occurring in sparsely populated areas. What you might expect of a secretive creature, right?
Interestingly, Stevens also included a chronological timeline of the sightings. The article points out that there was a rise in B-movies featuring bigfoot during the late 1970s and a corresponding spike in sightings. Related? There appears to be a large spike during 2000 to 2009, as well.
Check out the map for yourself (courtesy www.joshuastevens.net). What do you think?
One link led to another, and I found an interesting article from LiveScience about what Americans think about the legendary bigfoot. The Bigfoot Research Field Organization published a poll performed by Angus Reid Public Opinion to see exactly who thought what. It came up with surprising results—at least to me. Apparently close to 30 percent of Americans believe that bigfoot exists or probably exists. More males than females tend to believe in hairy fella. Maybe because they can relate? 😉
The article also talks about the different countries that have their own versions of bigfoot. That’s what’s amazing: bigfoot (or whatever they call it) exists worldwide and has for hundreds of years. There are so many tales of a bigfoot-type creature in history that it’s no wonder so many believe in the possibility of its existence. The article even addresses that and claims that tales of the supernatural are ways that we, as a species, attempt to explain the things we don’t understand. As for bigfoot, I think it’s fun to speculate and for people to believe–it adds excitement and adventure. What about you?