Probably like a lot of you, one of the things that really got me interested in Fortean phenomena and the unexplained was Bigfoot, especially the famous 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film shot at Bluff Creek in California — here’s a nice cleaned-up version from the Discovery Channel:

Ahh, the Zapruder film of cryptozoology — hoax or not, has any other 17-second piece of celluloid outside of JFK’s assassination ever been more hotly debated and analyzed? It has launched the imagination and curiosity of millions, to say the least. I, for one, have always been fascinated by the stories of Sasquatch, as the Native Americans called the creature; I find it interesting that there are similar legends of a wild man around the globe, be it the Yeti (the abominable snowman) in Tibet, the Yowie in Australia, the Orang Pendak in Indonesia or the Skunk Ape in Florida.

People love the Bigfoot, no doubt. Remember how much hype and publicity surrounded last year’s story about two men in Georgia having shot one? The subsequent press conference was actually carried by CNN.com. Sure it turned out to be a gorilla suit in a freezer, but hey, Bigfoot was in the mainstream press!

I recently saw this recent article at American Chronicle that theorizes that since no Bigfoot remains have ever been found that the elusive creature may be some sort of multidimensional being, able to teleport between universes, visiting various spots and jumping away before getting caught. (Before you raise your eyebrow too high, this theory has actually been around for decades!) It would explain why it’s been seen pretty much everywhere, you know, like Elvis.

Of course, in terms of this universe and this website, the big question for us (after the question if it exists at all, obviously) is whether Bigfoot is a visitor to Connecticut.

The large majority of Bigfoot reports in North America tend to come from the Pacific Northwest, where there are thousands and thousands of square miles of dense forest that could potentially serve as a habitat for a small population of undiscovered primates. At first blush, a state as small and as densely inhabited as Connecticut doesn’t seem to be a likely place for Bigfoot — but yet there have been sightings here, including a few in the 21st century.

For those interested, a few websites with alleged sightings from around Connecticut:

• Bigfoot Encounters reports a few sightings, the most recent being a “young” Bigfoot in Bristol in 2005, one crossing Route 169 in Woodstock in 2004 and one seen in Barkhamstead Forest in 2002.
• The Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization has a 16-inch footprint found in Hartford County in 2003 and a harrowing Bigfoot encounter where it chased a horse and rider in 1997.
• The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization has one sighting near East Hampton in 2004 and one over in Norwich in 2005, among some older sightings.

As with any mystery creature, until someone catches or kills a Bigfoot anywhere in the world — let alone Connecticut — the debate will continue.

In the meantime, you may have to get your Connecticut Bigfoot fix from Rocky Hill-based Synthetic Cinema International, who will be releasing the independent film Sasquatch Assault, filmed on location in Connecticut! It’s due out some time this year.