It’s clear that if the legendary biped is real, it’s thriving out west. – Joshua Stevens
Have you ever wanted to find Bigfoot? There's a new map for that.
A Pennsylvania State University doctoral candidate has mapped out all the Bigfoot sightings in the United States and Canada as reported by the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization from 1921 to 2013.
Joshua Stevens took information from more than 3,000 sightings in the last 92 years to plot out which areas had the most sightings of the ape-like creature. Each sighting recorded by the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization is geocoded and time stamped.
"There are distinct regions where sightings are incredibly common, despite a very sparse population," Stevens wrote on his website. "On the other hand, in some of the most densely populated areas sasquatch sightings are exceedingly rare."
Also known as Sasquatch in the United States, people have been trying to find the ape-like creature for centuries. One of the most famous pieces of "proof" of Bigfoot's existence was a 1967 short film produced by Roger Patterson and Robert "Bob" Gimlin. The filmmakers maintained that the unidentified creature in the film was a female Bigfoot.
According to a 2012 Angus Reid survey of more than 1,000 Americans, three out of 10 Americans thought Bigfoot is "definitely" or "probably" real. Even the most famous primatologist in the world confessed she is "fascinated" by Bigfoot.
"I'm not going to flat-out deny its existence," Jane Goodall told The Huffington Post in 2012. "I'm fascinated and would actually love them to exist.
"Of course, it's strange that there has never been a single authentic hide or hair of the Bigfoot, but I've read all the accounts."
Although Stevens is not fully convinced in Bigfoot's existence, mapping out the sightings showed where a Bigfoot could most likely be found if such creatures exist.
"It’s clear that if the legendary biped is real, it’s thriving out west," Stevens wrote.
Sightings in Utah are not uncommon. In 2009, John R. Salmond from Clearfield, and a member of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, explored the Ashley National Forest near the Utah-Wyoming border for signs of Bigfoot. Two weeks prior to his trip, Ryan Burns said he spotted a strange, hairy creature in the forest south of his home near Duchene.
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