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Does Bigfoot Exist? More Importantly, Does It Matter?
How an acceptance of folklore and cryptozoology can enhance our cultural insight and reveal truths about our humanity
In 1976, Jay Cochran, Jr., assistant director of the FBI’s scientific and technical services division, received a small clump of about 15 long hairs and a bit of skin from a man named Peter Byrne. Byrne asked the FBI to analyze the hairs as his team at the Bigfoot Information Center and Exhibition couldn’t. Obviously, Byrne was hoping to receive news that would confirm the hair to be Bigfoot’s. Four decades later, in 2019, the FBI declassified its file on Bigfoot, and the truth came out.
The hairs belonged to a deer. Yes, the FBI “has a file on Bigfoot,” but that file essentially says, “Nope, just a deer.” Unless there’s a new theory that Bigfoot is a strangely evolved deer relative, I don’t think that qualifies as proof. Though, it wouldn’t be the most outlandish story of Bigfoot out there.
One wild story involves an alleged experiment at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Sometime in the late 60s and early 70s, researchers from UC Berkley supposedly worked with Lawrence Livermore scientists to study several captive Bigfoot. According to the story, one of these creatures turned invisible, snuck past…
