It is a generally thought that the Bigfoot mystery is a recent addition to our mythgology, and that it began with the first showing of the famous Patterson film of a female Bigfoot quickly walking away from the camera. Skeptics are quick to say that the publicity bought about by the film single handedly created the Bigfoot mystery.
This is clearly not the case as i have now amassed a multitude of newspaper reports dating back to 1839. What is interesting however, are the descriptions given of the various sightings a hundred plus years ago. This was before the notion of a Bigfoot had entered the public conciousness.
The term ‘Wildman’ is commonly used in these early reports and as one witness comments , ‘His body was as hairy as that of a bear’.
There is another 19th century newspaper account of an individual convinced that he had seen a Gorilla while out hunting. Someone writes back commenting that he too had seen the ‘critter’ but he ‘walks like a man’.
The various newspaper reports can be seen here