It’s not very often that a paranormal encounter results in something tangible.

I think there’s something particularly interesting, then, about those cases and cryptids that seem more capable of leaving marks on our world (not just our psyche). The most likely culprit, when dealing with physical evidence left behind by these ethereal encounters tends to be bigfoot. I’m sure you’ve seen (and if you haven’t, you will today) bigfoot casts. For anyone unfamiliar with the term, these are plaster copies of the footprints left behind by these creatures.

Bigfoot casts are everywhere in this field.

*This large collection of casts comes from a display hosted at a national “Sasquatch Summit”*

Casts are as varied as they are numerous.

Most casts feature between three and five toes (because apparently, there’s not a standardized amount of toes on your average sasquatch), range between nine and seventeen inches across, and are around one to three inches in depth (depending on the apparent size of the creature and the material into which it was stepping).

There are many who believe no bigfoot cast should be trusted. To a degree, I agree. It’s not difficult to come up with ways to fake something like this (the main method involves wearing cutouts of oversized feet strapped to your shoes and walking around for a bit like that). Casts, however, occasionally carry distinct features that would be incredibly difficult or, in some cases, nearly impossible to replicate. Most notable are those featuring dermal ridges (those lines that you can see on your own palms and feet; your average hoaxer wouldn’t take the time to replicate these).

With this in mind, is it possible then, I wonder, that there are other casts out there that seem to provide better evidence that there may be some reality behind these stories? This is a thought that I’ve had since I was a kid and led to the beginning of my career in the paranormal. As it turns out, there are some very strange casts out there. Not all of them are of feet, either.

So, today I thought we’d talk about a couple of them. I’m here neither to prove or disprove, simply to share some of my favorite casts and my thoughts concerning them,

First up…

The Cripple Foot Cast

The above casts were made in Bossburg, Washington on November 24th, 1969.

The tracks were discovered near the Bossburg dump and seemed to show obvious signs of a deformed right foot, seemingly left misshapen following some traumatic injury. By the time news of the discovery got the attention of nearby researchers, the tracks had been mostly trampled by local sightseers.

It kicked off a bit of a frenzy, mainly, however, from people trying to capitalize off the strange footprints having been discovered. Multiple hoaxes were perpetrated in the days that followed with some residents claiming to have photographs or video footage of the injured creature, it’s sawn off right foot, and even the creature itself, recently captured and kept in an abandoned mineshaft.

Notable researchers Roger Pattinson (who, along with Bob Gimlin, captured that iconic video of a female sasquatch just two years prior), Jeff Meldrum (a well-known anthropologist and proponent of the reality of these creatures), and others are all fairly convinced of the authenticity of these particular tracks. The amount of time that would’ve had to have gone into accurately depicting this type of deformity would have been prohibitive to somebody making these in their free time simply to fool someone.

The Skookum Cast

Moving on from feet, we have the Skookum Cast. Named as such due to it’s discovery in the Skookum Meadows of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, this cast seems to show where some large animal laid on its side across a patch of mud.

The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO; most people know them from “Finding Bigfoot” on Animal Planet) discovered this print during an investigation that was being filmed for a documentary they were working on at the time. They’d taken note of a series of encounters in the area and, in the middle of a large puddle of mud, left fruit to try to lure the creature into it.

When the crew returned the following day, they found an imprint that seemed to depict some large creature laying in the mud and reaching towards the, now diminished, pile of fruit (see below for one researchers interpretation as to how the print was left).

I’m a big fan of the skookum cast. It’s very clear (to me at least, when looking at images of the full cast) where the creature’s legs were positioned and where you can almost imagine an elbow could be resting.

No examiner of this cast has ever claimed it to be a hoax. It’s very obvious that the cast shows an imprint left by someone or something that laid in that stretch of mud. However, most detractors believe (for very good reason) that the cast was probably left by an elk. Not only does the left-most portion of the cast seem to line up very well with the general shape of an elk’s hindquarters (that’s coming from scientists, not me), elk hair was discovered in the mud, embedded within the imprint.

If this one isn’t a sasquatch, it’s more likely to be misidentification.

The Bigfoot Butt print

This one’s housed at the North American Bigfoot Center.

The museum claims it was discovered in 1993 at the end of a trail of sasquatch footprints.

It’s totally, 100%, not at all just a butt print left behind by it’s “discoverer”.

If it’s real, this would be incredibly notable. I’m just not that convinced.

The Nutella Cast

*Photo sourced from the North American Bigfoot Center. Please ignore those “buttons” to either side of it. I couldn’t find a better photo so I just, kinda, screenshotted this one…*

Fair warning, this is my all-time favorite bigfoot cast, so I can be a little dramatic in telling its story.

The year is 2017 and Kentucky-based bigfoot hunter Tom Shay is setting a trap with his friends and fellow researchers. The idea is a fairly simple one. They’ve gone to their favorite bigfoot hotspot (this one, an area they refer to as the boneyard — it’s, more or less, just a place where local farmers come to dispose of livestock corpses). This particular area has been incredibly fruitful for them. They’ve captured all sorts of evidence and had dozens of experiences, but they’re looking for something a little more concrete. Surrounding an unopened jar of nutella (bigfoot is very fond of sweet treats, if you didn’t know) is a mess of sandpaper-covered PVC pipes. When bigfoot sees the nutella and is understandably coaxed into this pvc cage by it, the sandpaper will tear off some of the creatures hair and they’ll be able to collect it.

Tom and his friends set the trap, leave the nutella, and make a mental note to come by after some time has passed.

Part of me wonders if they forgot about it. They don’t come back for a month. I guess it makes sense if you think about it. Bigfoot would possibly be a little wary about checking the nutella out if it seemed like they’d be coming back pretty soon. Either way, it just seems like a long time to me. I wouldn’t have been able to resist coming back sooner.

When they come back, the trap is laying in disarray. Obviously, something large has gotten caught in it and struggled to escape. What catches Tom Shay’s eye, though, is something entirely different. The jar of nutella has not only been opened, but the tamper seal has been carefully peeled up and he thinks he can see an indentation in the exposed hazelnut spread. He goes to investigate and it seems that he’s right.

There, impressed deeply into the nutella, are four large finger-holes. Almost like some human-like creature stuck most of a very large hand into the jar to scoop out a heaping mouthful.

Shay knew he had something special. He grabbed the jar, rushed home, and threw it in his freezer. He knew he HAD to make a cast of the finger marks but wasn’t sure that the nutella was hardy enough to hold its shape against the weight of the plaster. After it froze, he poured the plaster in, waited, and carefully removed the cast seen above. In the resulting cast, you can almost make out three fingers and a thumb or pinky.

Whether or not the cast is real (be it hoaxed by Shay, one of the other members of his group, or otherwise simply eaten away at by squirrels to the point their heads left noticeable marks in the nutella as they dove deeper and deeper in), it’s a great story and an even better piece of physical evidence.

It does occasionally leave those more hardcore bigfoot fans wondering. For instance, based on sightings, researchers have come to believe that bigfoot does not have opposable thumbs. Instead of having, like humans, a thumb that sits opposed from the other fingers, bigfoot would seem to have a thumb that remains in line with the rest of its hand (like most monkeys and apes have). This type of finger arrangement lends itself very well to hanging from branches, but it makes it hard to manually operate things with any sort of fine motor control. E.G., a tamper-proof seal on a jar of Nutella. It makes one wonder, no matter how good of a cast it may be, if bigfoot really opened it, just how did it pull off that seal?

***

Just like every other part of the whole bigfoot thing, it seems like play and a sense of fun kind of rule paramount when it comes to all this. I mean, when else do you get the opportunity to press your butt in the mud, make a cast of it, and then get it displayed in a museum? Where else do you get the opportunity to make big elaborate traps? In what other profession can you discuss whether or not an elk or an undiscovered primate left that thigh imprint? That just doesn’t happen in any other field!

It doesn’t matter if it’s real in the way that most people consider things to be real. Bigfoot exists because we believe in it. And not just in the way that Santa is real because we believe in him and give gifts in his name and all that. Bigfoot is actually out there. People have encounters with these creatures all the time! Get in the right headspace, go to hotspot, and sit out there for a few days and see what happens.

Just, you know, don’t be too excited about it. Bigfoot hates that.

After all, if sasquatch wasn’t real, what’s leaving all those footprints out in the woods?

Stay weird!

-Scott