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The Skookum Cast

CreaturesGifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington, USA · September 2000Disputed

Researchers baiting for Bigfoot found a body-shaped imprint in the mud and cast it in plaster.

What was reported

In September 2000, members of a Bigfoot research expedition in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, in Washington, left fruit as bait near a muddy wallow at Skookum Meadow. The next morning they found a large imprint in the mud, as if an animal had lain on its side to reach the fruit, with shapes they read as a forearm, hip, thigh and heel.

They made a plaster cast about 1.5 metres long. Some anthropologists and primatologists who studied it said they couldn't match it to a known animal.

Explanations offered

Sceptics argue it was made by an elk lying down, noting elk tracks and hair at the site and that the shapes match an elk's body and legs. With no clear match either way, it's still argued over.

When
September 2000
Where
Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington, USA
Witnesses
A Bigfoot research expedition
Status
Disputed

Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.