It’s funny indeed the way we chalk stuff up to “quaint Indian legend,” as if the world could never surprise us like that. I note how many come to cryptozoology by way of the paranormal and the supernatural. I’ve never been interested in science fiction, really (and not that much in fiction). The animal world, just the way it is, has been generating wonder in my life for over four decades. Like shumway10973, I just see the the sasquatch making eminent sense, just as an animal, albeit a pretty amazing one. (Considering man among them, I sometimes think of the sasquatch as a sort of “median ape,” combining characteristics of all, with the others more or less specialists. Of course if the sas’s athleticism and predatory capabilities are anything like what’s reported, that’s pretty damned amazing indeed.)

cabochris: One thing that I think gives the skeptical side of this issue problems is that they don’t see your view – as I do – as very likely the prevailing one among hunters. Skeptics have to arrange that bigfoot and nimrod never meet. They do, frequently.

Remus: all that stuff that supposedly “has never” happened with the sasquatch has – as you note – never been REPORTED. If people are afraid to report even seeing one, or finding tracks, you know the more unlikely stuff they aren’t going to be inclined to blatt about. And first you have to get out of the woods.

MattBille: I think there may be more than one population concentration. This seems an animal that finds cracks, and inhabits them, remarkably well. And of course the most intensive searching right now isn’t going on in the PNW, which might tip the scales a bit.

Might. Because our continent has lots of cracks.

and

Rillo777, I thought that was very eloquently put.

And yet … I can’t get away from thinking that sasquatch is only going to be found in an area that can conceal a breeding population of hundreds, so remote that there have been no accidental kills and sufficiently fertile as habitat that the animals may migrate within it, but never out of it through more human-infested areas That still leaves me with the Pacific Northwest.

I will bet the first taker $100 even money that, if a peer-reviewed formal description of sasquatch (which will require a holotype specimen: a whole sasquatch or a meaningful piece of one) is ever published in SCIENCE or NATURE (given the staggering importance of the find, I can’t imagine it would be published anywhere else), the specimen will have come out of the PNW.
Just one guy’s opinion.

“The man in me says shoot and resolve this matter once and for all! The Chicken in me says I might not make it out of the woods alive!”

Nicely put! I have always maintained that proof is most likely to come by way of a hunter rather than a researcher. (I also think these creatures bury their dead.)

But that’s a thought eh? These are supposedly social creatures presumably with family nearby…

What would happen to a lone hunter that took the shot?

How to go about a study of seasoned hunters that have died under unusual conditions or disappeared entirely?

Yeah, it’s speculation but it’s kind of fun to think about. Indoors. In the city…

Elk are large animals and can be very difficult to find. As an elk hunter I search for signs of elk and find them. The signs elk leave behind. So even though I may not see an elk, I know there has to be elk. And there are. Well, I have also come across what I believe to be Sasquatch sign. Often while hunting. As a matter of fact, it seems to be an easy task where I have hunted. So there must be many Sasquatch? I could relate many of my finds, but only this one for now. Far from any roads I came upon a large pile of rocks that seemed out of place. It was very foggy that evening and I just had to climb to the top of the rockpile. I will never forget what I found. A bed made of pine branches. At first I thought some fellow human engineered this. Until I discovered that the pine branches were freshly torn from the tree! Some twice as thick as my thumb. I had expected to see saw marks! Darkness was approaching and I realized that I was in someones home.

I have come across so much fresh Sasquatch sign, that I actually expect to see one eventually while hunting. I carry a big gun and I’m not exactly sure what I will do when and if that day comes? Mentally I am ready to react one way or another. I mean since I am expecting this, I will not freeze and panic. The man in me says shoot and resolve this matter once and for all! The Chicken in me says I might not make it out of the woods alive! My guess is that I will take aim at Sasquatch, but not pull the trigger. I could have killed, but choosing not to just seems right.

As far as bigfoot is concerned I definitely don’t believe he will solve any specific beliefs in origins if and when he is found. I would think that that argument would have been settled (in more than just our personal opinions) by now.

Cryptids represent a sort of last frontier to us. Finding one will aid science of course, but more than that it spurs the sense of adventure in us. For most of us, it is the great adventure that excites our imagination and it is something we can take part in from the comfort of our homes through commenting on websites, reading, or just thinking about the possibilities. When we do venture out into the woods and fields (or seas or lakes), it give us a greater appreciation of nature, however we may conceive of nature’s origins.
We don’t need bigfoot, nor does he need us. But he adds to our lives an inestimable sense of wonder that many of us have lost in adulthood because of the pressures society has places on us. He represents that “great unredeemed wilderness” Muir spoke of. He holds out the promise of freedom that Thoreau wrote about.
In many ways, he has become the icon of rugged hope that modern man conveys on known creatures like the wolf or the grizzly; only bigfoot brings us also the sense of mystery.
Perhaps that is why we pursue him; hoping to catch him and yet secretly hoping we never do.