Archives Spotlight: Washington’s official state monster

Archives Spotlight: Washington’s official state monster

Just over 50 years ago, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin unleashed their Bigfoot video, better known as the Patterson-Gimlin film, on the world. The 59.5 seconds of original footage were met mostly with criticism and accusations—and not much has changed.

To the delight of conspiracy theorists around the world, Patterson denied hoax allegations until his death in 1972, and Gimlin still maintains the film ’s legitimacy. Pretty much everyone else, however, fully acknowledges the film was a hoax.

That certainly hasn’t stopped us from having a ton of fun with it for the last half-century, including legislators and the governor.

In February 2017, Washington State Senator Ann Rivers introduced SB 5816: Designating Sasquatch the official cryptid or cryto-animal of Washington. The bill did not advance to a floor vote. Perhaps 2018 will be its year?

Back in 1970, Governor Dan Evans wrote a proclamation designating “the Great Sasquatch” as the state monster. The proclamation was “affixed with a lock of hair from the right front shoulder of the Sasquatch.”

When the Archives received the letter with the lock of hair, we reached out to the state crime lab asking if they would test the hair sample. They basically said, “LOL, no.”

It was worth a shot. We still don’t know where the hair actually came from.

View the entire proclamation, as well as several hilarious memos and notes here.

2 thoughts on “Archives Spotlight: Washington’s official state monster

  1. A hoax? That’s a joke right? Ask Dr Jeff Meldrum or John Bindernagel if it was a hoax or perhaps Dr Grover Grantz? Meldrum is a tenured Professor at Idaho State University and Patty’s 14 inch footprints match what we see on the video. This is in fact an absolutely real breathing animal with muscle structure beneath her hair! Knees that don’t lock when she walks and also inhuman body ratios. Why did National Geographic and the Science Channel do so much research on this very film? Why would you make the best suit in the History of special effects and use the worst camera on earth? The footprints of Patty are an actual Latin named taxonomic name, and Dr Meldrum has also concluded that the mid Tarsel break of the footprints found at the film site are not even close to a humans prints. By the way, the best Hollywood special effects artist on Planet of the Apes (1967) claimed that even HE couldn’t have made the suit. Bob Heronimus’s claim to be the hoaxer has been disproven many times over. Just watch the film! Please look Up MK Davis on YouTube (greenwave2010fb) to see the best stabilized pics of Patty that are out there. She has breasts fo Gods sake!! That’s not a thing in the world of fakery! She has a leg contusion! And you claim it’s accepted as fake?! There are two
    Lawsuits as we speak (One in Canada, One in the US) to prove Bigfoot is real in a court of Law! And yet you think it’s a fake. Thinking and knowing are two different things. Please know what you are talking about before you THINK you know. Sasquatchcanada.com for more info

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