A mystery photo from the early 1960's, mysteriously submitted and unclaimed. The place was somewhere in the vast green forests of the Pacific Northwest...since then a long game of "is it?" or "isn't it?" has revolved around this, and similar images, ensuring the legend of mythos of the Bigfoot continues.
At one point in the late 1950's and early 1960's a carnival sideshow claimed a frozen young bigfoot creature. Crowds silently shuffled past the ice encrusted and frozen creature - forever caught in a twisted posture - as if warding off the demise that surely caught him.
Noted zoologists Ivan Saunderson was able - with assistants - to study the creature in the case. Detailed drawings, the best measurements capable in the setting and a photo or two were taken. He produced the first ever scientific study of an alleged creature. The findings were - unique - details were very specific for someone conducting a sideshow hoax. His conclusions , although tempered by the lack of real access to the remains (an autopsy or necropsy) and the questions the very existence of such a reality might present, did note that it laid open the path for his scientific fellows to consider the real possibility of an undiscovered hominid in the forests of the northwest.
As with all good stories - the ultimate end to this creature is clouded in mystery. It is known that the "real" or first frozen exhibit was replaced soon by a replica. A sideshow magic trick of staying one step ahead of legal steps regarding handling a dead body? The issue of a hoax being found out?
All science was left with were some detailed notes by an expert working under less than ideal conditions, attempting to do as professional a task as best he could, while remaining open minded to things still to be discovered.
Maybe one day the rest of this tale can be told...until then, the search continues...despite hoaxers and despite the tsking fingers of a scientific community that had closed its mind to possibilities yet to be found.
