“Few creatures have more speculation and anecdotal evidence surrounding them than Sasquatch does…

Before the 19th century, when stories about the mysterious “ape man” began circulating in the American West, most Native American tribes had their own legends surrounding the enigmatic creature. Sasquatch, most commonly spotted in the Pacific Northwest, is usually described as a bipedal ape-like creature, significantly larger than the average man, and completely covered in dark brown or reddish hair.

Although the scientific community remains skeptical and little evidence exists in support of a modern day Bigfoot, there are a lot of people out there who are confident that some sort of ape-man roams through the depths of North America’s most remote forests and devote their lives to finding them.” - Oregon Wild

let’s take a look at bigfoot reports in Washington over time.

There weren’t too many sightings from 1920-1960, although keep in mind that there is probably some level of reporting bias here. Things start to change around 1970

The 80s saw a lot of sightings

And from there, bigfoot sightings really took off

But where are people seeing bigfoot? We have some spatial data to help us explore that question below.

This interactive map shows reported sightings in Washington over time. You can zoom in, navigate to an area, and click on the bigfoot icons to learn more about a specific report.

There weren’t many sightings in the 1940s.

The 60s is where things get interesting…

Way more sightings in the 1970s - 1980s.

And more in the 1990s-2000s

Here’s up until 2020

L = {
  const L = await require("leaflet/dist/leaflet.js");
  if (!L._style) {
    const href = await require.resolve("leaflet/dist/leaflet.css");
    document.head.appendChild(L._style = html`<link href=${href} rel=stylesheet>`);
  }

  return L;
};
// L = require("leaflet/dist/leaflet.js");

bf_points = FileAttachment("data/bigfoot_points.geojson").json();
bfScale2 = d3.scaleLinear()
  .domain([7, 12])
  .range([1930, 2020])
  .clamp(true)
    
bf2 = bfScale2(crTriggerIndex)

div = document.createElement("div");
div.style = "height: 400px;width: 600px;";

map = L.map(div)
  .setView([47.6097, -122.3331], 5);

BigFootIcon = L.icon({
  iconUrl: 'https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/medium/3/gluten-free-cute-bigfoot-cartoon-noirty-designs-transparent.png',
  iconSize: [38, 38], // Customize size
  iconAnchor: [22, 24], // Customize the anchor
  popupAnchor: [0, -24] // Customize the popup anchor
});


map2 = L.tileLayer("https://tile.openstreetmap.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png", {
  attribution: '&copy; <a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright">OpenStreetMap</a>'
})
  .addTo(map);

fp = bf_points.features.filter(feature => {
  const year = parseInt(feature.properties.year); // Convert year to integer
  return year <= bf2;  // Only keep points with year less than or equal to bf1
});

// Add markers for each filtered point
fp.forEach(feature => {
  const lat = feature.geometry.coordinates[1]; // Latitude from GeoJSON
  const lon = feature.geometry.coordinates[0]; // Longitude from GeoJSON

  L.marker([lat, lon], { icon: BigFootIcon })
    .bindPopup(`
        <p><strong>${feature.properties.summary}</strong></p>
        <p><strong>Report Date: </strong>${new Date(feature.properties.year_as_date).toLocaleDateString()}</p>
        <p><strong>Classification: </strong>${feature.properties.classification}</p>
        <p><strong>Environment: </strong>${feature.properties.environment}</p>
        <a href="${feature.properties.url}" target="_blank">Read full report</a>
    `)
    .addTo(map);
});

Here’s the full shiny app!

Links

Data sources and site details

Authors