by Scott Harper - This is the second article in this series. In the previous one, I gave my reasons for wanting to write this series. It took a bit of time to settle upon what seemed to me the best way of tackling the subject of historical Sasquatch sightings. I've decided to devote one article to each of the states, and to do so in alphabetical order. Afterward, I'll move on to Canadian Provinces, and territories. Given this order, the first state to tackle is Alabama.
Alabama seems to lack much in the way of history as far as Sasquatch sightings are concerned, however. That makes sense to me, as the North American continent was settled by Europeans from east to west. Many sasquatch could very easily have moved west, attempting to stay ahead of the invaders to North America, and to avoid encounters with them.
The higher number of more modern day sightings in eastern regions are explainable by the simple expedient of mankind delving steadily further and further into wilderness areas—ones where wildlife, including Sasquatch, dwell. Given time, it only makes sense that people would have more and more sightings of, and encounters with, Sasquatch even in areas with a lower population of them. It's the same principle that has led to black bear, cougar, and other such wildlife being seen firmly inside of modern cities.
The earliest Sasquatch sighting that I'm personally aware of from Alabama took place sometime in the 1880's. A man was fishing, and spotted what he thought to be a Sasquatch. The creature fled when it noticed the fisherman. The sighting in question took place in the Horseshoe Bend region of Bear Creek, Alabama. Bear Creek is located in Marion County, in the north-western area of the state.
From there, we leap all the way to 1953. That sighting took place in the country, in Henry County, which is in the south-eastern part of the state. The witness happened to be a young girl of around 11-years-old at the time. She saw, and later described, what sounds like a pair of juvenile Sasquatch. For the dual reasons of two creatures being seen at the same time, and that both seemed to be young, this a very interesting sighting. According to the witness, one of the beings she spotted was around 5-feet-tall. The second looked to her to be shorter, probably around 4-feet-tall. Most reports are of only one creature, and the vast majority of the ones seen appear to be adults. To see multiple juveniles at one time isn't unheard of, but it is extremely rare.
Could a large percentage of the Sasquatch population on the North American continent have migrated from east to west in an attempt to keep ahead of the expansion of European settlers, as hypothesized above? Would such a thing account for the lack of historical sightings of these creatures in some eastern states such as Alabama? If so, this might also help to explain the larger population estimates of these beings in the Pacific Northwest in present day. Might some percentage of the population, upon finding too many of their numbers crammed onto the western coast, have gone back the other way, returning eastward? This, and the population growth of those who chose not to partake in such a westward migration could account for the almost total lack of older sightings in some states in the eastern areas of America, yet explain why, in more recent decades, Sasquatch have been seen there in greater numbers.
Since the year 2000, there have been a fairly steady number of sighting reports coming from Alabama—sometimes several per year. On the other hand, prior to the 1980's such reports are very few, and often far between.
NOTE: Scott submitted Growing Up With Sasquatch - Marysville, Ohio in 2010. Here is an exclusive sneak-peek at Scott and Desirée's most recent collaberation - Hidden Tribe...Lon
Monster Trek: The Obsessive Search for Bigfoot
The Bigfoot Book: The Encyclopedia of Sasquatch, Yeti and Cryptid Primates
When Roger Met Patty
Bigfoot, Yeti, and the Last Neanderthal: A Geneticist's Search for Modern Apemen
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