Introduction

Abstract

This story tells of dreams that do not come true. It is a story about spending one’s life pursuing something and never catching it. It is a story about chasing monsters. These monsters are apish and disturbingly like us. They have stalked the dark parts of the human psyche, as well as forests, for millennia. If they are real, they are older than we are, yet they leave behind only footprints and questions. They have appeared around the world and by various names, including Yeti, Almasti, Sasquatch, Hibagon, Windigo, Agogwe, Orang-Pendek, Bigfoot, and many others. Like shadows in the rain, these hard to explain animals are said to show up in places and in forms conventional wisdom says they should not. Some believe them real animals, while others scoff at them as so much foolishness. They can be collectively known as manlike monsters, mystery apes, or anomalous primates. The story, however, concerns more than just the startling and controversial nature of monsters and monster hunting in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, but the more important relationship between the academic scientists and amateur naturalists who hunt them, and the historiography of unusual scientific evidence. This discourse exists outside of whether Bigfoot is a biological reality, a piece of indigenous performance art, or a creature of pop culture.

I know, Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life.

Sherlock Holmes, 1891