Almost a decade before the infamous Patterson-Gimlin film was shot, there were dozens of reports of large human-like footprints reported in the Pacific Northwest. Although the legend of Bigfoot dates as far back as the first settlers in North America, the news agencies in the 1950s were having a field day printing crazy headlines which included some of the weirdest stories on Bigfoot.

Such is the case for The Milwaukee Journal. On October 9th, 1958, the journal printed a story of a taxidermist in Seattle who claimed to know what it is that people were reporting for years. Al Corbett reported that from the evidence that he collected out on the field, he can only conclude that the over-sized footprints being reported actually came from a human foot. A very big human. Corbett goes on to explain his theory:

“The story behind this is that there was a mentally deficient Indian boy who was kept chained by his parents. When the boy was 17 years old, 28 years ago, he broke the chains and disappeared. The Indians found his clothes but never saw him again. They said he had extremely large feet.

…this man now must be 6 feet 7 inches to 7 feet 6 inches tall. We thought he might weigh as much as 400 pounds.”

Although the term “Indian” being used for the American Natives is now defunct (for obvious reasons), this isn’t the only time I’ve heard of this theory involving the natives. There are many stories and theories that talk about Bigfoot possibly being a feral child. A child who lost all contact with society and adapted to the wild by either mimicking animals and their survival techniques, or by actually being raised by wild animals. The possibility of a feral person existing in the North American wilderness is slim. It’s even more of a slim chance that someone could mistake a modern human with a Bigfoot –given the actual eyewitness descriptions– Even slimmer than all that is the possibility of a creature like the Bigfoot actually existing.

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