The RFP Research Project (RFPRP)
A History of Bigfoot In Alabama
Does Alabama have any history of a Bigfoot like creature?
Do you believe the Sasquatch/Bigfoot creature has only been seen in the Pacific Northwest?
Do you believe, there was never anything like that in the southern states?
Do you believe Bigfoot is not and never has been in Alabama?
You may be wrong!
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To really look at the history of the state you have to look back to a time before the first european explorers set foot on what is now known as Alabama.
Native Americans had been living in this area for thousands of years before Columbus set sail for the new world.
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The history of Native Americans is so vast that I could never come close to even covering a small part of it. I will try to cover a part in relation to the subject of what we call Bigfoot.
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Did you know the name "Alabama" is a Muskogean Indian word?
It meant "campsite" or "clearing," and became used as a name for one of the major tribes in the area, the Alabama (or Alabamee) Indians. The Alabama Indians were not the only native people of this region.
The original inhabitants of the area that is now known as Alabama included:
*The Alabama tribe
*The Biloxi tribe
*The Cherokee tribe
*The Chickasaw tribe
*The Choctaw tribe
*The Koasati tribe
*The Muskogee (Creek) tribe
Most Native Americans were forced to leave Alabama during the Indian Removals of the 1800's. These tribes are not extinct, but except for the descendants of Alabama Indians who escaped from the Removal, they do not live in Alabama anymore. They were moved to Indian reservations in Oklahoma and Texas instead. The "Trail of Tears" is a sad note in American History.
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We call this creature Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Swamp-ape, Wooley Booger, Hairy Man and Monster.
The name Sasquatch is an Americanized translation of a Salish word that means Wild Man of the Woods.
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Here are some of the names used for these creatures by some of the southern tribes:
eeyachuba (wild man) - Alabama-Coushatta
ha'yacatsi (lost giants) - Caddo
kecleh-kudleh (hairy savage) - Cherokee
nun yunu wi (the stone man) - Cherokee
lofa (smelly, hairy being that could speak) - Chickasaw
kashehotapalo (cannibal man) - Choctaw
nalusa falaya (big giant) - Choctaw
shampe (monster giant) – Choctaw
honka (hairy man) - Creeks
yeahoh (monster) – Mosopelea
Special thanks to Kathy Moskowitz Strain for the hard work and research in providing this list. Kathy has a M.A. in Anthropology and is a forest archaeologist for the Stanislaus National Forest in Sonora, California. Her main research interest involves the traditional Native American stories involving the "Hairy Man," as well as the application of archaeological methods to the study of bigfoot.
Note: It also seems that some Native Americans of today refer to these creatures as "skillies".
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It would seem that the Native Americans had knowledge of these creatures and had given the creatures a name. I find the Chickasaw name very interesting: lofa (smelly, hairy being that could speak).
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There is no way of knowing how many encounters with these creatures took place in past years.
As the first settlers moved into Alabama there was no news media like we have today to report the sightings that took place. Mail was just about un-heard of and there were no phones, radio, and no internet. Stories about things that took place in other places were carried along by travelers that came through small communities and towns.
The first settlers traveled by boat or used the Indian trade routes and traveled by foot or horse back. News traveled very slow and most of it by "word of mouth". I am sure that stories of the "hairy men" were told around many a camp fire back in those days.
Moving Forward
As more and more settlers moved into the area things improved.
Settlements spread and roads connecting them improved. Traveling was still slow and news still traveled slowly. In many cases something that happened in one community or town did not travel outside of the area in which it happened. Most of the larger towns sprung up along the rivers of the state. Traveling by boat was the fastest and easiest way to travel long distances. It was not without its dangers as many people parished during trips up and down the rivers.
Things got better. Steam boats started traveling the rivers and railroads started laying tracks. Things changed fast in the new world and Alabama was part of the change. Towns grew, land was cleared, roads built, farming became big, and "cotton was king". This brought about one part of Alabama history that I think all could have done without. What folks will do for greed and the love of money seems to have no end.
As the towns grew, a need of a local news printer and editor was seen. Now things that happened could be printed and carried to the different towns and communities and settlements. This did not mean that everything got printed. Small towns and communites did not have a big demand for editors and a printing presses so many things that happened stayed in that town or community and was passed along "word of mouth". Most of these stories faded away, as the people that told them grew old and passed on themselves.
The news papers, did for the first time, print and record some of these encounters. You have to remember that those that had lived in this area for thousands of years had been driven out, and with them, the knowledge and history that had been passed down for generations.
To the new comers "us", everything that was not openly known or written about by "the leading scientific leaders of the time" and the well educated, was dismissed as pure nonsense. Anyone who came into a town with a story about seeing a wild hairy man along the road was most likely thought to be crazy. Everyone "knows" there is no such creature out there like that.
This is something that still remains with us today. This is why so many sightings and encounters with these creatures still to this day, go un-reported, not discussed, not talked about, and the story is surely not taken to a news paper editors that will add his or her own little comments about anyone coming in with a story like this. After this happens to one person anywhere and it is read about, people will not let themselves or their mental condition become the item of discussion or jokes. They may or may not tell anyone about what they saw. In most cases, if someone does tell the story, it is to someone they know and trust very well and that is as far as it goes.
There was a time that some editors remained open minded enough to the possiblity that not everything out there has been bagged and tagged and put in a box someplace. Here are a few examples:
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THE CONSTITUTION: ATLANTA, GA.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1894
May Be The West End Panther.
A special from Preston, Ala. says some strange unknown animal is abroad in that section.
The strange creature is about the size of a two-year-old calf and very wide across the back.
It is of a blackish hue. It makes a variety of noises. Sometimes it goes much like an owl, then it barks like a dog.
Occasionally, too, it caws like a crow. It is as wild as a deer and although many have seen the strange beast, nobody has ever gotten a shot at it.
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The Modesto Bee
FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 1936
GORILLA FAMILY HUNT IS IN VAIN
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ANNISTON, Ala. April 15 (UP)
Sheriff W. P. Cotton dismissed a posse of "wild man" hunters today and reported that an all day search for a strange gorilla like family in a Choccolocca Valley swamp was in vain.
Cotton led a group of farmers and citizens into the swamp after rural residents reported seeing a man, woman and child whose bodies were covered with hair and at times walked on all fours.
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Fisherman sees Bigfoot jump into creek once it knew it was being observed. The incident occurred in the Horseshoe Bend area in the 1880's.
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In 1948 5 boys saw an 11 foot tall Bigfoot in the swamp near Mobile.
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THE SOUTH ALABAMIAN
Jackson, Alabama *** December 23, 2004
Story of ‘hairy man’ passed down through generations
Editor’s note: The South Alabamian’s request for Bigfoot stories or sightings has
produced a lot of talk but few first-hand reports of the beast. However, this story of
sightings of "Hairy Men" from the early 20th century are interesting.
Could the "Hairy Man" be a Bigfoot?
By Mera Roberts
My siblings and I grew up hearing "Hairy Man" stories. My mother, Clara Odie Anderson Roberts, is almost 90 years old and still has a sharp mind. She lives in the Jackson Health Care Facility and can tell you these things herself.
When she was young, a black man named Dan Scruggs lived near Uncle Tom Purvis’ place on the other side of Friendship, a community which was between Coffeeville and the Witch Creek area. One day he left his house to go to a nearby spring, taking his gun with him. A short time later he arrived back at his home, running andout of breath. He was very frightened, and could only say, "Hairy Man, Hairy Man." As he had neared the spring he saw a "Hairy Man" there and he left in such haste that he left his gun there near the spring.
One day, mother’s oldest brother, Chamlers Anderson, and Elmore Bedwell, were returning to their home after having visited the Roberts family who lived in the area. About halfway between the Roberts place and the Ida Bedwell place, they saw a "Hairy Man" sitting on a log that was over a ravine. I suspect they lost no time getting to their respective homes. This also happened when mother was young. I’m wondering if other relatives or descendants of the people who actually saw the "Hairy Man" might also have heard the stories told and passed down in their families. My oldest sister, Inez, remembers Grandma Anderson (my Mother’s Mother) telling her something that happened when Grandma’s oldest child (Chalmers) was a baby. Grandma said she was walking to a relative’s house and carrying Uncle Chalmers and she walked up on a big hairy ape sitting on a log and holding its head with its hands. When Grandma walked up, it just got up and ambled off into the woods. Grandma said she figured it must have escaped from a circus somewhere and that it may have been sick.
Could this have been a "Hairy Man" or a Bigfoot? The baby (my uncle) who was being carried was born Dec. 30, 1907 so Grandma’s encounter with the "big hairy ape" was probably around 1908. All of these sightings occurred in the Friendship area.
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I am sure there are many more out there that have been forgotten.
More and more sightings and reports are showing up on the internet from all over the country.
I just wanted to show those interested, that Bigfoot in Alabama is not something new. This creature has been here a long time and continues even today.
My Thanks to: Tirademan (BFF) for helping locate some of the old news articles.
C.M.McLain