My daughter and I were driving back from a friends house north of Atlanta and we were right at that point in the drive that we needed a break from the car to get up and stretch our legs. That’s when I happened to notice the sign for the Expedition Bigfoot: Sasquatch Museum. I’ll never argue with the opportunity to enjoy a different and interesting roadside attraction, so we took a short detour off the road to go and visit the museum.
The museum is nestled in the foothills of the mountains of northern Georgia. It serves as not only a museum but also a research and reporting center into the elusive creature called Bigfoot, Sasquatch, or Yeti- depending on where in the world you are.
We walked up to the door and were met with lines of colorful prayer flags and hiking equipment that have been on research treks looking for bigfoot. Admission to the museum is $8/adult and $6/children.
We purchased our tickets and stopped to examine the map of sightings on the wall. The map only covered a small area including the northern part of Georgia and corners of Tennessee and North Carolina. It was amazing to see how many sightings there had been in this area.
This museum is home to the largest collection of footprint casts in the world. Throughout the museum all the casts give an idea of just how big the foot of bigfoot really is. The term bigfoot came from a crew of loggers in California in 1958 who all claimed to have seen giant footprints set in the ground through the forest they were working in along with odd unexplained instances happening around their job site. They began referring to ‘Bigfoot’ as the culprit of the instances and the owner of the footprints.
Stories of these giant ape like creatures are not new but have been a common element in folktales for centuries. Indigenous cultures across North America have all had stories about a mysterious hairy creature that wanders through the forest. In some cultures the creature is a shapeshifter there to protect the forest while other cultures see the creature as more threatening and destructive. These tales of the creature can be found in indigenous artwork from many different tribes and areas.
Nearly every corner of North America has legends and stories told of encounters and sightings of Sasquatch. This led a lot of bigfoot researchers to believe that it was not just one creature, but actually an entire species of massive sized creatures that had spread out in all directions. Each part of the country seems to have a different idea on the physical appearance of Bigfoot , so researchers think there was some amount of adaptation within the species. Researchers come together to compare notes and learn from each other in their continued search for Bigfoot.
The museum has a section where visitors can listen to people tell about their encounter with Sasquatch. There is another section where a row of headsets allows you to hear recordings of the creatures themselves, communicating through the forest with others like them. Because this is an official reporting center, the museum offers a number for people to call and report their encounter with Sasquatch.
On one wall is a glass case with the massive sized skull that was found in a cave in Mexico in the early 1900’s. Supposedly the skull was in a cave surrounded by bones twice the size of regular human bones. It was believed to belong to an ancient race of giant like people. But for the believers, there could be nothing so concrete of evidence as this skull.
Whether you are a skeptic, believer, or knower of the existence of Sasquatch the museum is an interesting look at this larger than life icon and the firm place it holds in our ideas about the mysterious and unexplained. Are the bumps in the night a passing animal or are they something larger and harder to explain…something perhaps that leaves a very large footprint in the ground.
If you are a believer or if you are interested in the possibility of other such phenomenon, then you may be interested in these places:
UFO Museum and Research Center- Roswell, New Mexico
The Voodoo Queen- New Orleans, Louisiana
The Mermaids- Weeki Wachee, Florida
Thanks for joining me on this visit to the Expedition Bigfoot: Sasquatch Museum. May the skeptical give way to the power of possibility.
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