Of course, Bigfoot is not the first fabled hominid to roam North America. “Interest in the existence of the creature is at an all-time high,” the paleontologist Darren Naish has observed, even though “there’s nothing even close to compelling as goes the evidence.” If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, it may not make a sound-but it seems someone will report that a Bigfoot knocked it over.

The most recent sighting, in June 2018, was by a woman in Florida who reported a creature that looked like “a large pile of soggy grass.” Other evidence in the database includes supposed Bigfoot scat, nests and noises. And the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization lists at least one report from every state, except Hawaii, over the past two decades. Animal Planet recently aired the finale of its popular series “Finding Bigfoot,” which lasted 11 seasons despite never making good on the promise of its title. Today, the legendary beast seems to be everywhere: You will find Bigfoot looking awfully cute this year in two children’s films: The Son of Bigfoot and Smallfoot. The paper was the first to give the mysterious animal that made the prints its memorable moniker-“Bigfoot”-and the creature has been stomping through the American imagination ever since.

The small Northern California newspaper reported that a road construction crew had discovered humanlike footprints that were a massive 16 inches long. “Giant footprints puzzle residents,” a headline in the Humboldt Times announced.

Sixty years ago this fall, Bigfoot first stepped into the public consciousness.

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