Original subtitles

>> NARRATOR: It's huge...

(roar)

...it's hairy,

and it's been hiding for

centuries.

(roar)

>> KEN STORCH: I could see a

creature of sorts standing,

looking back at me.

It was a dark shaped shadow.

>> NARRATOR: But is the legend

known as Bigfoot real?

>> WILLIAM BARNES: I know

they're real.

Nobody can convince me

differently.

>> NARRATOR: Or is it a hoax?

>> JEFF MELDRUM: I think the

reported sightings are just the

tip of the iceberg.

>> NARRATOR: Could the facts be

so provocative that even the

government doesn't want you to

know the truth?

>> WILLIAM JEVNING: If there's

any sort of a concerted cover-up

at higher levels, we simply

don't know at this point.

>> NARRATOR: There are those who

believe in the existence of a

book.

A book that contains the most

highly guarded secrets of the

United States of America.

A book... whose very existence

is known to only a select few.

But if such a book exists, what

would it contain?

Secret locations?

Secret programs?

Secret experiments?

Does there really exist

America's Book of Secrets?

>> NARRATOR: Flathead County,

Montana.

August 26, 2012.

At 10:30 p.m., a teenage girl

drives down U.S. Highway 93.

Suddenly, she spots a mysterious

ape-like figure emerging from

the dark.

It moves towards her, then

steps right into the beams of

her headlights.

Unable to stop, the girl's car

strikes the creature and knocks

it to the ground.

(shout)

The vehicle behind her runs

right over it.

First responders quickly

determine that the strange,

mutilated corpse is a man named

Randy Lee Tenley, dressed in the

military issue camouflage-- or

ghillie suit-- to look like

Bigfoot.

But why?

>> RO SAHEBI: Randy Lee Tenley

was set on creating convincing

Bigfoot footage.

He was determined to create a

viral video and, when crossing

the road, was tragically struck

by a car.

With the popularity of YouTube

and viral videos, there has been

a-a dramatic increase in hoaxing

in the Bigfoot field.

It's unfortunate that Randy Lee

Tenley was killed.

Some people are willing to go to

extremes to create viral videos,

in the quest to have that

million hits drawn to your

YouTube channel.

That kind of traffic is worth

thousands of dollars to the

owner of the YouTube channel.

(growling)

>> NARRATOR: Could the real

secret behind the Bigfoot legend

be not that the beast truly

exists, but that it's all an

elaborate hoax perpetuated by a

multimillion dollar industry?

>> JEVNING: The Bigfoot business

has actually grown exponentially

over the years.

Everybody's writing books.

There's all kinds of radio

shows.

It's since become quite, um,

a large business these days.

The prospect of becoming rich

and famous has always muddied

the waters, uh, in terms of

research, and-and it's

especially pronounced today.

>> SAHEBI: One of the biggest

brands today in America is

Bigfoot.

We see it growing everywhere.

There are entire communities

built about the Bigfoot

folklore.

We have Bigfoot museums.

We have Bigfoot roadside

attractions.

>> NARRATOR: Bigfoot is the

subject of hundreds of

television shows, both fiction

and nonfiction.

Bigfoot also serves as a popular

TV pitchman, selling everything

from monster trucks to sub

sandwiches.

>> SAHEBI: Corporate America has

begun to embrace Bigfoot as a

brand, and it's free to use.

So it's not surprising that more

and more people are putting

Sasquatch in their product.

Bigfoot is a big economy.

>> MAN: The Abominable Snowman--

or as this creature is known in

North America, Bigfoot.

>> NARRATOR: The commercialism

of the Bigfoot legend began in

1967...

(screams)

...with the publication of the

so-called Patterson-Gimlin film.

Even though the creature seen in

the 60-second clip is believed

by some to be nothing more than

a man wearing a costume, it

commands tens of thousands of

dollars in licensing fees.

In the years since, Bigfoot has

also become a movie star.

But why does the creature's

popularity continue to grow?

>> SAHEBI: There's nothing

scarier to me than something

that could be possibly real.

Jaws made people scared to go

into the water.

Bigfoot makes people scared to

go into their own backyard.

>> EDUARDO SANCHEZ: My

fascination with Bigfoot is

based on the idea that there is

something out there that we

don't know and there is this

semi-intelligent creature that

has kind of kept out of, um, the

public eye for so long.

There's obviously something

curious about what's been going

on and all the credible

eyewitness reports.

>> NARRATOR: According to a

recent poll, nearly 30% of all

Americans believe that Bigfoot

actually exists, a belief that

is made stronger by the fact

that there are over one million

square miles of federally

protected wilderness in the

United States.

Could this be what drives us to

continue searching for the

legendary beast?

Can thousands of reported

sightings, dating back more than

a century, all be dismissed?

Perhaps the real proof lies in

eyewitness accounts.

>> STORCH: I could see about 50

yards into the woods a creature

of sorts standing, looking back

at me.

It was a dark shaped shadow.

I could make the outline of a

humanoid form.

>> JEVNING: Less than 15 feet in

front of me was this huge,

manlike creature covered with

hair, and I-I had a pretty good

idea that this was about 800

pounds and about eight feet

tall.

I didn't know what to think.

I froze.

>> BARNES: Well, I thought it

was a bear in the beginning

until it got about 30 feet

from the car.

My heart was beating so hard

that I could hear it in my ears.

And actually, it was scary.

Very strange.

I mean, I know they're real.

Nobody can convince me

differently.

>> NARRATOR: According to

Bigfoot researchers, there are

approximately 200 reported

sightings of Bigfoot each year.

But they believe an even greater

number of encounters go

unreported, as many are afraid

to come forward for fear of

ridicule.

>> MELDRUM: I think that the

reported sightings are just the

tip of the iceberg.

>> ANNA NEKARIS: I thought if

people saw Bigfoot, they would

tell people.

But I have now had many e-mails

claiming I was the only person

they'd ever told because they

feared being crazy.

And that's a very large sample

size of e-mails, so it's clear

there's a lot of people in the

world who don't tell.

(sirens wailing)

>> PAUL BARTHOLOMEW: Several

police officers, uh, had to wait

20 years before they would even

come forward with their sighting

because they were afraid it

would interfere with their work.

They have everything to lose and

nothing to gain by coming

forward with their experience.

>> DR. MICHAEL SCHERMER: I have

spoken to many pro-Bigfoot

people, and I absolutely

believe that they believe.

No question about it.

I think they're just simply

mistaken about what they believe

and now we know enough about

cognitive psychology to know how

easy it is to self-deceive.

We just need a body.

Blurry photographs, grainy

videos and stories about things

that go bump in the night at

3:00 in the morning in your tent

do not constitute evidence in

science.

>> NARRATOR: But proponents of

Bigfoot argue that the evidence

goes much further than blurry

photographs and campfire

stories.

>> BARTHOLOMEW: This phenomena

has a lot of tantalizing clues

and evidence that would lead you

to believe that it's a physical

phenomena.

We not only have eyewitness

sightings but we also have

physical things like footprints.

We have hair samples that have

been collected and haven't been

classified.

>> GARY: All right, I'm gonna

set a shot.

Let me know how you make out.

>> NARRATOR: In recent years,

Bigfoot hunters have been

encouraged by new evidence and,

using newly available GPS and

night vision technology, they

have stepped-up their search for

the creature also known as

Sasquatch.

But is the animal they're

looking for simply rare and

reclusive?

Or is it something that the

U.S. government does not want

them to find?

(growl)

>> NARRATOR: Upstate New York.

November 3, 2012.

In a remote location deep in the

forests of the 6.1 million-acre

Adirondack State Park, a team of

six hunters prepares for the

night's expedition.

Their prey:

the legendary creature many

believe is the most elusive

animal in America: Bigfoot.

Led by investigator Steve Kulls,

their mission is to gather

evidence to prove that Bigfoot

really exists.

>> GARY: From the other previous

missions that we've done, um,

this seems to be the area

that-- of most activity.

All right, so we have a clear

shot?

All right, golden.

Lock it down right there.

Thank you.

>> NARRATOR: The researchers

quickly set up a sophisticated

network of recording devices in

an area they believe is

inhabited by the creature who

is also known as Sasquatch.

>> STEVE KULLS: Time is 7:25

p.m.

The date is November 3, 2012.

We're on the, uh, Sasquatch

Mission, Research Area 1, and,

uh, we're good to go.

>> NARRATOR: Unlike other

Bigfoot hunters, this team

believes the secret to catching

the mysterious man-ape is to

not chase it but lure it in.

>> GARY: If we push after them,

we're gonna scare them away.

So if we can slowly just get

them to come to us, then, you

know, our work's done.

>> KULLS: We're gonna do a DNA

trap tonight.

Primates have two ecstasy taste

centers: first is salty, second

one is sweet.

We always like our candy, as

primates.

So if they eat the candy off the

stick, the stick gets left

behind-- we'll have a saliva

sample on these sticks.

So there you have the marriage

of the technologies, DNA with

photographic evidence, video

evidence and audio evidence.

>> NARRATOR: Steve Kulls and

his crew have been conducting

Sasquatch hunts for over five

years, and though they've never

captured irrefutable evidence of

the creature, he's certain that

they've had some close

encounters.

>> KULLS: Remember I was taking

a shot and we kept hearing

something moving and I was

turning the camera?

Well, the first shot you see

the eye.

I-It was... I think it was

walking sideways 'cause you got

one eye.

>> MIKE: Yeah.

>> KULLS: And it was back

between a couple of trees.

And then when I took the second

picture, it was closer.

So it was pretty freaky.

>> NARRATOR: They attempt to

bait Bigfoot into their

"technology trap" by mimicking

the sounds it is believed to

make when communicating with

others of its kind.

>> KULLS: What we're gonna do

now is make some noise, knock

some trees and then wait, listen

and see if we get anything

walking around us, making some

calls back, some tree knocks

back, whatever.

(knocking)

That's a good idea.

(indistinct chatter)

We got 'em out there.

As long as they're out there,

they've got a chance at filming

it.

(distant tree knock)

(distant tree knock)

>> KULLS: Go.

>> GARY (over walkie): We have

something that's... it's-it's

almost right in front of us.

We can... It's going back and

forth here.

(distant tree knock)

>> KULLS: That's what they do.

(whoop, distant tree knock)

>> KULLS: Gary, did you just

make a tree knock?

>> GARY: No, I heard that.

Right before I just made a

whoop, there was another knock.

>> STACY (over walkie): We got

it on the parabolic.

>> KULLS: Are we recording

the parabolic?

>> STACY: Yep, yep.

>> KULLS: Yeah.

>> NARRATOR: Although the U.S.

government does not officially

acknowledge the existence of

Bigfoot, new laws regarding its

safety and survival have

appeared on both the state and

county level.

For example, while it is legal

to shoot a Bigfoot in Texas,

it's not allowed in Skamania

County, Washington, or

Whitehall, New York.

A curious contradiction?

Or are these laws evidence of a

more secret agenda?

>> KULLS: There's a lot of talk

about people shooting a

Sasquatch-- is it legal?

Is it illegal?

As an investigator who's had to

work with laws before, I would

vent it as kind of a gray area.

It depends a lot on states.

It's not necessarily a federal

law, 'cause in some cases a

state law could supersede a

federal law.

So it's really hard to say what

would be legal and what wouldn't

be.

There's been statements by the

government in New York recently

that said that Sasquatch would

be protected.

>> NEKARIS: If anyone did prove

their existence, they would fall

under the normal laws regulating

protected species.

They probably are extremely

rare, and therefore even more so

these laws should be instigated

if one or more species of these

cryptic hominoids were found.

>> NARRATOR: On June 10, 1982,

Paul Freeman, a U.S. Forestry

Service employee, did what no

other government employee has

ever done: he went public with

his sighting of a Sasquatch.

(brush crunching)

>> MELDRUM: Because his

encounter occurred while on

official business for the

National Forest Service, they

had to address the issue.

On the one hand, they

acknowledged that there had been

other reports of such sightings,

such encounters in that region

and footprints found.

They'd, however, brought a

Border Patrol tracker in to

evaluate the evidence, and he

was very critical of the

footprint evidence and

essentially dismissed it as

being a hoax.

>> NARRATOR: Dr. Jeff Meldrum is

a professor of anthropology at

Idaho State University and is a

leading expert on foot

locomotion in apes and hominids.

>> MELDRUM: Now, I've

familiarized myself with his

report, and on every point that

he took exception, it was some

point of deviation from the

expected morphology of a human

trackway, and deviating in

exactly the way I would predict,

given the distinctions of the

Sasquatch foot.

I don't doubt Mr. Hardin's skill

as a man-tracker, but when it

came to evaluating Sasquatch

tracks, he did not have the

wherewithal to evaluate them

accurately.

>> NARRATOR: When Dr. Meldrum

visited the site, he was

stunned by what he discovered in

the strange 15-inch footprints.

>> MELDRUM: It really literally

set me back on my heels.

As I knelt down and I could see

the remarkable detail-- even the

ridge pattern on the sole of the

foot preserved in some places--

I could see the-the slippage

and-and gripping of the toes.

Very obvious toe animation.

These were things that-- given

my background, my specialized

training in the evolution of

human bipedalism-- literally

jumped out.

And as the realization set in,

the hair literally stood up on

the back of my neck.

My gosh, this creature walked by

here.

>> NARRATOR: Dr. Meldrum

determined that the tracks had

not only been made by a living

creature but that they appeared

to be those of an enormous

bipedal ape.

>> MELDRUM: We quickly made some

casts showing the interaction of

the foot with the soil, showing

very dramatic evidence of a

mid-tarsal break or a mid-foot

flexibility, which proved to be

so significant in inferring a

model of the distinctions of the

anatomy of the Sasquatch foot.

So it was a very impressive

first exposure, and we were able

to glean a lot of information

from this extraordinary

footprint find.

>> NARRATOR: Could these strange

footprints be the strongest

evidence yet that Bigfoot really

exists?

>> NEKARIS: There's even a

science now that you can name a

species from its prints.

There are plenty of fakes out

there, but there are some that

do seem to be real.

And the ones that are real are

very impressive.

>> NARRATOR: Studying the foot

structure further, Dr. Meldrum

theorizes that without a

mid-tarsal break, the creature

would walk with a gliding

motion, similar to that

reported by eyewitnesses.

>> MAN: I see this very tall,

dark-haired creature swiftly,

quickly walking from one tree to

the next tree...

>> MELDRUM: One of the things

that many eyewitnesses note when

viewing a Sasquatch walking is

the remarkable smoothness of

their gait.

They lack that characteristic

bobbing of the head that is the

result of us literally vaulting

over a relatively stiff extended

leg.

>> STORCH: It was a very fluid

motion of the muscles.

It was poetry in motion.

>> BARNES: Fluid.

I mean, when it walked up the

side of the hill, I mean, it was

just graceful.

It was like nobody could do what

it could do when it walked.

And it didn't walk like an ape

and it didn't walk like a man.

It was like more of...

in-between, I guess you could

say.

>> NARRATOR: Are the numerous

eyewitness accounts of Bigfoot

further evidence that the

legendary beast really does

exist?

Or could the government be

secretly covering up physical

evidence left behind?

>> NARRATOR: Steve Kulls, a.k.a.

the Squatch Detective,

and his team of investigators

are several hours into their

hunt for Bigfoot in upstate New

York.

They've heard some tree

knocks and mysterious footsteps,

and now believe Bigfoot may be

circling their camp.

>> KULLS: So they're moving

around us.

They're walking around.

So the whole idea is to keep

getting 'em closer and keep

getting 'em to go to the

technology.

(walkie beeps)

Go.

Roger that.

Start making a turn in.

(vehicle passing)

>> GARY: The car went down the

road.

>> KULLS: Roger that.

They're spooked.

>> MIKE: They can't see it.

I don't know where it is.

>> NARRATOR: Sensing the

mysterious creature in their

midst has been frightened off,

the team gathers to analyze what

they've observed.

>> GARY: We basically had some

activity in front of us.

We had a, uh... a tree knock

while you guys were over there.

We saw what looked like to be

some eye shine, but it was

pretty far off.

With his I.R. in his camera, we

couldn't see that far.

>> MIKE: Which is right outside

of the capability of my light.

>> KULLS: It'd be something to

see a shadow or some eye shine

off the I.R. moving around in

there.

Combine that with the pictures.

>> MIKE: We saw something out

there, yeah.

>> GARY: Yeah, we don't know

what it was.

When the car started coming down

the road, it seemed like it

pushed it back toward us a

little bit, but then...

>> MIKE: It seemed to have moved

all around us and then it was

shh and then it just got quiet.

>> KULLS: Well, tonight we

started some tree knocking, did

some vocalizations, and we'd

gotten a few knocks in return.

Now, whether it was a deer, we

can't rule out.

Maybe even a bear.

We'll go through the audio.

We'll go through the video.

Other than that, that's what we

got.

>> NARRATOR: Reports and home

videos of Sasquatch sightings

come from all over America.

And although these reports go

back hundreds of years, the

public didn't pay much attention

to them until a series of events

occurred in 1958 in Bluff Creek,

California.

>> JEVNING: That area was

opened up to logging for the

first time.

A bulldozer operator by the

name of Jerry Crew cast some

16-inch footprints that he found

along his equipment one day, and

this got into the Eureka,

California, newspaper.

>> NARRATOR: Bluff Creek locals

had been calling the creatures

"Big Apes" ever since the 1920s,

but when Jerry Crew told The

Humboldt Times that the

footprints he found must have

been made by an animal with a

really "big foot," the term

"Bigfoot" was coined.

>> BARTHOLOMEW: The Bigfoot

phenomena can be tracked back to

ancient times from the Algonquin

and the Iroquois legends of the

giant men of the mountains.

And these sightings go right on

through into the 1800s, in which

these creatures were called

"Wild Men" or "Strange Bears."

So we have a very rich history

of the Bigfoot phenomena in the

United States and throughout the

world.

>> NEKARIS: You even see

paintings in Native American

cave art of creatures that look

like a Sasquatch.

There are very nice recordings

of these creatures in settlers'

diaries moving out to the

western United States.

For me, they're so believable

because those people hadn't seen

television.

They didn't have any conception

of what this thing was, and they

all are described in the same

way.

>> NARRATOR: The search for

Sasquatch in America is

primarily a private enterprise.

No U.S. government agency has

ever acknowledged looking for

the mysterious hominid, but

could there be agents inside the

government hiding evidence of

its existence?

The former President of the

Pacific Coast

Investigation Team and the

author of three books on

Bigfoot believes the answer is

yes.

>> JEVNING: There's quite a

range of stories, and-and it

does appear that there's some,

uh, some serious things going

on at high levels.

>> NARRATOR: According to

Jevning, one of the most

suspicious incidents occurred in

1995, when two of Jevning's

fellow investigators came across

some tracks on an access road

near Mount St. Helens in

Washington state.

>> JEVNING: They knew instantly

they weren't bear tracks.

The size obviously was a

giveaway.

On the way out, they encountered

a Forest Service supervisor, and

they told him where to find the

tracks.

Then they went to pick me up.

So from the time they found the

tracks to the time I arrived on

the scene with them spanned

about four hours.

We went into the location,

tracks were gone.

And I could tell the road had

been misted.

In other words, they wiped the

tracks out without making it

look like they'd been done, and

I couldn't figure out why in the

world they would want to destroy

the tracks.

>> NARRATOR: But if the

existence of Bigfoot is being

covered up by government

officials, who would be doing

it?

>> JEVNING: In these incidents

with the cover-ups, it was

Forest Service personnel.

At least they were wearing

Forest Service uniforms.

If there's any sort of a

concerted cover-up at higher

levels, we simply don't know at

this point.

>> MELDRUM: One of my closest

colleagues, John Mionczynski, is

a wildlife consultant.

He was working for the Fish &

Game in the state of Wyoming,

and his job was threatened

because of his involvement in an

investigation of footprints

and-and an encounter.

And so for 28 years, he was

silent on the subject.

>> NARRATOR: Are there really

forces within the U.S.

government that are trying to

keep the existence of Bigfoot a

secret?

If so, why?

>> KULLS: I can understand why

the government may not want

these things to come forward

as-as a legitimate, bona fide

creature.

And that's because the

government wants to protect our

logging industry, which-- if

this creature is proven to

exist-- definitely will have an

environmental impact on the

logging industry.

>> JEVNING: You hear it often

said "follow the money."

>> NARRATOR: Could this really

be the answer?

That if Bigfoot was proven to

exist, its classification as an

endangered species would have

devastating consequences for the

American economy?

Consider this: in 1990, when

the spotted owl was put under

the protection of the Endangered

Species Act, the Pacific

Northwest timber industry nearly

went bankrupt overnight.

>> JEVNING: It essentially

killed that industry.

Those communities up and down

the coast have never been the

same since then.

They never recovered from that

financial loss.

>> NARRATOR: But if the

existence of Bigfoot is being

covered up by the government,

could there be an even more

secret motivation?

And what kind of creature might

it actually be?

A missing link?

A hybrid human?

Or could Bigfoot be from a

different world altogether?

Coming up...

>> NARRATOR: Edinburgh,

Scotland.

July 13, 2011.

At the annual TEDGlobal

conference, hundreds of

attendees from over 30 countries

gather to hear evolutionary

geneticist Svante Paabo expand

on his theory that modern man

and Neanderthal interbred

somewhere in the Middle East

between 37,000 and 86,000 years

ago.

His findings indicate that all

non-African humans have about

2.5% of Neanderthal DNA and

concluded that there may be

future discoveries of DNA from

other hominids.

Could one of these so-called

"other hominids" be the creature

we call Bigfoot?

>> NEKARIS: Maybe modern humans

are fascinated with Bigfoot

because deep within our

evolutionary lineage we always

lived side by side with other

primates and we're just missing

something within our

evolutionary roots and we want

to-to see these creatures

living side by side with us.

I'm not really sure, but it

really touches something deep

within people, and it's hard to

explain why it should be so

deep.

>> BARTHOLOMEW: Even if the

footprint evidence, the hair

samples, the credible

eyewitness-- even if you got rid

of all that, there's still an

interest in why do we see

monsters.

This is a global phenomena.

It seems to be part of our

psyche.

There is sort of an intoxication

with this phenomena and the-the

monster reports.

>> NARRATOR: For others like

Steve Kulls, the search for

Bigfoot is a quest for the

truth.

Kulls used to be a skeptic but

now dedicates his skill as a

private investigator to try and

prove to the world that

Sasquatch exists.

>> KULLS: I really went into

this believing that this was

gonna be a complete flub.

And then when I started

interviewing the witnesses, I

could see physical body

reactions happening that, as a

trained interviewer, I knew

meant they were telling the

truth.

They had seen something.

I mean, when people's jugular

veins distend, they get goose

bumps, they get short of breath,

you can see they actually

encountered something they

believe is real.

>> NARRATOR: In 2012, a

consortium of Bigfoot

researchers, engineers and

scientists announced the Falcon

Project, a revolutionary new

approach to finding Bigfoot.

The Falcon Project is a

high-tech aerial reconnaissance

balloon that will take the

search for Sasquatch 8,000 feet

up into the sky.

>> BARNES: The higher we're

up, the better we can see

straight down in between the

trees.

That's the whole purpose, is

looking down in between the

trees, trying to find these

creatures in the heavy forest.

It can hover, it can spin, it

can do 45 miles an hour, it can

stop on a dime.

We don't even know how close we

can get to these creatures.

>> NARRATOR: The Falcon Project

has commissioned an HD camera

with secret night vision

technology to capture evidence

from afar.

The airship will also be using

CO2 detectors invented by the

military to analyze the forest

air for signs of life.

But could the Falcon Project

finally discover the truth about

Bigfoot?

>> MELDRUM: The Falcon Project

really poses a real prospect at

success.

I mean, we've investigated so

many other different ways of

trying to get after this

question, this challenge, and it

literally is like searching for

the proverbial moving needle in

a haystack.

>> BARNES: Today's technology is

capable of doing this.

We'll keep going, and we won't

stop.

>> NARRATOR: While some continue

to scour the Earth for Bigfoot,

others wonder if we should be

looking for it not in the

forests but in an altogether

different place.

>> LINDA MOULTON HOWE: In the,

uh, early 1990s, I had one solid

case in Snohomish, Washington,

where an eyewitness sees a

silver disc cause trees to move

as if there were wind on a

clear, absolutely sky-blue day.

And a beam comes down and in the

beam is a huge eight-foot,

reddish-brown, hairy primate

standing in front of him.

And this creature disappeared in

a flash of light.

The fact that they are seen to

come and appear, that might

explain why you could have them

in Georgia, Michigan,

Pennsylvania, California, all

over.

Maybe Sasquatch is a non-human

genetic construct to do work on

this planet not comprehensible

to humans.

>> NARRATOR: While it's

uncertain if a living,

breathing Bigfoot will ever be

found, it is safe to say the one

place it really does exist is in

our popular culture.

Bigfoot is an industry

generating millions of dollars

in revenue each year.

And perhaps for that reason

alone, the search and every

scrap of evidence gathered must

be taken very seriously.

>> SAHEBI: This is in our own

backyards right here in America.

It's our personal boogeyman, and

a lot of people have seen it.

>> NARRATOR: Will the truth

about Bigfoot forever be hidden?

Is there too much at stake to

reveal it to be true?

Or is the secret part of an even

bigger conspiracy?

One that, if exposed, threatens

to challenge everything we

believe about mankind's origins?

Perhaps all will be revealed

not when we find Bigfoot but

when it finds us.

(roar)

Coming up...

>> NARRATOR: Montauk, Long

Island, New York.

July 12, 2008.

Summer beachgoers are horrified

to see a grotesque and

unrecognizable carcass that has

washed ashore.

>> RUEHL: A photograph was

taken.

Unfortunately someone grabbed

the carcass, and then it

ultimately vanished.

So the only evidence we have

of-of this creature is the

photo.

It certainly looks like it's

possibly a hybrid entity.

This could be created by genetic

technology.

There's the Plum Island Animal

Medical Center nearby.

Perhaps this was an entity that

had been created there and then

escaped.

>> NARRATOR: The Plum Island

Animal Disease Center is widely

believed to be a place where

the U.S. government conducts

secret experiments on animals.

Access to the island is highly

restricted, and armed guards

monitor the facility 24 hours a

day.

But could there really be a

secret connection between the

strange creature found on the

beach at Montauk and Bigfoot?

>> RUEHL: We are now at that

stage where we can carry out

the type of genetic technology

that could create such a hybrid

entity.

Sponsored by private industry,

perhaps by government agencies

or the military.

They can have both a positive

and negative result.

They could result in finding

ways to make humans healthier.

On the other hand, they might be

designed to create an entity--

part human, part wolf-- that

would be a super soldier.

(roar)

It's reported that Joseph Stalin

authorized experimentation to

create a hybrid human-ape.

>> NARRATOR: Could Bigfoot

actually be an animal that was

created in a government lab?

Or is it something even more

mysterious: a strange, still

unproven creature known as a

cryptid?

>> NEKARIS: A cryptid species

is defined as something that's

very well-known in local

beliefs, something where people

can describe the-the locomotion,

the movement patterns, how the

animal looks, but it just may

not be seen or it may not be

captured on film.

>> KULLS: There has been so many

animals and creatures that were

just rumored to exist.

The giant octopus, the giant

squid, the panda, the gorilla--

all these creatures existed as

cryptids and eventually science

would find them.

>> NARRATOR: Could Bigfoot be

America's biggest and most

secretive cryptid?

>> JEVNING: If there was an

America's Book of Secrets

regarding Bigfoot, it would say

monsters are real and they

inhabit our forests.

>> NARRATOR: But if Bigfoot is

proven to be real, what kind of

creature is it?

An animal?

Or perhaps a human ancestor?

>> MELDRUM: There are actually

quite a number of

interpretations of what Bigfoot

may actually be.

Personally, from my perspective

as a physical anthropologist, I

perceive this as an undiscovered

species of-of very large ape,

possibly a prehuman ancestor.

>> NEKARIS: People really are

trying to work out what it is.

They think either it's a large

ape, or they think it's some

sort of a human creature.

Sometimes people believe it's a

primate mated with a human, so a

hybrid between primates and

humans.

(roar)

>> NARRATOR: Denisova, Siberia,

2010.

Researchers unearth a finger

bone from deep inside a cave.

The DNA is analyzed and

discovered to be a female from a

member of the human evolutionary

family previously unknown to

modern man.

They name the new primate Homo

denisova and estimate that it

roamed the Earth during the

Stone Age, some 20,000 years

ago.

>> NEKARIS: This was really

revolutionary because it told us

that we can have populations of

humans occurring in the same

area but that were different

species.

And so just from a finger bone,

we can see that Neanderthals

and another species were living

side by side with modern humans.

>> MELDRUM: What was also very

fascinating is that the only

other associated skeletal

element was a-a molar tooth,

which in its dimensions was

considerably larger than any

modern human or even Neanderthal

tooth, which is exactly what we

have proposed for the Sasquatch,

based on eyewitness descriptions

of the facial proportions.

The discovery of denisova also

was startling because it was so

unexpected, and it came

literally out of the blue.

>> NEKARIS: Finding the

Denisovan woman just shows us

that just a tiny bone can yield

a whole new species.

And so it does give some

optimism to finding Bigfoot,

because all it might take is one

tiny specimen and that can yield

a whole new species.

>> MELDRUM: I get a sense that

the scientific community is

somewhat warming up to the very

real possibility that there are

relic hominoids about.

Homo floresiensis-- or "the

Hobbit"-- from Indonesia, when

that was discovered, it was

quite interesting that the

discoverers acknowledged that

there were native traditions of

such small, hairy people living

up in the forest and that in

fact some European colonists had

even reported encounters in

recorded history.

>> NEKARIS: Unlike Bigfoot being

very big, the Homo floresiensis

is very small.

And so it does just go to show

that it just takes finding one

creature in one space in time,

one serendipitous moment.

And what the people who doubt

finding Bigfoot say, "We just

need one skull.

We just need one finger bone.

We just need one specimen, and

then I will believe."

And that could happen.

>> NARRATOR: Could finding just

one bone turn America into a

nation of Bigfoot believers?

Or is it possible that once we

finally find Bigfoot, mankind

will find proof of something

even greater, the facts behind

our own secret origins?

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