By Tim Binnall
In keeping with its oversized presence in the pantheon of mysterious creatures, the legendary Bigfoot was at the center of several strange stories this past year. 2022 proved to be another busy twelve months for Sasquatch with multiple possible sightings, including a few that were caught on film, as well as a surprising number of hoaxes that were perpetrated in different states around the country. Additionally, in what one imagines is a first, Bigfoot was also blamed for a bizarre dispute between friends that culminated with a man being murdered, while the beloved creature was also once again celebrated in a variety of ways.
On the sightings front, it would seem that Sasquatch was somewhat camera shy this past year, with only a handful of particularly intriguing videos making news. The best of the bunch would undoubtedly be a piece of footage captured by boaters in Canada which shows a rather clear glimpse of what appears to be a large, hairy, bipedal creature walking along a forested shore. One other noteworthy video also came by way of the Great White North and featured what some believe to be a pair of Bigfoot stalking a deer. Meanwhile, Sasquatch may have been photographed by a trailcam in Washington state and a farmhand in Tennessee, while its howls might have been recorded in Ohio.
Unfortunately, as is so often the case, the enormous popularity of Bigfoot led to a variety of hoaxes this past year with 2022 featuring an inordinate amount of such cases. To that end, over the course of the last twelve months, wildlife officials in Alabama, Iowa, and Pennsylvania were all forced to issue statements debunking fake 'Sasquatch warnings' that had circulated online and in state parks. A popular YouTube personality caused a stir when he claimed to have unearthed a Bigfoot skull, but the Earth-shattering 'evidence' was later revealed to be a replica gorilla cranium. And, a viral 'Sasquatch' video out of Tennessee turned out to simply be a man making 'clever use' of a Halloween costume.
By far the most bizarre Bigfoot story of 2022 unfolded in Arkansas, where a man allegedly murdered his fishing buddy and, when questioned by cops, explained that he did so because his now-former friend had been in the process of summoning Sasquatch to attack him. Contrasting that unfortunate incident were a pair of stories in which the cultural significance of the iconic cryptid took center stage: a Bigfoot museum in Canada received a $1 million grant to expand and an elementary school project in Washington state led to new protections for the creature. Ultimately, although definitive proof for the existence of Sasquatch remained maddeningly out of reach this past year, this did little to diminish the creature's prominent place in the zeitgeist where it continues to reign as king of the cryptids.