In actuality, no one needs to be scared of Bigfoot.  Bigfoot has never been known to hurt anybody.  Bigfoot's cousin, The Yeti, on the other hand, has been reported to kill people.  None of this has ever been proven though.

The first sightings of Bigfoot were naturally made by the indians who called it Sasquatch.  The early trappers of the Oregon Territory put in some reports of seeing huge footprints twice the size of a man, and an occasional " giant ape" in the woods.  In Kentucky, Daniel Boone reported encounters with what he called a Yahoo, which he described as a ten foot tall hairy monster.
Further, legends in certain areas of Kentucky speak of a hairy cave dwelling creature known as a Yeah.'  It has been said that Daniel Boone is the one responsible for the starting the Bigfoot craze.  Some have postulated that because Daniel Boone's favorite book was Gulivers Travels, a book he often took with him into the woods, Daniel simply made up his stories of the Yahoo, getting the idea from the creature in the book, also known as The Yahoo.  Whether Daniel Boone actually saw the creature or just made him up to add spice to his stories is something we will never really know.  In modern times, it's mostly the hunters and hikers that see and hear Bigfoot.

Numerous evidence for Bigfoot has appeared during the last thirty years.  Bent and mangled street signs in remote roads going through the forests of Oregon have been found.  These signs appear to be mangled in such a way, that the only explanation for the manner in which they were damaged is that a man with the strength of five or six men, who is about ten feet tall, grabbed hold of the signs and twisted them with bare hands.  Indeed, pieces of flesh and hair were found on the mangled signs.

In the late sixties a hunter ran into Bigfoot, and pulled out his camera just in time to catch Bigfoot walking into the woods, turning to look at the camera just before disappearing into the brush.  I've seen this film myself several times, and let me tell you:  This film looks like the real thing.  If that's an ape suit worn by a man in that film, it's the most real ape suit that I've ever seen in my life.  Hollywood, with it's vast resources has never produced an ape suit that looks real to me.  Are we to believe that this hunter with his limited resources could put together an ape suit that looks this real when hollywood couldn't even come close?

In 1982, Paul Freeman discovered the tracks of Bigfoot in the Mill Creek watershed in the blue mountains here in Oregon.  These tracks were examined by Bigfoot expert, Grover Krantz, and are believed to be the only authentic prints of Bigfoot.  These tracks had dermal ridges and were exactly the the type of track that Krantz had postulated would be made by Bigfoot.  In 1969, tracks were found in Washington which were the footprints of a crippled animal.   Tracks of a crippled animal are almost impossible to fake.  The reasons for this are revealed in the following statement from Grover Krantz:

"In my judgment, no hoaxer could have figured out just how far forward to shift the ankle for a biped of the indicated size, then have left footprints with some subtle distortions that just might lead an anatomist to the reconstruction I made. I figured the whole thing out after studying the footprints; any hoaxer had to plan it all out from nothing. This requires an expert anatomist with a very inventive mind, more so than me, and I seriously doubt that any such person exists."

One interesting thing to note is that Grover Krantz has postulated a few characteristics that should be found in authentic Bigfoot tracks.  What is interesting and compelling about these postulated characteristics is the fact that they are a secret, known only to Grover Krantz himself.  When someone sends him a plaster casting of a set of tracks, he utilizes the worlds foremost experts in animal tracks, and, he employs his own observations by looking for the secret qualities.  So far, only three sets of tracks have been pronounced real by Mr. Krantz

Sadly, for every piece of evidence that seems to be authentic, there are at least ten that are obviously fake.  Many a strange, long hair sample has been submitted to zoologists, who quickly identify them as synthetic hair.  Also many, many fake footprints have been submitted as well.

Some theories have been put forth as to the explanation for Bigfoot.  One of the ideas held very popular is that Bigfoot could be merely an undiscovered  species of ape.  Another theory is that Bigfoot is the remains of a species of primate that is thought to be extinct, such as Gigantopithecus, a large hairy primate that fits the description of Bigfoot.  Other theories are a little more incredible.  Some state that Bigfoot is an extra terrestrial animal which was planted all over the earth.  Indeed reports of one form or another of the giant man-ape have come in from all over the planet, such as reports about The Yeti in the Himalayan Mountains.
Another more recent report of a Bigfoot like creature comes from Australia.  Reports of a large hairy ape like wild man spotted and heard in the mountain range that divides the Australian continent.  Locals to the area call it The Yowie.

Hearing the howl of Bigfoot Is more common than seeing one.  And the howl of Bigfoot in a frightening experience indeed.  I'm not going to tell you that I've heard Bigfoot's howl, but I certainly have heard some strange, ghastly, unexplained howls in the dark, dense forests of Oregon.  Perhaps I have heard the monster howl.  Who knows?  I can tell you, that at the time, I couldn't identify the sound, and the sound was ghastly enough to put me in a state of shock.  I wasn't as scared as the time I stood toe to toe with a black bear, but....that's another story.

It seems that of all the paranormal creatures out there, Bigfoot is the most believable.  It's hard to believe in Elvis and UFO's, but it's not so tough to believe that there's a giant undiscovered ape living in the remote forests of the Pacific Northwest, that are rarely, if ever, visited by a human being.  We certainly have mapped and charted every square mile of the Northwest's forests, but there are many places in this vast forest where no man has ever been.  It is possible, although not probable, that a giant species of ape has eluded mankind all these years.  If the sightings are true, indeed, Bigfoot has not eluded us completely, we just can't find his home.