If we use the profile now described, woods and running water within one mile, it should considerably narrow down search areas to make it more manageable. Now comes the test, to see if it holds true for at least a majority of the sightings in an area not covered by the above lists. When I think of little water, and even fewer trees the two states than stand out in my mind are Arizona and Utah. Here’s the results I obtained by comparing the sightings in those states, again Class A, and the two requirements the above suggests.

ARIZONA: Of 12 Class A Reports, 11 have moving water within ½ mile of sighting area, and 10 are wooded.

This breaks down to 92% on the water, 83% in woods for an average of 88% fitting within the profile. Personally I think that’s pretty good odds, compared to running all over the place just looking with no focus.

UTAH: Of eight Class A Reports, seven had both the moving water and woods within ½ mile combination. The eighth sighting didn’t give enough information to decide where the sighting took place. That’s still an 88% hit on the two basic structures pointed out in this article.

There is also another piece of evidence I’d like to present in support of moving water being an important piece of the puzzle. While going through the California reports, I noticed there were a number of sightings reported along a specific route. In Del Norte County and Humboldt County, you’ll find a significant number of sightings are located between Orick to the south and Crescent City to the north along Highway 101. There are two main rivers that run through this area, the Smith River to the north and Klamath River to the south. Between the rivers there are numerous creeks and tributaries. The famous site of the Patterson-Gimlin Film on Bluff Creek runs into the Klamath River six miles upstream from the Trinity River. Along all of these rivers there is a long history of bigfoot sightings, as well as along many of their tributaries. Of the twelve Class A reports from the BFRO in Del Norte County, all twelve have occurred along the Smith River or one of the creeks that feed off of it. The famous Bluff Creek location is six miles upstream from the Trinity River branch on the Klamath River. Of the 21 Class A sightings in Humboldt County, at least 16 of them have occurred along one of these rivers or it’s tributaries. If you follow the rivers even further inland, you’ll see many other waterways where bigfoot has been sighted are also tied into them in one way or another. It’s my contention that bigfoot is using the rivers and creeks as landmarks to get from one area to another. It has to be a lot easier than trying to memorize which way to go through the woods. Or, it’s a basic fact that bigfoot’s preferred habitat includes wanting to be near the rivers, possibly for easy water access and food sources. Either way, the sightings seem to be making a pattern that suggests this.

I had planned on creating a map of some sort to plot out how many sightings correlate to the rivers and creeks mentioned above. While researching the best way to do this, I found out that somebody had beaten me to the punch, and had already plotted out a large number of bigfoot sightings all over North America. His data also seems to suggest and illustrate the closeness to the rivers in this area that the sightings have occurred. As I read more details about his work, he mentioned that if anyone wanted to discuss his results, that they should post it on the BFF. I was wondering how I could have missed a project like this being discussed, however, when I read the BFF, sure enough there it was. If your computer and connection speed is up to allowing you to run “Google Earth”, do it and plan on being amazed at what the user Mangani has accomplished.

In conclusion I think it would be worthwhile to restrict the areas we cover while searching for bigfoot to those areas that have already been successful. As time goes by I, or someone else, may find even more details that will help us narrow it down even further. We have a choice, we can all stay on our present course, running around like chickens with our heads cut off half the time with no plan, or we can use the time we do have more efficiently. Personally, I’m going to play with the odds and concentrate specifically on areas that fit the profile suggested above.