Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America

By Loren Coleman/Paraview Pocket Books, 288 pages

In Loren Coleman’s new book titled Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America (2003), he has attempted to cover any and all bigfoot subjects. That is quite an undertaking but Coleman does an adequate, if not great, job of completing this task.

The book starts with Coleman explaining to the reader how he came to be interested in cryptozoology and, of course, the bigfoot phenomenon in general. He tells of books that influenced his imagination and of men whose exploits spurred him on.

Coleman does a decent job of outlining his early studies and research trips into the bush. As a young college student in Illinois, he undertook several seat-of-the-pants, shoestring-budget excursions in search of the hairy quarry. This in my mind does a good job of establishing Coleman as a genuine researcher and not just another armchair expert.

In chapter 2, he covers the Skookum cast and details the opinions of several parties including Cliff Crook, who has tried to debunk the casting’s evidence as no more than a kneeling elk print in the mud. I have wondered if Crook hasn’t tried to discredit the Skookum cast out of jealousy. Who can say?

From here, Coleman touches base on several of the legendary tales of bigfootdom; Teddy Roosevelt’s, the terrific Baumann incident, the Ostman case, Ruby Creek, Bluff Creek, Ape canyon and the infamous Bossburg farce. He covers in nice detail the story of The Minnesota Iceman, and the attempted research into it by Bernard Heuvelmans & Ivan Sanderson. He points out two of the hoaxers of bigfoot lore, Ivan Marx and Ray Wallace.

From there, Loren looks into events that have supposedly happened throughout the Midwest and just to the south of it. Momo and the Fouke monster are covered. In addition, he touches upon the movie The Legend of Boggy Creek, which is the edifice that started my personal journey down the squatch road.

Coleman finished the book off with chapters of bigfoot documentaries, books and lecture events; other subjects as diverse as the UFO connection, to a rather interesting theory of his about an antique fruit crate’s label that he has in his possession.

All in all, this is a good book, especially if one doesn’t have much of a background in bigfoot information. Personally, I wish he had covered more contemporary sightings and encounters but that obviously was not his primary intent with this book—maybe next time.

This book will make a worthy addition to about anyone’s bigfoot book collection, but be forewarned, if you’re looking for a lot of new information you’ll likely be somewhat disappointed.

I would suggest giving it a read. It gave me something to do during a rainy weekend this past winter and that is just what I like books of this sort for.

ISBN: 0743469755
288 pages
Trade paperback

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