CLEARFIELD, Pa. (AP) — Bigfoot enthusiasts converged on a northern Pennsylvania town to swap theories about the creatures.
The Patriot-News reports that about 50 Bigfoot enthusiasts met Saturday in Clearfield, and they fell into distinct camps. The town is about 120 miles northwest of Harrisburg.
The first group believes Bigfoot is a "cryptozoological hominid creature." The second group thinks Bigfoot is an extraterrestrial with ties to UFOs or other aliens. The third group believes the Bigfoot types envisioned by the other groups are two different creatures. The fourth group believes the other three are all crazy.
Eric Altman, director of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society, traces the legend of Bigfoot-type creatures back to pre-Colonial Native Americans and newspaper accounts of "wildmen" as far back as 1838. But he says the term Bigfoot wasn't used before 1958.