The elusive Bigfoot might soon be found among California’s state symbols

Possibly the most famous Bigfoot footage comes from a national forest east of Eureka in far Northern California, filmed by Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin. You know it — it’s the one where the towering, ape-like creature turns to look at the camera.

Jerry Hein has seen this silent video many times. He’s a Bigfoot researcher based in Jamestown – in the Sierra Nevada foothills. 

“Okay, this is a female Sasquatsh recorded October 20, 1967. Roger grabbed the camera and he got by the tree line and filmed her walking off,” Hein said while watching the footage. “When she turns her head, that's when Bob's horse kind of made a sound so looked over at Bob because Bob was still on his horse with his rifle.”

He says Bigfoot is a big part of Northern California culture. Eric Nelson, a volunteer with the Willow Creek-China Flat Museum and Bigfoot Collection agrees. 

“We have the Bigfoot restaurant, Bigfoot golf course, Bigfoot burger, on down the line,” Nelson explained. 

This year, the state legislature might make Bigfoot synonymous with the whole state, not just Northern California.

California has about 60 state symbols. Some — like the California poppy or grizzly bear — are well known and ubiquitous. But others are a little more obscure — like the Dungeness crab, the new state crustacean as of last year. 

California might add one more to the list. There’s a bill to make Bigfoot the state cryptid, or animal that science has yet to prove exists. 

Nelson, with the museum, said that could be a boon to tourism near Six Rivers National Forest, where the footage of the mythical creature was filmed.

“If this gets you out into the wilderness and you hang up your phone, you enjoy the river, nature, the mountains; you camp; you get together with your family — there's no negative with that,” Nelson continued. “If this is the vehicle that gets you out there to backpack these amazing Trinity Alps in the Marble Mountain Wilderness, there's no negative. It's not politics, it's not anything divisive.”

Bigfoot just barely became political this year. 

Democratic Assembly member Chris Rogers represents the North Coast and authored Assembly Bill 666 to make Bigfoot a state symbol. 

“We thought that it would be really funny to introduce a spot bill that when we amended it would disappear and become elusive as Bigfoot is,” he said. 

A spot bill in the California Legislature is basically a placeholder for something more substantive. He thought only Capitol nerds would notice this one.

“I've got to say since we introduced it, we have received so many comments and so much support for it that, candidly, we now don't know what to do with the bill,” he said. 

There has been pushback — some say it’s a waste of lawmakers’ time. 

“Especially with what we're seeing in Washington and with the federal government and the uncertainty that's there, I totally understand that response from people,” Rogers added. “At the same time, we believe that it's also important for us to have fun from time to time as well.”

California State Library Communications Manager Alex Vassar said there’s room for more state symbols. 

“State symbols are just really, really interesting because they go back to the very beginning, the very first years of California history,” he said. “They're not consequential laws, per se, but they are things that kind of unite us as a state.”

Vassar said some symbols — like the state nut — can help promote local economies and products. That’s split four ways between the almond, walnut, pistachio and pecan, in case you’re wondering. 

“In other cases, like with the state amphibian, they're able to preserve and protect environments, habitats that are important to those species,” he said. 

And Vassar added that the real winners if this bill becomes law will be California’s fourth graders, working on their state history projects. 

“The first thing that came to mind was — this is going to be the state symbol that kids are going to, they're going to really want to do this one. This is going to be much more appealing to them than, no offense, the state silver rush ghost town,” he said. 

Which means lawmakers might get some fun letters from kids in their districts this year.