Big Foot. Sasquatch. Hairy Man. Whatever you call it, Bigfoot certainly has a magnetic pull in the forested areas of the United States. I'll be honest, anytime I hear about the big man of the forest, I get National Inquirer vibes. But after these stories...I may just be a believer.

Now, when I hear Bigfoot sighting, Wyoming isn't the first place to come to mind. Doesn't he roam more woodsy places like Oregon and Alaska? Wyoming has trees, sure, but indeed not as many as the Pacific Northwest.

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But, according to stories from several Wyomingites - one being a former Park Service employee! - Bigfoot does, in fact, roam the Cowboy State. Can you guess where? After hearing the witness testimony, will you believe Sasquatch is a Wyomingite?

Bigfoot Roams Wyoming Forests and Mountains

Thunder Mountain Encounter

The first story I stumbled across was recently published on Youtube. It tells the tale of a sighting near Thunder Mountain in the area of Hawk's Rest. You may know that Hawk's Rest is an exceptionally remote location (Wild West Trail Co. declares it the most remote place in the lower 48.) It's home to bears, moose, and other large animals. You would think the witnesses mistook a giant bear for "bigfoot," but by all accounts, the witnesses sound like seasoned hunters familiar with Big Game.

According to the witness, the beast they saw in the Big Horns was enormous, walked like a man, and could leap off a cliffside with dexterity. In addition, it didn't lumber like a bear, and it didn't try to harm them. The hunter admitted that ever since that experience, he became a believer. Listen to the whole story starting around the 11:05 mark in the video:

Wind River Encounter

The second encounter I stumbled across occurred around 1967, according to Reba Terran, an Eastern Shoshone tribal member and Bigfoot witness who saw the creature alongside her siblings as a child. She described the creature as "really hairy" and possessing "really long arms." The creature fled when one of her siblings took off to find their father.

Reba then shared that her brother, Ed, encountered Bigfoot sometime later in Coyote Basin. She said he was hunting on his horse and spotted a Bigfoot eating something down a hill - Ed described the look Bigfoot gave Ed as "the look of murder" before launching itself at Ed. The horse spun off in an instant, and Ed made it down to the foothills. Reba shared other encounters in her 2021 interview.

A U.S. Forest Service Employee's Wind River Encounter

Perhaps the most convincing story comes from a field biologist who worked for the U.S. Forest Service and Wyoming Game and Fish Department in 1972 - not long after Reba's encounter. John Mionczynski was on a cooperative study project designed to take place as John lives in the wilds of the Shoshone National Forest.

John said he encountered Bigfoot on the night of a full moon while camping in the wilderness. He reported the creature to have four fingers and an opposed thumb twice the size of his hand. John said it was an aggressive creature. He discovered that the Park Service had received several reports of similar encounters and interviewed the witnesses. One witness reported that he shot the beast, but it survived the wound and fled the scene. Mionczynski found samples at the location, but the lab report came back with controversial results - the tests indicated a hairy primate not native to Wyoming. John shares in the interview that he was threatened with being fired for being associated with the Bigfoot sightings.

Interestingly, John has continued his research into Wyoming's Sasquatch. He's conducted interviews and podcasts on the subject as recently as 2022 and hosts educational campout trips in Wyoming's Red Desert. He has worked with one of the biggest names in Bigfoot research - anthropologist and anatomist Dr. Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University.

Does Mionczynski's tale read as a hoax? Remember, he's a field biologist - nature and critters are kind of his thing. His story comes with a certain air of expertise, right? You'll have to decide:

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