Bigfoot and Sasquatch: Longtime resident reveals legends, pranks after latest 'proof'
The national legend of Sasquatch birthed local lore of pranksters tricking tourists that became comical coffee-shop fodder.
Joe Civiletto, who lived in Durango, Colorado, for 16 years and still has ties to the city, couldn't help but chuckle after a "Bigfoot sighting" went viral last week.
A married couple believed they saw Bigfoot meandering down the side of a mountain while they rode a train between Durango and Silverton and shared their blurry, far-away pictures that quickly spread from social media to news outlets.
Readers and social media users zoomed in on the fuzzy photos and pointed out what appears to be sunglasses and a hunter's camouflage ghillie suit.
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"(I) Never knew Bigfoot wears shades. At least he’s cool," one reader said in an email.
"Did Bigfoot stop by Walmart first to pick up sunglasses he was wearing in the pictures?" another reader said.
These funny reactions are typical for local residents in the western U.S. Civiletto said he remembers reading about sightings like this for years in the local paper.
It brought back memories of tricksters pretending to be the elusive, mythical creature to stoke excitement from out-of-towners.
"We would be in coffee shops and reading the local paper and see stories about Sasquatch sightings and laugh," Civiletto told Fox News Digital. "We knew there was at least one guy who was playing tricks on tourists."
He said he — nor his buddies — ever met the guy pretending to be Bigfoot or learned his name, but he heard the man dressed like the creature and timed his appearance near the train and specific spots.
"As the train would move away, he would be in the river dressed up so tourists would purposely get a bad angle or blurry photos like what that couple got," Civiletto said with a laugh.
"It was done in good fun."
Reminiscing about his times in Durango — and the viral "Bigfoot sightings" — was a fond memory and a good distraction from the gory images and horrific acts of violence in Israel and Gaza, which has dominated the news cycle, he said during his chat with Fox News Digital.
"It's something different and adds levity to what's going on in the world," he said.
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Blurry pictures of the elusive mythical creature are part of Sasquatch's national folklore, which includes a "MapSquatch" that pinpoints sighting locations.
The state of Washington's National Guard provided a description of the creature in a blog post titled "Legend of Bigfoot."
"The legends of Bigfoot go back beyond recorded history and cover the world," the Washington National Guard wrote. "In North America – and particularly the Northwest – you can hear tales of seven-foot-tall hairy men stalking the woods, occasionally scaring campers, lumberjacks, hikers and the like."
The National Guard explained the creature goes by a number of different names, including Sasquatch.
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"Those who claim to have seen Bigfoot have described everything from a large, upright ape to an actual hairy human, sometimes standing over eight feet tall and described as powerfully built," it wrote.
"The debate and research continue. Entire organizations exist to study and document Bigfoot and prove its existence and groups regularly search the Northwest woods, looking for that ultimate proof."