Driving up the Alcan Highway through Canada, there is a whole stretch of Canadian towns along the road touting their bigfoot-rich properties, a tourist draw for those who believe in the unsubsantiated animal.
Alaska is well-known for its hulking wildlife -- bears, moose, caribou and sea lions are among the biggest draws -- but when it comes to the elusive bigfoot, there seems to be a dearth of sightings for a state so enveloped in the woods that play home to the legendary beast in other parts of the world.
Maybe the Bigfoot's northern cousin, the yeti, is a more appropriate fit for Alaska, where half the state hangs above the Arctic Circle.
But recently, YouTube user putua76 posted a shaky video that purports to capture the unconfirmed creature on tape near Ketchikan, Alaska.
From the original upload:
I was on a logging road in Ketchikan hiking with my friend when I saw it! Boy did my heart start racing!! It was about 40 yards from the road! Not sure if it knew I was there or not, because the noise of flowing water from the stream. It seemed to travel fast! It made my hair stand up!! At one point you can see a whitish yellowish thing in it's hand! I believe it was skunk cabbage. Not sure, but it is in bloom.
You see it jump and after that point it just seems to disappear. There was a lot of brush and trees between it and I, I could not tell where it had gone. It was a scary sort of exciting feeling at the same time!! We went to search for tracks but the river bed where we thought it was walking was full of perfect skiping rocks, we found no prints! If there is a BigFoot, Sasquatch, or Kushtaka I swear I saw him!!
According to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, this would be the first reported sighting of a bigfoot in Ketchikan, although there have been 21 previous sightings in Alaska, eight of which have occurred in Fairbanks or "Southeast Fairbanks."
As with all bigfoot video the creature is hard to see, hidden behind trees and partially or totally obscured, giving just enough evidence for the skeptics to dispute and just enough for the believers to support. So is there a bigfoot in Alaska? We'll leave that up to you.
While "Sarah Palin's Alaska" has finished its eight-week run on TLC, Alaska Dispatch continues to take a look at the Last Frontier as it's experienced by residents across the state -- urban and rural, young and old, from all walks of life. You've seen "Sarah Palin's Alaska" -- now welcome to Our Alaska.