First UFOs, now Bigfoot. Idaho is among the top states for more paranormal sightings

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Last month, Idaho was named the top spot in the United States for sightings of unidentified flying objects. But it turns out UFOs aren’t the only paranormal entity being spotted in the Gem State.

According to an analysis by satelliteinternet.com, Idaho is one of the top places for Bigfoot sightings in the country. The company last month researched UFO sightings to try to determine if satellite internet equipment was being mistaken for UFOs. (It frequently is.) Last week, satelliteinternet.com released a similar rating – this time for Sasquatch sightings.

“We dug into reports from The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization and compared it against state population data to see where people have the best chance of befriending a bigfoot,” the company’s analysis said.

The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization has 93 reports of Bigfoot encounters in Idaho, meaning for every 100,000 people in Idaho, about five of them have seen or heard a ‘Squatch. That per capita rate earned Idaho fourth place in the ranking of most Bigfoot sightings.

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Of course, it’s not a perfect metric. When satelliteinternet.com was measuring UFO sightings, it pared the results down to the last 18 months. However, reports on the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization website date back as late as the 1960s, which makes the results less precise.

Using that data, satelliteinternet.com named Washington the top state in the country for Bigfoot sightings with nearly nine sightings per 100,000 people. That makes sense given the state’s long history with the hairy cryptid. Oregon came in second place with six sightings per capita, and West Virginia took third place with 5.8 sightings per capita.

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North Idaho’s Bonner County appears to be the state’s Sasquatch hotspot. Eighteen of Idaho’s 93 sightings were reported there, including one from February 2020 in which a “logger hears long roaring howls on the same property large tracks had been discovered.” Valley County has 13 of the state’s reports, including one from November 2018 on Tamarack Resort property.

If you want to catch a glimpse of Bigfoot, you’ll have to head out of the Treasure Valley. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization has no record of sightings in Ada or Canyon counties – though the elusive creature has reportedly been seen several times in the Boise National Forest.

While it’s definitely up for debate as to whether there’s a Bigfoot-like being in Idaho, our state is home to one of the foremost experts on Bigfoot. Idaho State University professor Jeff Meldrum, who teaches anatomy and anthropology, has published a book on Sasquatch and continues to research non-human hominid species.