A Republican lawmaker recently proposed a bill that would establish an official Bigfoot hunting season in the state of Oklahoma.
"A lot of people don't believe in Bigfoot, but a lot of people do," District 19 State Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, told The Tahlequah Daily Press of his decision to file House Bill 1648. "Just like some people like to go deer hunting, while some don't."
House Bill 1648 would direct the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Division to establish an annual season requiring hunting licenses and fees. Humphrey insisted, however, that he doesn't actually want the fabled forest creature to be killed. The politician also confirmed that he would work with state agencies on the bill's final language to specify the trapping of Bigfoot along with a $25,000 bounty for the first person to capture the creature.
The district that Humphrey represents includes parts of Atoka, Bryan, Choctaw, and Pushmataha Counties in southeast Oklahoma, which Humphrey believes would benefit from outdoor tourism if the bill is passed.
Additionally, nearby Honobia hosts an annual Bigfoot festival each first weekend in October that helps raise money for the Honobia Bigfoot Scholarship, which is awarded by the Honobia Bigfoot Organization to high school seniors in the Pushmataha County area. To date, the organization has awarded a total of $40,425 to 71 graduating seniors between 2014 and 2019.
While the 2020 edition of the festival was cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the event is expected to return in 2021. An official statement about the festival posted on the Honobia Bigfoot Organization website reads, "Whether you're a serious Bigfoot scholar or a seeker of folklore, you'll find fellow explorers at the Kiamichi Christian Mission, located at Highway 144 and Indian Trail Highway in the deep woods of tiny Honobia."
Also known as Sasquatch, the ape-like Bigfoot creature has been at the heart of Canadian and American folklore for several decades. Alleged evidence of Bigfoot's existence is based on a number of disputed video recordings, audio recordings, photographs, and visual sightings that have been shared in both books and online.
Bigfoot has also been depicted in a number of movies and television series, including the 1987 film Harry and the Hendersons and the 2019 animated film Missing Link. The original Red Dead Redemption video game also featured an Undead Nightmare expansion that was inspired by Bigfoot legend. Specifically, the expansion featured a story line in which John Marston encountered the last Sasquatch while on a zombie-hunting mission.
Source: The Tahlequah Daily Press