Bigfoot in California

277 mapped reports in the TidyTuesday extract of the BFRO database (#4 of 49 states with reports). A row is a submitted report, not a confirmed animal.

One profile per state. 'stats' are computed from sightings_seed.csv (4,045 mapped BFRO reports, 1869-2021, from the TidyTuesday 2022-09-13 extract). These are mapped reports in that extract, not all reports ever made and not confirmed sightings. Class A = clear sighting, Class B = sound/tracks/obscured view, Class C = secondhand or less reliable (BFRO definitions). Festivals, creatures and museums are pulled from festivals.json, regional_creatures.json and research.json.

Mapped reports

Class A (clear sighting report): 104
Class B (sound, tracks, or an obscured view): 172
Class C (secondhand): 1
Years: 1869–2021. Since 2010: 26.
Busiest decade: 2000s (125). Busiest month: August (51).
Seasons: spring 36, summer 123, fall 88, winter 30.
Counties with at least one mapped report: 41.

Top counties: Tuolumne County (36); El Dorado County (22); Humboldt County (19); Shasta County (19); Siskiyou County (16).

Open these reports on the map

Regional names

Hairy Man (Mayak Datat) — Indigenous tradition (Yokuts); sometimes associated with Bigfoot

Festivals

Bigfoot Daze · Willow Creek · 2026 edition was June 27 (64th annual); historically held on Labor Day weekend, recent years in late June - confirm each year
Bigfoot Festival Green Valley Lake · Green Valley Lake · 2026 edition Oct 10 (2nd annual)

Museums and landmarks

Willow Creek-China Flat Museum (Bigfoot Museum) - Willow Creek, CA — Local history museum with a large Bigfoot wing in the self-styled Bigfoot Capital of the World.
Bigfoot Discovery Museum - Felton, CA — Michael Rugg's Santa Cruz Mountains museum; listings say it is permanently closed and its site (bigfootdiscoveryproject.com) is offline.

Public land

Laws and proclamations

AB 666 (2025) to name Bigfoot the state cryptid; held in committee and died Jan 31, 2026