Southern Cultures

driving south on I-85 from Richmond into North Carolina, the trees begin to envelop you. Not being from here, I am seduced by that wilderness. It's like entering an open storybook, a deep trove of mythologies and histories built into the landscape and etched into memory from the stories of others, both recent and generations past. And for some, these stories are not myths.

From my home state of New Hampshire to my new home in North Carolina, I had a simple hope to explore and understand the latter through their commonalities: the deep forests and rising mountain ranges, winding waterways, and abundance of roadside Cracker Barrels. In the rural stretch between Durham and Charlotte, North Carolina, is the fifty thousand-acre Uwharrie National Forest, named for the Indigenous tribe that once inhabited the mountains there. While researching North Carolina forests to explore, Uwharrie started to become synonymous with what I could only imagine to be a joke: Bigfoot sightings. It seemed I could not

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search for advice on traversing the Uwharrie range without coming across mentions of where this mythical creature could be found. Before long, I became entranced by stories and blurry photographs in online groups for Bigfoot enthusiasts. There are many: Bigfoot 911, North Carolina Bigfoot Investigations (ncbi), Bigfoot Campfire Stories, Squatcher X, Squatch Watchers, Dirty South Squatchers. The list goes on, ranging from forums of thousands of active members to neighborhood sightings, all with one common goal—to prove the existence of this elusive creature.

Sasquatch, a six- to nine-foot-tall ape-like being said to roam the forests of North America, is an indelible part of American and Canadian folklore. The name comes [End Page 112]

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from the Salishan languages of the Pacific Northwest, the term se'sxac meaning "wild men." And with thick shaggy fur and large feet, Bigfoot is often identified as male, but given the number of sightings, enthusiasts believe there must be an undiscovered species hiding in the woods. The famous Patterson-Gimlin film of the late 1960s made Bigfoot an American icon, with sightings now claimed all over the country. The southeastern United States continues to be a hotspot.

I make and study photographs for a living, so I was immediately attracted to and skeptical of the images of Bigfoot sightings in online groups. These photographs called into question the veracity of the medium, and what images tell us in context. And although there were skeptics like me about, [End Page 115] the people who attended Bigfoot conferences, who distributed their evidence and stories, were still open to sharing. I joined a few groups and asked for help in locating a tour guide of Uwharrie National Forest. I was quickly referred to Dwight, a group leader and native North Carolinian who claimed he knew more than what the television shows are willing to reveal: the coveted Sasquatch locations and sighting spots deep in the woods. I sent the Bigfoot aficionado a private message on Facebook to see if he would take me out on the trails next time he went on a Bigfoot search—what I would later learn is called "squatching."

It was a dreary April morning, and I almost canceled when I saw the rain coming down in sheets on my long drive from Durham. Pulling up to our meeting place, a stubby storefront named Eldorado Outpost...