The Bigfoot Trap of Jacksonville, Oregon

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2 years ago Nathan

Nestled in the woods of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest is a Bigfoot trap, the only one of its kind in the United States.
It was built in 1974 by the North American Wildlife Research Team, a now-defunct organization based in Eugene, Oregon, that was inspired to build a trap at the location by Perry Lovell, a miner who lived near the Applegate River, who claimed to have found big human-like tracks in his garden. Thus It operated the trap, keeping it baited with carcasses for six years, but caught only bears.
The Bigfoot trap was then abandoned and began to deteriorate.
It was 2006 when the U.S. Forest Service, under the “Passport in Time” program, began to repair the trap, that has become a tourist attraction and hundreds of people visit it annually.

In any case, sightings of Bigfoot in Oregon go back as far as the late 19th century, and the cryptid is generally described as being a large human-like creature covered in dark brown hair with humongous feet.
Although many declare it a hoax, the Sasquatch became an urban legend surrounded by popular sightings and stories.
A U.S. Forest Service special use permit was issued for its construction, and the trap is a wooden box 10 by 10 feet (3 by 3 m) made of 2×12 planks bound together by heavy metal bands and secured to the ground by telephone poles.
For six long years, the research team refilled the trap with carcasses of dead animals hoping to discover the monster and forever go down in history, but when the trap was set off it was usually by an angered bear or even a confused hunter.
However, in 1980, the hatch was locked open as the trap was becoming a safety hazard.
Its location was originally remote, but since the construction of the Applegate Dam, a road is now near the area, located on the Collings Mountain Trail, named for two brothers who mined in that area.
Along the trail there is also a fallen mining cabin once used as a Sasquatch lookout.