PARMA, Idaho — The legend of bigfoot goes back to before people even wrote things down. They were just stories passed down through the generations.
Idaho has it's own long-standing, big-footed fable.
There is a statue that's been standing at the site of the Old Fort Boise in Parma for nearly 50 years.
Made of cement, it's the kind of depiction you might expect, with the features of someone that may or may not have existed. They covered all the bases; barrel chest, big feet, with which he apparently took long strides.
That statue got KTVB wondering about Idaho's bigfoot.
According to John Hailey's book, The History Of Idaho, bigfoot was more than 6-feet tall and weighed 280 pounds, with a footprint that measured nearly 18 inches long.
That's the only part of the story that remains true, through all the versions of Idaho's bigfoot. Idaho historian Rick Just explains:
"Well there was a chief by the name of bigfoot, 'Chief Nampa.' Was the town named after him, I don't know," Just said.
KTVB's Brian Holmes: "Will we ever know?"
Just: "Probably not."
Holmes: "Did he have big feet?"
Just: "Some say that he did, yes. Allegedly, 17.5-inch footprints and he was 6'6", or maybe he was 7'6", who knows exactly. He was a big guy.
His name would appear anytime White settlers did not do well in a battle, according to Just.
Just: "He was this huge Indian, nobody could have done anything about it, he was just huge. So, that was the story. There were people that were killed and horses that were stolen, that sort of thing and those things did happen, of course they did. Was this a single Indian involved in every one of those incidents, probably not."
In fact, this single Shoshoni morphed into an amalgamation of many. There's the chief named Nampa. Then, there's another Shoshoni by the name of Howluck, who was involved in the Snake War who the Idaho State Historical Society says is the real bigfoot.
There's also the other bigfoot, who was 1/4th Cherokee and who's story was told in the Idaho Statesman in 1878.
"Yes, it was quite -- let's say -- incredible," Just said.
It was a 10-year-old, third hand, rather extravagant account of an encounter of how and when the terror of Idaho was killed.
"This person reported to the statesman that someone he knew told him a story about how that someone met bigfoot in the Owyhees and there was a shootout, and he shot bigfoot 16 times," Just said. "He was gonna die, so he took that opportunity to tell a two-hour story about his life, as one would, of course.
Holmes: "That seems far fetched to you?"
Just: It does. Part of it because the gentleman who allegedly told this story never mentioned it in any of his own papers.
The gentleman gunman was allegedly John Wheeler, seeking the $1,000 reward for bigfoot.
Just said he never collected it, so there is no proof it happened.
"You know, there was no body, nothing like that. Just one of those good stories," Just said.
Holmes: "So, according to you and your research, there's no definitive explanation for a Native American, Shoshoni, Paiute, Bannock -- there's no explanation or anything that he even existed?"
Just: "There really isn't. There are stories, but stories are stories."
Holmes: "Yet we have a statue that says this guy was real."
Just: "Yes, yes."
The bigfoot statue was a big enough deal to be dedicated by Idaho Governor Cecil Andrus in August 1974.
The best part of all of this, there is no way to know if any of it is true, but it'd be cool if it was.
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