Bigfoot Handprint Discovered In Texas

In the dense woodlands of northeast Texas, near the town of Paris, there have been many recent reports of sightings of large, hairy, creatures that match descriptions of Bigfoot or the Sasquatch of the Pacific Northwest. Evidence of the creature's presence has been accumulating, including a few excellent plaster casts of its footprints. However, distinct hand-prints from any region are relatively rare, and the subject of this article is one of the best cast hand-prints on record to date. (Note that the images and diagrams can also be viewed in a convenient slide-show format by clicking on this link.)

The cast hand-print is from a collection made by the late Mike Sells, who lived in the Paris area. (Mike passed away in 2008). I was given permission to closely examine and photograph the casts when they were on display at the first annual Bigfoot Festival in Lamar, Point, Texas on Nov. 7th, 2009. The collection was on loan from Mike's wife, Sandy, and it included several cast footprints and hand-prints, ranging from big males to females and small juveniles. Mike was an ardent outdoorsman who discovered evidence of the creatures on numerous occasions while exploring the woodlands, and while searching for Native American artifacts.

The impression of the hand-print was made in sandy soil. The granular sand did not pick up fine detail, such as dermal ridges or finger-print whorls. However, the general contours of the hand, including the creases in the palm (also referred to as "life lines" in palmistry) are fairly distinct. Embedded in the cast is a peach pit.(The area around Paris is noted for its peach orchards, and there are many individual trees growing wild.) The pit is about 1 & 1/4 inches long, so it can be used as a scale.

The hand-print is about 12 & 1/2 inches long, which would indicate a creature about 9 to 10 feet tall, based on the ratios used for humans.Using the biometric calculations used for estimating human weight, the creature would weigh from 500-600 pounds if the body type was within the "normal" range, and would likely be considerably heavier, assuming a very heavy-boned and muscular being.

Despite the obvious similarity to a human hand, the cast print shows some notable differences in its configuration. First is the enormous size, which is nearly double the length of an average human hand, with a surface area about three times the size of a human's. The bone structure, which can be traced by the prominences or bulges at the joints, indicates bones which are more massive and blocky, with less curvature along the length than those of a human.

The palm is larger in proportion to the fingers than that of a human, and has elongated metacarpal bones connected to the little finger and "ring" finger, which make the palm considerably more square than a human hand. The little and ring fingers are also proportionately longer and thicker than a human's. The thumb is splayed at a larger angle and is also comparatively more robust than that of a human. The massive bone structure indicates a creature with tremendous grasping power.

The relative flatness of the palm, and the uniformity of the impression indicate thick, callused skin on the palm and fingers, due to frequent, habitual contact with rough surfaces and the lifting of heavy objects. There is a notably robust development evident in the main muscles of the hand, namely the pollicis group along the metacarpal of the thumb, and the digiti minimi group along the metacarpal of the little finger. These muscles are proportionally larger and wider by comparison to a human hand. The bio-mechanical configuration of the Bigfoot/Sasquatch hand would enable it to apply enormous pressure and torque on any object in its grasp.

The dimensions of the cast Bigfoot hand-print indicate an individual whose size almost exactly matches that indicated by another specimen that I examined, an excellent cast Bigfoot footprint from the Paris area. The footprint, impressed into soft clay, has fine detail of dermal ridges, stress creases, and skin-folds at the joints as well as other anatomical features. The analytical article, photographs and diagrams can be found at this link.

As a related note of interest, Mike Sells was featured in the movie "Bigfoot Lives" produced by Searching For Bigfoot Inc. "Bigfoot Lives" chronicles the research efforts of the SFBI team, headed by the renowned Tom Biscardi. The Searching for Bigfoot website link can be found listed in the Resources section below.

Resources:
Slide Show of Cast Hand-print with Bone Structure Analysis : http://www.associatedcontent.com/slideshow/58844/bigfoot_handprint_discovered_in_texas.html?cat=58

Slide Show of Cast Footprint with Analysis: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/712585/i_analyzed_bigfoots_footprint_a_study.html?cat=70

Slide Show with Fine Details in Closeup from Cast Footpprint: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2243755/texas_bigfoot_cast_print_examination_pg2.html?cat=58

Searching for Bigfoot Website: http://www.searchingforbigfoot.com/