Wait, what?! Hair from Bigfoot?
Uh, yes, hair from Bigfoot, aka Sasquatch.
With a bid of $225, Steve Busti was the lucky winner for what actually appears to be hair from -- something.
"I'm excited," Busti said by phone soon after Saturday night's auction. "I'm really looking forward to having the hair tested. If they come back with some unusual result, it could really change things. This could really be like the smoking gun, if you will, that will prove the existence of this animal."
Busti owns the Museum of the Weird in Austin, Texas, and plans to add the hair to an existing Bigfoot exhibit that includes alleged Bigfoot tracks in plaster casts. Obviously, he is hoping the Bigfoot hair turns out to be authentic.
The lock of hair came in a plastic holder attached to a placard (shown above) that said it was "Certified Genuine BIGFOOT Hair."
To further confirm it was from Bigfoot, the sign also said, "This specimen was collected from a trap near Skookumchuck Lake, in Washington state as verified by witnesses. This specimen is certified as Lot #015 of 100."
Lucky for you, there are probably 85 more lots of Bigfoot hair somewhere out there for you to buy on the Internet.
That's where Ty Shafer of Lufkin, Texas, originally found the item and bought it for $15 before putting it up for auction. After hearing the story of how the Bigfoot hair was obtained, Shafer was a believer.
Apparently, the person who divvied up the hair into 100 lots was visiting a friend near Skookumchuck Lake in Washington state. The friend was checking some animal traps -- not Bigfoot traps -- and pointed out Bigfoot tracks and hair (now in 100 lots) near the traps.
"Actually, I have seen Bigfoot before," the friend told the hair collector. Is it possible he's telling the truth?
According to The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization website, there have been 16 Bigfoot encounters in Thurston County where Skookumchuck Lake is located. The most recent report was in March.
Nevertheless, Henner Fahrenbach of The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization is not convinced that the Bigfoot hair sold at the auction is authentic. In fact, he's fairly certain it isn't.
"A sure-fire ripoff, since [there] are so few people around to prove it to be bear or whatever!" he said via email.
"In 20 years I have gotten barely 20 BF samples that I consider authentic and they were all basically single strands, never 'locks.' All I would need is one hair to rule out a lot of animals."
One of those 20 single-strand "Bigfoot hair samples" is shown in the microscopic photo below.
So, did Busti actually purchase Bigfoot hair?
"Well, I keep an open mind about it," Busti said. "The likelihood of it being an authentic hair from an unknown upright-walking primate is probably a very, very low probability. But at the same time, it's those chances we've got to take to try to find out if these creatures exist or not."
Busti is planning to have DNA testing completed on the hair. If it proves to be hair from Bigfoot, the Museum of the Weird will get a lot more popular. If it proves to be bear hair, well, Busti may end up kicking himself for not bidding on the 1950s Schwinn bicycle, instead.
In related news, The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization is looking for hair experts. If you happen to be one, please contact the organization immediately. Thank you.
Top two photos courtesy of the Nacogdoches Auction; alleged Bigfoot hair strand photo courtesy of The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE FOUND--HERE
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