Crater Dreams
Bigfoot began as a dream. A dream by a small community of people lying in the grasses on the
rocky coast of what would one day be called Seattle. But the man with that name was far in the
future. For now, it was the grasses of the rocky coast, and it was home.
A young woman was the first to have the dream. Her head lying on the dewy ground,
she dreamt of a man. No, not quite a man. A tall being covered head to toe with fur. Rich,
chestnut fur. The young woman was not scared. She knew the being only wanted to share the
forest with them. That there was nothing to fear.
The dream then spread to the girl’s mother (these kinds of things tend to run in the
family, you know.) Wind from the shore tousling her hair, the mother dreamt of the being.
Wherever he went, he left behind footprints that threatened to swallow up the land with their
grandeur. These craters dotted the landscape, the only tangible evidence that he had ever been
there.
Perhaps you’ve guessed that the next to dream of him was the young girl’s father. He
dreamt that the being shied away from the gazes of humanity. That he hid behind trees, the
trees in those days not quite big enough to shield him from the wandering eyes of humans. And
of course, there was the issue of the footprints, the craters that no one could ignore.
Resting her old bones, the girl’s grandmother had a dream. She dreamt of a noble face
set in all that fur, a face that had seen more than she ever had in all her years of living (and she
had seen oh-so-many things.) The eyes in the face were sad, the grandmother thought, filled
with sorrow. Was it his solitary lifestyle? Or did he know the dreams meant he had finally been
seen? That his way of life was over?
The girl’s grandfather saw far, far away. To a time of beasts moving at speeds never
thought possible, of a world encased in light that never died. In the dream, the grandfather saw
the being looking down at a crowd of people. But the being in this situation was not flesh and
blood. No, it was an effigy of sorts, a representation. But the people had huge smiles on their
faces, like this was a moment that would linger with them long after it had passed. Maybe their
descendants would dream of the moment, too.
Bigfoot. The young girl’s dream told her his name was Bigfoot. And he was not the only
one. There were others, all skittish and afraid to be perceived. And the young girl’s dream had
created their presence in our world.
When everyone woke, the young girl confessed her dream. The mother and the father,
the grandmother and the grandfather, all put the pieces together. They now knew they shared
the woods with a being whose footprints could create craters and valleys. He would not allow
them to gaze on him for very long, but he was there. And so were they.
And that is how Bigfoot came into being.