The Bigfoot trap is located in the Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest in the southern part of Jackson County, Oregon, from the California border. Believed to be the only one of its kind, the

trap A trap is a mechanical device used to capture or restrain an animal for purposes such as hunting, pest control, or ecological research. Trap or TRAP may also refer to: Art and entertainment Films and television * ''Trap'' (2015 film), Fil ...

was designed in 1974 to capture

Bigfoot Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a purported ape-like creature said to inhabit the forest of North America. Many dubious articles have been offered in attempts to prove the existence of Bigfoot, including anecdotal claims o ...

, a purported ape-like creature said to live in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. It failed to accomplish this, and was abandoned in the early 1980s. Today, the trap is maintained as a novelty by the United States Forest Service as it sits along the

Collings Mountain Collings Mountain is a summit in the U.S. state of Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (stat ...

hiking trail and sees hundreds of visitors annually.

Description

The trap is a wooden box made of 2x12 planks bound together by heavy metal bands and secured to the ground by telephone poles. A U.S. Forest Service special use permit was issued for its construction. The trap's door has been bolted open since 1980 for visitor safety. Its location was originally remote, but since the construction of the

Applegate Dam Applegate Lake is a reservoir located in the Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest about southwest of Medford in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is south of Oregon Route 238 along Applegate River Road and slightly north of the Oregon–Califo ...

, a road is now near the trap.

History

The trap was built in 1974 by the North American Wildlife Research Team (NAWRT), a now-defunct organization based in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

, that was inspired to build a trap at the location by Perry Lovell, a miner who lived near the

Applegate River The Applegate River is a -long tributary of the Rogue River in the U.S. state of Oregon. It drains approximately . Rising in northern California, it soon crosses the border and flows northeast then northwest to meet the Rogue about west of Gra ...

, who claimed to have found 18-inch-long human-like tracks in his garden. NAWRT operated the trap, keeping it baited with carcasses for six years, but caught only

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

s. The Bigfoot trap was abandoned and began to deteriorate. In 2006 the U.S. Forest Service, under the "Passport in Time" program, began to repair the trap. The trap has become a tourist attraction and hundreds of people visit it annually. At least one film has been shot on site.

References

* "Trap designed to catch Bigfoot has outlasted its creators," Associated Press, November 22, 1992, online at http://www.bigfootencounters.com/articles/trap.htm. (This is a boiled-down version of the Ludington report of November 16, above.) *

External links

USDA Forest Service Passport in Time program
{{coord, 42.05394, -123.14566, type:landmark_region:US-OR_source:googlemapssatellite, display=title Bigfoot Buildings and structures in Jackson County, Oregon Landmarks in Oregon Animal trapping

Description

History

See also

References

External links