| Ooooh! Mom! Take me there! |
The director of the Idaho Museum of Natural History says it won't matter whether Bigfoot is farce or fact when a new exhibit opens Friday. Linda Deck, who is also curator of the Bigfoot exhibit, said the museum is taking a neutral position and simply displaying artifacts that involve the legendary creature that some say lives secretly in the Northwest. "As human beings we make sense of our world in a variety of different ways," Deck told the Idaho State Journal. "We've got our myths, legends and beliefs and a very scientific way of knowing about our world, too, where we make hypotheses and test things and learn and change what we think." But for Bigfoot believers, it could be a treasure trove. Included in the exhibit is the Patterson-Gimlin film that shows a large creature striding away before turning and looking directly at the camera. In the clip the creature steps on a branch. That branch is included in the exhibit. The branch was used to calculate the creature's height at 6-foot-6, said Dave Mead, exhibits director at the museum. Also on display is a flannel jacket worn by the late Rene Dahinden, who spend 40 years in search of Bigfoot. He wore the jacket during a series of commercials for Kokanee beer.