Three Bigfoot Hoaxes that were a LOT Worse than Coyote Peterson's Skull Stunt

Coyote Peterson's Bigfoot skull publicity stunt made headlines, frustrating and aggravating fans and online educators alike.

Coyote's "discovery" was presented as a fictional "what-if" scenario, seemingly to encourage his audience to question why such evidence has never been found before. It wasn't so much a hoax as it was slightly misguided clickbait.

Other would-be Sasquatch body snatchers, however, have had much less educational goals in mind.

Here are three of the most notable Bigfoot corpse hoaxes to date...

The Minnesota Iceman

Bigfoot... on ice!

 

The Minnesota Iceman was the supposed cadaver of a Sasquatch-like critter recovered from Vietnam in the 1960s. While this "specimen" isn't technically part of the Sasquatch family, having emerged from stories that originated on the other side of the world, I think we can lump it in with the American Bigfoot mythos for the sake of this article.

Credit: Darren Naish, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Source.

The Iceman toured the US as a sideshow attraction, earning the attention of skeptics and true believers alike. Two cryptozoologists, Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan Sanderson, invested quite a bit of time and energy espousing this thing's authenticity. But other experts weren't so convinced.

Coyote Peterson's Bigfoot Skull UPDATE

 Okay. This is better.

Coyote Peterson and his team have addressed the most controversial part of their previous Bigfoot video.

A new video on the Brave Wilderness channel clearly states that what Coyote did in the first video's hypothetical (fictional) narrative was NOT what you're supposed to do.

Coyote Peterson's Big(foot) Misstep

Okay, full disclosure: I am a big fan of Coyote Peterson’s work.

Is he clickbait-y? Yes. But I'd argue that his clickbait-y-ness is his strength. He has, for the most part, used clickbait for good rather than evil.

Hear me out! You click on a Coyote Peterson video to see some guy get stung by a hornet. The next thing you know you’re learning about conservation efforts and growing an appreciation and respect for wildlife. AND you still ACTUALLY get to see him get stung by a hornet!

Everybody wins!

This approach is certainly not for every viewer, but it's a clever and effective way of getting the message across and I can respect that. The hyperbole and showmanship are there to get eyeballs on something a lot more important. Overall, he promotes respect and appreciation for wildlife of all kinds, and I can get behind that 100%.

When it comes to clickbait, he walks the line, keeping his content engaging without sacrificing credibility or education.

Then, this happened…