Bigfoot has been walking the forests and the public's collective imaginations since the first settlers of America arrived.

Though most sightings of bigfoot have been chalked up to people in gorilla suits, footprints made by a wooden cast, or grainy as heck photos, there has been some evidence that is far harder to interpret than being just messy pixels.

Here are the top 10 most compelling evidence of Bigfoot ever.

10. Bossburg Cripple Prints

Footprint casts of the alleged Bossburg Bigfoot. The most famous case of a stubbed pinky toe in history

Plaster casts of bigfoot prints are normally shaped like, well, big feet. But the Bossburg prints are different as the alleged bigfoot that made the casts was, supposedly,  a cripple. The Bossburg cripple prints was a 1089 long set of footprints in the snow.

The deformity that the feet created on the snow was theorized to be because of a congenital condition called metatarsus adductus or skew foot, something that would be hard to fake.

Dr. John Napier, a renowned primatologist, has publicly commented about the authenticity of the prints saying that the “persuasive consistency” and its “variability” (with which in its variety is something that is in tune with nature as opposed to the uniformity of a fake)

9. Skookum Cast

The skookum cast was a mud indentation that seemingly represented a bigfoot that was positioned the same way as this sketch represented. That’s a chill Bigfoot right there.

Trace evidence of Bigfoot’s existence usually boils down to footprint indentations on the ground, unknown hair samples caught on branches or weird tree structures in the middle of the forest but rarely do you ever find evidence where a whole body indentation of a bigfoot is found.

The Skookum Cast was an indentation made on mud believed to be made by a bigfoot as it was reaching out for fruits made by bigfoot researchers.

This compelling piece of evidence was discovered during the filming of Animal X when they went on an expedition to look for Bigfoot in the Skookum Meadows area of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in the Washington Area.

The cast represented what appeared to be a large animal’s left forearm, hip, thigh, buttocks, and even the foot.

Studies were made of the cast by anthropologist Dr. Grover Krantz and biologist Dr. John Bindernagel and are convinced that the cast was made by a sasquatch. Dr. Jeffrey Meldrum, anthropologist, also studied the castand has found evidence of dermatoglyphics that resemble that of a primate.

8. Stacy Brown Thermal Footage

A still from Stacy Brown's thermal footage that shows a bipedal being with disproportionately long arms. And before you ask, no there are no such things as “arm extenders”

Florida native and filmmaker Stacy Brown caught footage of an unknown being skulking the woods of Florida that is still unexplained to this day. The creature was caught on camera for all of 3 seconds but its proportions, movement, and height that was caught on footage is hard to debunk.

The creature had a full thermal signature (something hard to fake if it was a suit), massive and disproportionately long arms, and used the trees as cover as so many reports of bigfoot state, with a massive walking stride.  

7. Shipton Yeti Prints

One of the prints that were allegedly made by a Yeti photographed by Eric Shipton in 1951. I don't know about you but no one in the right mind would go around walking barefoot in the snow. Much less, a giant foot that's as long as an ice pick used to climb mountains.

In 1951, mountaineers Eric Shipton and Dr. Michael Ward came across a set of footprints 15,000 to 16,000 feet up in the Menlung Basin of Mt. Everest.

The footprints were twice as wide as a normal human foot. The toes of the footprints were large and grotesquely different from a normal human foot with the big toe appearing bigger and lower than that of a human.

The location with which the footprints were found are arguably the strongest factors for its authenticity as stepping on foot on the bare snow without any protection would cause frostbite in minutes for a normal human.

The discovery of these footprints caused a frenzy that led to numerous other expeditions to Mt. Everest not necessarily to climb the mountain but to find the creature responsible for making the strange footprints.

6. Sasquatch Throwing Tree

Screenshot of the video taken by construction workers in Canada which captures a gigantic figure in the distance throwing a tree with one arm. Yeah I’m sure no one in the world is that strong.

Construction workers for an oil company in Alberta, Canada saw a dark figure coming out of the woods that was seemingly walking in their direction. One construction worker started recording the incident and captured a gigantic being throwing a tree as if in response to a threat in its vicinity, which in this case were the construction workers.

YouTuber ThinkerThunker stabilized and enhanced the video and revealed what the workers saw. In the video you could see a dark figure throwing a 12 foot tall three 30 to 40 feet in the air with one arm.

The question is, even if it's a man in a suit, could any man alive throw a three that far without any kind of equipment?

5. Marble Mountain Bigfoot

A still from the video taken of the Marble Mountain Bigfoot. Look at it standing there, menacingly

A group led by their leader was camping in the Marble Mountain Wilderness, California when they first found strange tree structures in the forest. A makeshift shelter made of snapped trees, branches, and leaves  found by the group with the trees around it bearing the scratch marks of an unidentified creature. Signs of a fire pit were also found but no signs that a fire was ever made there in the first place.

A few minutes after the discovery of these strange structures, the group saw a tall and dark figure walking down from the mountains, seemingly observing them. They filmed the strange creature for 7 minutes, making it the longest recorded sighting of an alleged Bigfoot on video.

4. Paul Freeman Footage

An alleged bigfoot in the center frame caught on camera by Paul Freeman in 1994.

Considered to be the second most compelling bigfoot evidence of all time, just second to the Patterson-Gimlin footage, is the Paul Freeman Footage.. In the beginning of the footage, Freeman sees a trail of footprints leading into the forest of Washington’s Blue Mountains.

After following the set of footprints, he saw a family of Bigfoots trudging through the dense underbrush. In the video you can also see a smaller figure walking next to the taller alleged Sasquatch which indicates a possible juvenile Sasquatch and a breeding population existing in the Washington area.

3. Sierra Sounds

Not only footprints or videos of Bigfoot exist but also alleged vocalizations of the creature have reportedly been captured.

Author and adventurer Ron Morehead along with his friend Al Berry went into the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Eastern California and caught a series of unexplained and eerie vocalizations that are still unexplained to this day.

The Sierra Sounds are the only Bigfoot vocalizations that have been scientifically studied and accredited as genuine by extensive research by scientists and bioacoustic experts over the years.

The vocalizations captured growls, whoops, tree knocks, and what seemingly seems like a mimicking of human speech by the alleged creatures that sounds like a garbled mimic of the mandarin language.

This speech is believed to have been copied by Bigfoot when Chinese immigrants back in the 1800’s were the main workforce of the construction of railways that cut through dense forests where Bigfoot allegedly resided.

2. Josh Highcliff Skunk Ape

A standing and hulking creature in center frame that was caught on video seemingly looking for its next snack in the Florida swamps.

“There was this huge black thing crouched by a dead cypress about 50 yards away. I thought it was a hog but saw these big shoulders and a head upright with hands. It looked like it was digging out the stump. My first instinct was to run, I did not even think of shooting...then I know no one will believe me...it was like everything slowed down...I was scared!

I took out my iphone and started videotaping it..I guess I pushed the record button twice cause it stopped blinking red.. but i pushed it again. I heard a truck driving down the road and the thing stood up!! I was trying to be dead quiet...when it stood up I could not control myself and ran. That stump was huge and I'd guess the sucker was 7 feet tall, I am a hunter and am pretty darn good at guessing size. 

That's no bear!”

This was the retelling of what Josh Highcliff saw in the swamps of Florida. In his hunt for wild hogs, he stumbled upon what he first thought was a bear, but upon closer inspection, it petrified him when it didn't look anything like a bear.

The creature was a dark and hairy figure that ripped apart a tree like it was nothing. It looked like it was foraging for insects that were hiding inside the tree. What was very strange about this is that in the video that was captured, it was standing on two legs. It also had a strange cone shaped head similar to what a Bigfoot’s head was supposed to look like.

The video that Josh Highcliff captured has been studied extensively frame by frame by numerous researchers and they saw rippling muscle groups under the fur. Something almost impossible to fake as stated by numerous special effects experts like Stan Winston, the special effects artists for the Planet of the Apes movie.

1. Patterson - Gimlin footage

Freeze frame: I guess you’re wondering how I ended up in the world's most famous proof of our species existence huh

And of course, the top spot for this list is no other than the Patterson-Gimlin footage. There’s a reason why this footage of Bigfoot, or as researchers call her “Patty” (due to her pronounced breasts) has stood the test of time.

Decades of study of every frame in this 59 second film has been carefully analyzed, and almost all of the experts whether they be primatologists, anthropologists, biologists, forensics experts, biomechanical experts, and even special effects artists all had one thing to say.

It’s not a man in a suit.

The fluidity of its movements and rippling muscle groups that could be clearly seen in film is something impossible to fake in today's modern world, much less 1967 when the film was made.

The subject in the film could be clearly seen flexing its fingers, lifting its toes when it takes a step, its calf muscles flexing and thighs rippling, and even its mouth opening when it went to take a look at Patterson and Gimlin

Even if all the rest of the previous entries in this list are fake, it only takes one undeniable piece of evidence to prove the existence of Bigfoot and none of it comes closer to the truth than the Patterson-Gimlin footage.

You may also like:

• Top 25 Cryptids of All Time
• Top 15 Creepy Unknown Creatures Caught on Tape
• Top 10 Games like The Forest (Games Better than The Forest in their own way)