Posted on 11/29/2024 11:55:11 AM PST by nickcarraway
The Bigfoot Discovery Museum in the Santa Cruz Mountains will close after 20 years as its owner retires.
"It's going to be weird for me. Yeah. I'm so used to this, and I've been doing this for so, so long. To suddenly have it all go away, and everything is going to be strange," said owner Michael Ruggs.
The iconic museum, located alongside Highway 9 in Felton, has embodied Santa Cruz's quirkiness for twenty years.
As Ruggs retires, the museum will retire alongside him.
"Well, anywhere from 30 to 70 people come in the door and, they'll check everything out, and, I show them our local sighting map, and, they're usually amazed to see how many sightings there have been in this area. I was amazed, too, because when I opened it, I didn't expect that to happen," Ruggs said.
Ruggs says he first saw Bigfoot when he was a kid.
"I looked upstream, and then when I look back towards the woods. Whoa, here's this big hairy guy standing there looking at me. And we had eye contact for about the count of three. Then I heard my mother screaming. Mikey, where are you? So I thought, oh, jeez, I better get back," Ruggs recalled.
California man who went missing for 25 years found after sister sees his picture in the news The museum boasted statues, collectibles, plaster foot and hand prints of the creature, and a detailed exhibit on the Patterson-Gimlin film.
For visitors, it was all about the "what if?"
"Read all the details, take into account what is there, what could be, you know, and keep your mind open when you're trying to go through it all. So just enjoy it," Allison Luna a visitor said.
Ruggs says it's bittersweet to say goodbye to the museum and the community.
"I would say, thank you for your support. Thank you for coming in, bringing in friends and relatives. It has helped make this happen. And, this is a wonderful community here in Santa Cruz. I just love this place," Ruggs said.
He could always send his stuff to the Bigfoot museum in Blue Ridge, GA.
In before the Big Mike jokes.
As ancient astronauts theorists would have you believe….
If “as ancient astronaut theorists believe” was a drinking game, no one would survive 10 minutes of any random episode.
Funny how they never mentioned Bigfoot on The Walking Dead.
/would pay to see that as a zombie
Love that guy and I’d swear he’s in on the joke.
/Resident Alien cameos were hilarious
He never saw no ‘Bigfoot’. What a bunch of horse crap.
If Bigfoot exists it would have been found and proven long long ago.
No DNA Evidence has been found—mistaken bears is my guess and a lot of pranksters with big footprint makers. Sill, lots of folks make a great deal of money on this scam. Now, the Yeti, It exists—they found DNA of an extinct Polar Bear—not around for 30 million years—Maybe its a bear rather than an ape?
And Native Americans.
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