Years ago I used an older guy, a game warden here in Washington State, to help me with field work. He called in one day saying he couldn’t help me as they got a report from some lady that saw something big and hairy climb over her barbed wire fence. And he and a guy from the university were going down to investigate and grab a hair sample she said was caught in the fence.
He said they did see some messed up tracks and got some hair that was probably just a bear. Although I don’t recall hearing about bears climbing over fences. Regardless, I found it interesting that the state would pay (presumably?) for two guys to travel 3-4 hours one way just because some lady reported a bigfoot.
There’s lots of cover, lots of water, lots of food, I’m not surprised that they may be in there, not least because the anecdotes antedate Columbus.