Which came first this holiday season — Santa or Bigfoot? If you’re in Oregon, the answer is (b) for Bigfoot … and they have his image on a traffic cam to prove it. Does anyone have a picture of Santa on the roof? Who’s imaginary now? Oregon State Police in Morrow County received a “frantic” call from a motorist on the night of November 30th claiming to have seen a Sasquatch. Doing some late Black Friday shopping or perhaps on an early scouting mission for Santa? Bigfoot is an elf? Is this the makings of a new holiday movie?

“REAL BIGFOOT SIGHTING HERE IN Oregon. State Police received a frantic phone call about a Bigfoot sighting near the Hood River exit a few weeks ago.”

While it was not made public until December 15th on the Umatilla / Morrow County Watch Facebook page (which tracks “scanner reports from police and fire in Morrow County and surrounding areas), the incident occurred on November 30th on I-84 at Exit 64A, which at that point runs along the Columbia River bordering Washington – two hotbeds of Bigfoot sightings. According to the Umatilla / Morrow County Watch:

“The caller described the thing as “dwarfing the guard rail” and “too big to be a bear” not to mention it was walking upright.”

That sounds like Bigfoot, right? This being the Pacific Northwest, the 911 operators get a lot of Bigfoot calls and this one was obviously not an emergency, so the dispatcher had time to check a monitor connected to Oregon Department of Transportation traffic and weather cameras along I-84 – one which happened to be pointed at the very spot where the Bigfoot was allegedly spotted. At this point, the story moves from “allegedly” to “hmmm.”

“The dispatcher immediately checked the ODOT camera and saw this image…..

This image gave me chills so I had to share it with you guys!”

As you can see (here’s a link to the image), it’s a dark, shadowy, blurry photo of something that could be a Bigfoot straddling a guardrail … on an official government camera. There’s at least one car approaching, which may or may not have been the witness. At this point, it’s time to look for dots to connect to make a case for or against Bigfoot. It’s 11:30 pm on a Saturday night, so it could be drunken partier dumped by his Uber driver. That exit is near where the Hood River runs into the Columbia, and the Hood River runs to Mt. Hood, a place with numerous Bigfoot sightings. There don’t appear to be any other 911 calls or reports to the media about a Bigfoot sighting that night. The thing was walking upright as it climbed over a guardrail – unusual for a bear.

The dot collecting could go on and on, as it does in the long and mostly skeptical comments section on the Umatilla / Morrow County Watch Facebook page. The date is most intriguing to this writer, as it’s the day after Thanksgiving and the true official start of the holiday shopping season. Is this a Bigfoot going home to Washington after visiting family in Oregon? Or is Bigfoot on a scouting mission for Santa?

The Santa Bigfoot connection has been explored before – the 2018 “Bigfoot” animated film is about a “devious yeti” who finds Santa’s naughty list and “banishes Santa to the Land Of Holiday Misfits, leaving it up to a young boy named Finn and his trusty dragon Haldor to find a way to save Christmas.” The book “Bigfoot and Santa Get Trashed in Vegas” tells the ‘fictional’ tale of Bigfoot, Santa and the Tooth Fairy throwing a bachelor party in Las Vegas for the Easter Bunny before he marries a Playboy bunny.

Is this picture from an Orgon highway evidence of the existence of Bigfoot? Is its appearance during the holiday season proof of a Bigfoot-Santa connection? Should we be putting Bigfoot on the shelf instead of that annoying elf? Those thoughts are my gift to you to ponder and discuss with family and friends while sharing a mug of hot cider during whichever holiday you’re celebrating. And if you’re in Oregon, pour a mug for Sasquatch, just in case.

Merry Christmas from me and Bigfoot.