Ivan Marx and his Bigfoot Obsession

Ivan Marx was a woodsman, animal tracker, nature photographer, filmmaker, and part time cinematographer for Walt Disney.

He was also nearly obsessed with finding and documenting Bigfoot, the mythical ape-like creature that supposedly lives in the wild forests of the awesomely beautiful Pacific Northwest.

Marx, along with his wife, Peggy, tracked and hunted Bigfoot for more than forty years. During his research, Marx produced photographs and video footage of the big, hairy ape-like beast.

He also claimed to have encountered the famous phantom Mothmen that exist in the shadows of our world.

Today, we, who are obsessed with unexplained mysteries, supernatural events, paranormal activity, random weird clips, are left with the following questions about Marx and his years of Bigfoot research:

1. Might There Be a Modicum of Authenticity to Marx’s Research?
2. Could the “Hoax” Accusations Be A Government Cover-Up Designed to Keep Us In the Dark About Big Hairy Creatures that Actually Roam The Forests?
3. How Could A Man Spend Forty Years Chasing a Monster and Come Up Completely Empty-Handed?

Marx’s first exposure to the creature was back in 1951. He was attending the Dead Horse Summit in Siskiyou County, California, and there was a Sasquatch footprint on display.

At the time, the name “Bigfoot” had not yet been attributed to the creature, but Marx had heard of the Sasquatch legend - and reportedly, he was a non-believer.

His first actual encounter with the creature came in 1958. Marx had been out hunting cougar and bear in the Nevada White Mountains.

From more than 400 yards away, Marx claimed to have seen a “Tall, black, ominous, man-like creature.”

He grabbed his 400 mm telephoto lens and he shot nearly 15 seconds of footage. Even though Marx was a skilled hunter and woodsman, he dared not get closer to the creature, because he claimed that it was “Too strange, unknown, and potentially dangerous to want to get any closer.”

Throughout his years of tracking the creature, many of Marx’s detractors questioned how he constantly appeared to be at the right time and place to capture his footage.

As stated in the opening paragraph of this hub, Ivan Marx was not just a cinematographer; he was also a highly skilled animal trainer, tracker and all-around woodsman.

He spent time with area Native Americans and Eskimos, and he devoted a lot of time learning about habitual Sasquatch patterns; this is how he came to understand how to be at the right time and place for Bigfoot sightings.

Bossburg is a famous ghost town situated along the Columbia River in the heavily wooded and majestic state of Washington. The town is located just south of the U.S./Canadian border.

In the Winter of 1969, there were sightings of thousands of gigantic human-like tracks in the snowy grounds in and around Lake Roosevelt near Bossburg.

The tracks appeared to be left behind by a big creature with an injured leg; this is how the name “Bossburg Cripple” came to be.

Ivan Marx, and two other naturalists happened upon the tracks, and took cast samples. Eventually, an all-out effort began to track the crippled Bigfoot. They did not find the creature, but they did find and capture more casts of the footprints.

Scientists suggest that the appearance of a “crippled” foot was due to a birth defect, rather than a crippling injury.

More than forty years later, anthropologists can find no evidence the tracks were a hoax.

When the famous Patterson-Gimlin clip was released 1967 to much hype and scrutiny, Ivan Marx told some of his closest acquaintances about his own clip of a Sasquatch.

The Marx film was never as highly scrutinized as the Patterson-Gimlin clip, and it was largely dismissed as a hoax and a knockoff of the Patterson-Gimlin piece.

In 1976, the part time Disney cinematographer produced a documentary film titled “The Legend of Bigfoot.” The documentary highlighted his encounters and research of the legendary Bigfoot. You can watch the film in its entirety at the bottom of this hub.

Scientists and amateurs alike often dismissed the footage he shot and claimed that he was a fraud, and his work was merely a collection of hoaxes. While he had many supporters of his claims of authenticity, his detractors were more vocal about their beliefs.

There were three questions asked at the beginning of this hub. I will answer those questions based on the research I have done about the Ivan Marx Bigfoot:

1. There Might Be Some Truth To Ivan's Claims that BigFoot is Real - There Have Been Plenty of Unexplained Issues Surrounding the Existence of Sasquatch.
2. Let's Face It, Most People Who Lived In Wooded Areas Would Panic If It Is Revealed That Bigfoot is Real. However, Ivan Marx's Claims Were Widely Dismissed, So No Government Agency Would Have Felt A Need to Cover Anything Up.
3. It May Very Well Be that Marx Never Found Any Indisputable Proof in All Those Years Because Bigfoot Simply Does Not Exist.

The answers above are just my personal take on Ivan Marx's claims. We may never know the absolute truth to the answers of the three questions posed at the beginning of this hub, the best that we can do is examine the evidence he left behind and judge for ourselves.

Regardless to the opinions of the outside world, Ivan Marx vehemently claimed his Bigfoot footage was genuine - and in 1999, Mark took this claim to his death.