STATE FILE · WY
Cryptids of Wyoming
What cryptids are in Wyoming? The best-known are Bigfoot, Pedro Mountain Mummy and Jackalope.
Wyoming’s mountain ranges – the Tetons, the Wind Rivers, the Bighorns and the Medicine Bow – rise out of high plains and sagebrush basins and give the least-populated state plenty of empty country for legends. Bigfoot reports come from the Bighorn National Forest, the Bridger-Teton country south of Yellowstone and the Medicine Bow range, where hunters describe tracks, odors and tall dark figures. Skeptics note that this is grizzly and black bear territory, and a bear on its hind legs is the most common explanation for sightings in the Rockies.
Cryptids reported in Wyoming
HOMINID · 1958
Bigfoot
Pacific Northwest forests, reported across North America
North America’s most famous cryptid: a huge, hairy, upright ape-like being reported from the Pacific Northwest to Florida since the 1958 “Bigfoot” tracks.
WIDELY REPORTED HUMANOID · 1932Pedro Mountain Mummy
Pedro Mountains near Pathfinder Reservoir, Carbon County, Wyoming
A tiny seated mummy found by Wyoming gold prospectors in the 1930s and promoted as proof of a race of little people – later identified as an infant.
HOAX / DEBUNKED
OTHER · 1932
Jackalope
Douglas, Converse County, Wyoming
A jackrabbit with antelope antlers, born of a Douglas, Wyoming, taxidermy joke in the 1930s and now the West’s favorite tall-tale animal.
FOLKLOREThe legends of Wyoming
Near Buffalo, Lake DeSmet – a reservoir-enlarged lake in a basin formed by ancient coal-seam fires – has a monster nicknamed “Smetty.” Local writers trace the story to the early 20th century, including a 1925 account by railroad surveyor Edward Gillette, and Indigenous and settler tales of drownings and lost lovers have attached themselves to the lake.
Wyoming is also home to the “Pedro Mountain mummy,” a tiny, seated human figure that gold prospectors said they found sealed in rock in the San Pedro Mountains in 1932. It was exhibited as proof of a race of little people, echoing Shoshone and Crow traditions of small beings in the mountains, but X-rays later suggested it was the body of an infant with a congenital condition. The mummy has since disappeared.
Hotspots
Mountain range in northern Wyoming with frequent Bigfoot reports.
Lake north of Buffalo said to be home to the monster “Smetty.”
Remote range southwest of Casper where the famous mummy was reportedly found in 1932.
Vast wild country south of Yellowstone with occasional Sasquatch claims.
Sightings timeline
- 1932 (or 1934)Prospectors find the mummy Pedro Mountain Mummy
Cecil Main and Frank Carr reported finding the seated figure in a small chamber after blasting a hillside. The exact year is disputed between newspaper reports and Main’s affidavit.
- Early 1930sThe first jackalope mount Jackalope
Douglas and Ralph Herrick combined a jackrabbit and a set of antlers in their taxidermy shop and sold the result for $10 to Roy Ball of the Hotel LaBonte.
- Late 1940s – 1950Scientific examination Pedro Mountain Mummy
Harry Shapiro and Paul Martin concluded the mummy was a naturally mummified infant, most likely with anencephaly. The mummy dropped out of public view soon afterward.
- 1977The original is stolen Jackalope
The first jackalope, a fixture of the hotel bar for decades, was reportedly stolen; by then countless copies had been sold across the West.
- 1994<em>Unsolved Mysteries</em> and a second mummy Pedro Mountain Mummy
After a TV segment on Pedro, a family came forward with a similar small mummy. DNA and X-ray tests identified it as an anencephalic Native American infant.
- 2005A bid for official status Jackalope
Wyoming lawmakers proposed naming the jackalope the state’s official mythological creature, the first of several attempts that passed the House but failed in the Senate.
Latest from Wyoming
No recent cryptid headlines from Wyoming. See all the latest cryptid news.
Videos
ARCHIVE.ORG3:07
Patterson–Gimlin film (unedited)
Roger Patterson and Bob GimlinThe original 1967 Bluff Creek footage – the most famous and most debated minute in Bigfoot history. Marked public domain on archive.org.
ARCHIVE.ORG4:59
The Film That Made Bigfoot A Star
Oregon Public BroadcastingOPB’s short documentary on how the Patterson–Gimlin film turned a regional legend into a global icon – and the hoax claims around it.
▶ VIDEO
Sts’ailes Sasquatch Days in Harrison Hot Springs
Tourism Harrison River ValleyShows the festival celebrating the Sts’ailes people’s Sásq’ets, the being behind the word “Sasquatch” (no archive.org equivalent).