Nov 5, 2023
Written By: J.Couch
I am not sure where or when I heard about this place, North American Bigfoot Center. I think that it was in one of those airplane magazines on an airplane flying somewhere? I don’t remember, other than I saw that this was very close to my parents house and that sometime when we were in Portland, looking for something to do, this place might be interesting to stop by and check it out. I marked it on my Google maps and moved on with life.
Well that day came, we were looking for something to do on a Sunday before the rain was supposed to roll in for the day. I was looking at my maps and realized that I had marked this place to check out. We decided to take a drive and see what this place was all about.
North American Bigfoot Center is located just off SE Compton Road and Highway 26 that goes from Portland up towards Sandy and on to Mt Hood. I have traveled this route many times on the way up to the mountain to go skiing. It sits behind what used to be an old A&W which is now some burger and shakes place. Right next to this used to be another restaurant and used to have a small kids train that ran around the whole building. I can remember stopping here as a kid and riding the train. There is still some evidence of the rail tracks that now go nowhere around the parking lot. It looks like some have been buried or dug up.
We pulled in and found there were already a few other cars in the parking lot. I was not sure how busy this place would be or what to even expect from this place. This was kind of a shot in the dark. When you walk in, you walk into the gift shop or store area. They have a lot of bigfoot knick knacks, books, shirts and stickers if you need to stock up on your bigfoot supplies. There is a guy there that will try to convince you that you need to go through the museum and answer questions about bigfoot if you have any.
To get into the museum it costs $8 for general admission, $6 for Seniors, kids 12 & under, active military, veterans, etc. Kids 5 yrs & under are free. When you walk through the door to the museum you are greeted with a huge replica of a bigfoot that stands 7 or 8 feet tall. They have a bunch of foot castings from all over the US along with stories of people that have seen or heard bigfoot throughout the years. In the hallway area they have some stories of bigfoot from China and other countries that were kind of interesting. Some of them go back thousands of years.
Overall it was an interesting place to visit and $8 dollars is not bad to get in to see their collection of bigfoot exhibits. It is worth the stop by if you are traveling from Portland up to the Sandy area or up over the mountains. And I am sure that the kids would really enjoy it. They do have a lot of exhibits and examples to try to prove that there is a bigfoot out there somewhere. I am still not sure if I believe that there is a bigfoot, I guess that there is a possibility that there could be. I want to believe that there is.
Thanks for wandering with us,
The Wandering Couchs
