Located inside of a desolate cabin– quietly tucked away in serial killer Country near the outskirts of Santa Cruz– lies the Bigfoot Discovery Museum; a magical place that might be the closest you'll ever get to the big man.
Although it looks like your average cabin in the woods from the road (albeit, a cabin with wooden sasquatches littering the front yard), step inside to really kick out the bizzaro jams.
The walls and tables are adorned with stuffed Bigfoots, Sasquatch books, maps of sightings, wooden sculptures and other ghastly oddities. There are also shelves filled with with every accessory under the sun: “authentic” Bigfoot skulls, teeth and footprints, and you can gaze upon the collection of newspaper clippings, which intensely document man’s difficult journey to find the beast.
The place is pretty small, so the whole experience shouldn't take the casual viewer more than 5 minutes to fully walk through. However, I strongly encourage all to take their time and really soak up the scene. It might be hairy, but there's a lot to love here.
But it isn’t just the romantic ambiance of the place that puts it light years ahead of the other museums in the region: enter owner, curator, Bigfoot enthusiast, master of the santa clause beard and #1 fan Mike Rugg, a man who's fiery passion has kept the place alive for over a decade.
Just look at that beard. Christmas definitely came a little early this year.
Dude is a character. He's so knowledgeable and passionate about the subject that you have to respect everything coming out of his mouth, no matter how absurd it might sound. And he's a talker; whether you like it or not, you might get trapped in his verbal assault for an hour or two. He's living proof that it must get pretty lonely in the middle of the woods, but I really dug his enthusiasm for the subject.
Mike walked me through the history, both of the place and his life, and even gave me an exclusive peak of his most prized item: an authentic Bigfoot tooth, which he's had analyzed, and authenticated by local scientists numerous times.
Classic roadside attraction that 100% delivers. Go to there.
HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?
In talking to Mike for a while, I got a lot of intel about the genesis of the Museum.
He's a Stanford graduate who went on to become a pretty successful computer programmer in Silicon Valley. After the bubble burst in the late 90s, he found that the "young kids" were taking all of the jobs in the Valley, so he had to 180 his career and figure out the next move quick.
Forever the Sasquatch lover (he told me he’d seen one as a child and it had a deep impact on him) Rugg decided to turn some property in Santa Cruz that he owned into a Bigfoot education center. As advertised, he also lives on site.
In 2004, the museum opened to the public as a roadside attraction with a singular goal: raise money from donations and souvenir purchases in order to gather proof of Bigfoot's existing.
I believe in this guy and his vision, so stop in, buy something, chat with Mike and support the movement.
