Just off the side of the road, along Highway 9 leading towards Santa Cruz, the Bigfoot Discovery Museum has attracted visitors for two decades.
While curiosity surrounding the mysterious creature continues, the unique attraction could soon be closing its doors as founder and owner Michael Rugg, now age 78, plans for retirement.
With a barn-like exterior design, the museum opened in 2004.
“The thing that happened that was so surprising was, as soon as the word hit the streets that I was here, the locals started coming in with citing reports,” Rugg told The Epoch Times.
He said people reported seeing the large, hairy humanoid in the woods surrounding their homes. Over the years, books, photos, footprint and animal track molds, toy figures, and other collectibles have found their way to the small building.
On the wall is a map that has a record of all reported sightings over the years. Different pin colors represent the decade in which each report took place, while the size of the pin represents either a sighting or circumstantial evidence such as tracks or sounds.
He said the most recent sighting was reported in early 2024. The large red pin on the map points to a spot near Millpond Lake, located in the southeast section of the Santa Cruz mountains.
“It’s about 10 months ago,” he said. “And the white one is from 1954.”
As for Rugg, his own sighting of the elusive creature was in 1950 while he was camping with his parents in Humboldt County.
At just four years old, young Rugg was running along the river next to the campsite while his parents made breakfast. As he made his way farther from camp, he went out on a sandbar on the water.
Looking towards the opposite shore, he said he saw a large, hairy man standing in the woods and looking back at him. Rugg said he estimated the figure was around 10 feet tall because “it was more than two feet taller than my parents were.”
“I had to do a double take,” he recounted. “I looked right at him, and we had eye contact for about a count of three.”
Later, his parents convinced him it was just his imagination, but the memory of the encounter stuck with him over the years.
In the 1960s, Rugg went on to study at Stanford University, then founded a business with his brother Howard and his business partner Stephen Jackel making dulcimers, a fretted string instrument traditionally played in the Appalachian region of the United States.
The trio would sell their dulcimers at the Renaissance Faire and the Dickens Fair in California from 1969 to 1987.
Later in life, Rugg took a job as a graphic designer in San Jose at a branding agency. He had the job until 2002, when the dot-com boom collapsed. That’s when he revisited his interest in Bigfoot and became dedicated to studying its existence.
After opening his museum with his wife two years later, he said a community formed as reports emerged, and anywhere between 30 and 70 people would visit the attraction daily.
“One of the theories [is] they can become invisible. Some people think they come from another dimension. Others think that they are extraterrestrials. The other possibility is they’re a hominid closer related to us,” he said.
Over the years, donations kept the museum running, allowing visitors to learn about the possible existence of Bigfoot.
Next door, Rugg’s brother has a business fixing musical instruments while continuing to build a limited number of custom-made CapriTaurus dulcimers.
He added that his stepdaughter runs a restaurant nearby.
Rugg said he is thankful for the community and is sad to bid farewell to the museum that has sparked people’s curiosity over the past two decades.
The museum currently does not have a projected closing date, but Rugg said it will close once the building and items inside are sold.
For now, the Bigfoot Discovery Museum continues to operate Friday through Monday from 1 to 5 p.m. at 5497 Highway 9 in Felton.
