Many of you are undoubtedly familiar with the legends of Bigfoot and all of his ape-like kin who are reported to dwell in the numerous remote wilderness areas and swamps throughout North America. These vast areas where man seldom treads provides a perfect refuge for these creatures where food and water are plentiful and protection from the elements can be easily attained.

It may come to your surprise that the legendary monster is also a desert dweller as well.

As hard as it may be to fathom there are many reports from the vast deserts of Southern California of Sasquatch-like creatures roaming the sand, much like they do in the lush forest. These very dry areas with little vegetation, and almost no water supply would seem like the last place that a 6-t0-10-foot-tall animal that weighs upwards of 400 pounds, and not to mention is covered with thick fur, would want to call home, yet the sheer number of Bigfoot sightings in these areas are too numerous to ignore.

In the late 1960s reports of Bigfoot sightings in the desert towns of Lancaster and Palmdale reached a feverish pace that lasted well into the 1970s, then tapered off. Though these areas border on the Mojave desert, they also border on the Angeles National forest, so it wouldn't seem to unlikely that the creature could have been lured out of the wilderness and into the desert for some unknown reason.

More bizarre are the stories that have surfaced from nearby Edwards Air Force Base, that is farther inland and farther from the forested areas near Los Angeles, of frequent intrusions by creatures that match the description of Bigfoot. As the story goes, Base Security is in possession of several surveillance video tapes that plainly show giant, up-right, apes trespassing in the numerous underground tunnels under the facility. How, or where, the Bigfoot break into, or gain access to these tunnels has never been revealed, obviously for security reasons, but reportedly these incidents happen rather often, and are a nuisance.

The Mojave Desert and Death Valley are two of Southern California's more famous barren areas, but there is also a stretch of inhospitable desert that stretches from the Mexican border northward to the edges of the San Bernardino mountains. This area to has had it's share of Sasquatch sightings over the decades, and this is the area I wanted to focus on today.

The desert wilderness of the Anza-Borrego area has been home to many a tall-tale and several strange events over the past several hundred years. Many a desert rat has emerged from the region with tales of a mysterious Spanish ship filled with pearls inexplicably marooned in the sand, or of a Viking boat embedded in the rock, strange lights in the night skies, and most commonly, of vast quantities of gold just waiting for some lucky prospector to cart out.

It was undoubtedly the lure of these reported gold deposits that first lured the white man into this desolate area and it is from one of these fortune hunters that the first report of Bigfoot, or the Borrego Sandman as it is known in these parts, came. Reportedly in 1939 a prospector, who when interviewed in the 1970s wished to remain anonymous, was attacked by a large group of upright-walking-apes as he camped near the Borrego Sink. The frightened man described the creatures as very large, covered in white fur, with glowing red eyes. The only thing that saved the man from the attack was the fact that the monsters were afraid of his camp fire.

Another report of giant footprints from that same general area came from a man named Victor Stoyanow in 1964. His story was retold in a famous article in SAGA magazine entitled, "America's Terrifying Woodland Monster-men" in 1969. The piece also featured the story of Harold Lancaster, a miner who encounter the Sandman in 1968. Here is an excerpt: