{"id":1558,"slug":"west-virginia-bigfoot-museum-sutton-west-virginia","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The museum is the carved — the 'hemlock Bigfoot' that's the statue's form, the 'delivered' that's the spark's arrival. The 'casts' is the collected — the 'Mid-Atlantic largest' that's the claim's scope, the 'Gigantopithecus' that's the skull's replica. The '2021' is the opened — the 'festival' that's the launch's event, the '1,500' that's the crowd's count.","The 'store attached' is the funded — the 'Mountain Laurel' that's the shop's name, the 'free' that's the museum's price. The 'sightings map' is the pinned — the 'Braxton' that's the county's name, the 'Flatwoods kin' that's the cryptid's neighbor. The museum is the kept — the 'Petolicchio' that's the family's name, the 'curiosity' that's the mission's form.","The file keeps the museum: the carved statue, the collected casts, the opened festival, and the pinned sightings.","The WV Bigfoot Museum is the archive's West Virginia file — the cryptid's gift shop."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The Bigfoot Museum is the archive's West Virginia file — the evidence that believes itself.","A museum keeps its casts — the file's suggestion being that Sutton's hold is the gathered: the 'hemlock' that's the mascot's form, the 'footprints' that's the collection's core, and the 'festival' that's the community's proof."]}],"name":"West Virginia Bigfoot Museum","aliases":[],"type":"MUSEUM","type_label":"Museum","cats":["CRYPTID_MUSEUM"],"groups":["institutions"],"desc":"Museum dedicated to Bigfoot research and folklore.","full_desc":"West Virginia Bigfoot Museum is a museum in Sutton, West Virginia. Museum dedicated to Bigfoot research and folklore. It sits in the archive under cryptid museums. The dossier holds 1 documented fact — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. It operates as a museum. The dossier keeps the place and the story in the same record — which is what the archive is for.","address":"400 4th Street","city":"Sutton","county":null,"state":"West Virginia","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":38.667772,"lon":-80.713461,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"Discovery record. Coordinates, earliest legend source, independent history and current visitor rules require further verification.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":62.1,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.8,"paranormal_claim_provenance":null,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[],"history":[{"description":"Museum dedicated to Bigfoot research and folklore. West Virginia Bigfoot Museum's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. The press recorded it; the detail stands as reported history. The record appears in 'West Virginia Bigfoot Museum Virtual Tour'. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","evidence":"MEDIA_REPORTED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"West Virginia Bigfoot Museum Virtual Tour","url":"https://wvbigfootmuseum.org/virtual-tour","publisher":"West Virginia Bigfoot Museum","type":"MUSEUM","authority":2}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"opening_hours":"Wednesday–Saturday 10–18; Sunday–Tuesday closed.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-14T10:36:20+00:00","source":{"name":"West Virginia Bigfoot Museum Virtual Tour","url":"https://wvbigfootmuseum.org/virtual-tour","publisher":"West Virginia Bigfoot Museum","type":"MUSEUM","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"West Virginia Bigfoot Museum Virtual Tour","url":"https://wvbigfootmuseum.org/virtual-tour","publisher":"West Virginia Bigfoot Museum","type":"MUSEUM","authority":2}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":0,"history":1,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":1}}