What happened in the effort to make Bigfoot the state cryptid of California?

On February 14, 2025, Chris Rogers (Democrat) of the California legislature proposed bill AB 666* to designate Bigfoot as the official state cryptid:

Existing law establishes the state flag and the state’s emblems, including, among other things, the golden poppy as the official state flower and the California redwood as the official state tree.

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would designate Bigfoot as the official state cryptid.

*Bigfoot is AKA the “mountain or wood devil” so this number was seen as interesting.

For a month, this was news around the world because it was funny and lighthearted. But some didn’t respond positively to the news, noticing that California had far more important things to attend to than frivolous lawmaking. But state legislators are overly fond of such memorial acts, and regularly waste time pushing them through. California already has 42 official state symbols. Why not another one? The symbolic gestures provide recognition and anchors these symbols to the state.

Rogers’ represented the Northern part of the state that is heavily associated with Bigfoot and benefits already from the link. His Humboldt County includes Bluff Creek, the location of the infamous Patterson-Gimlin film from 1967, and nearby Willow Creek, home of the huge Bigfoot Daze festival, the longest-running cryptid town festival. Willow Creek was the place where Bigfoot supposedly made its historic entrance into American popular culture when in 1958, loggers found giant footprints that were reported in the local Humboldt Times, giving the unknown creature the name “Bigfoot”.

Therefore, it does make sense that Rogers’ would like to cement this notoriety. The effort was clearly intended to encourage tourism. Rogers’ noted that Bigfoot “generates buzz and interest from outdoor enthusiasts,” more so than other cryptids. He’s not wrong. So, the bill had considerable public support. However, besides Washington and Oregon feeling this was their claim to stake, there was recorded opposition to the bill:

According to the California Civil Liberties Advocacy, “We live in a time when conspiracy theories and pseudoscience threaten everything from public health to democratic stability. Instead of upholding the principles of rational governance, this bill signals that California’s Legislature is willing to indulge in the same kind of post-truth nonsense that fuels climate change denial, anti-vaccine hysteria, and, yes, even wild conspiracies like chemtrails!”

Eh… that’s not really the intent but they are also not wrong. Maybe the bill was too funny and unique for these dire times. The action on AB 666 never made it to the next step – a committee hearing. It remains stalled in the legislative process as we enter the last quarter of 2025. Most bills die because they fail to gain support to push through the gauntlet to become law. It’s unclear if this one will also die, but it does look like Bigfoot will remain unofficial in all aspects.