Skunkape in Florida?

"Did you hear that sound? What was that thing? Was that a bear? Couldn't be,it was on two legs." These are all things that people in Florida have uttered at one point or another in our history, often people claiming to have seen a bigfoot type creature known as "The Skunkape." The Skunkape in Florida is a modern myth that has been fairly common since the 1950s,60s and 70s. Skunkape reports in Florida roughly correspond to the waves of reports that happened all over the country in those decades, especially in the 1970s when reports from Places outside of the Pacific Northwest began to pick up steam and be more prevalent and popular with the release of the film “The Legend of Boggy Creek” in 1972. However in many other parts of the country, especially the Pacific Northwest, there are historic reports dating from the 19th century, and earlier, about large hairy manlike bests stalking the woodlands. Florida, should have reports like that as well, in fact Florida has a longer European history than any other state in the US. Spaniards likely began exploring Florida’s coast in the early 1500s and Florida was officially discovered in 1513 by Don Juan Ponce De Leon. A cavalcade of other explorers soon followed with expeditions that crisscrossed the peninsula between 1513 and 1565. In 1565 Florida was finally colonized by the Spanish with the foundation if St. Augustine in 1565 by Pedro Menendez. The Adelantado quickly set to the work of constructing outposts throughout Florida and the Southeast as far north at Virginia (within a few miles of the Jamestown site to be founded some 42 years later). The Spanish kept outposts and missions throughout the interior of the southeast, with patrols moving between missions sites cattle ranches and the literally dozens of other outposts and forts throughout the southeast. With the extensive Native American history, and the presence of Europeans from 1565 on it stands to reason that there should be reports, sightings and stories from the 16th,17th and 18th centuries. The Spaniards and natives were constantly moving in the hinterlands, pirates operated along the coast, once the English came onto the scene the movement in the interior became even more frequent with forays into each other’s territory, ultimately resulting in an undeclared war on the English/Spanish frontier. In light of this activity there SHOULD be sightings and reports of something strange from this time period, but yet, as of now there is nothing I know of. I hope to continue this line of research in the future. In short, the history of Florida is so long, longer than any other part of the country, and yet, no Hisotrical reports dating before the American Period that I can find at this point. Stay tuned, you never know what we might uncover, or it's all made up. One or the other.