The museum contains four rooms stocked with Bigfoot-related materials displayed in custom-made display cases, including foot casts; random animal bones collected from what was believed to have been a “killing field,” where Bigfoots lure their prey; and some extremely rare hand casts donated by Cliff Barackman, celebrity Bigfoot field researcher, whom McFeely befriended after hiring him as guest speaker at her most recent Bigfoot conference.

Photographs from McFeely’s multiple Bigfoot excursions through the years also are on display, including shots taken during the 50th anniversary Bigfoot Celebration at Willow Creek in California in 2017, where the famous Patterson-Gimlin video of “Patty” was filmed by Roger Patterson with Bob Gimlin in 1967.

Also included are portraits with Gimlin, who appeared at McFeely’s conference in 2018, and various artifacts from McFeely’s private Bigfoot collection.

The museum will open for viewing on Sept. 12, which just happens to be McFeely’s birthday. Tickets are available at the door.

The museum is the only one of its kind within a 500-mile radius, McFeely said. She hopes to attract area schools for field trips and visitors from far and wide in much the same way her conferences have. More than 750 people from 14 states and Canada attended this year’s conference in Hastings.

Her motivation for opening the museum is to continue sharing all things Bigfoot with a curious and often skeptical world. Though she’s never actually seen a Bigfoot, her late husband, Dick, said he saw two of them during one of their camping trips in Colorado with Sasquatch Investigations of the Rockies, a Bigfoot Investigation team based in Parker.

It was at Dick’s suggestion that Harriett decided to pursue her dream and host a Bigfoot conference. The museum seems a logical complement to the conference.

“I just kept collecting more and more stuff until finally I couldn’t find my dining room,” she said. “I had boxes of books and pictures and casts and I thought, ‘You know, it’s not really doing anyone any good when it’s just stuffed in a box.’

“For almost a year I looked for a site for the museum, but I didn’t have any luck, mostly because they were too expensive. I already had the basic structure right here, so mainly all I’ve done is bring everything in here and put it on display.”

McFeely has seen plenty in terms of circumstantial evidence to convince her of Bigfoot’s existence, dating to photographs taken by New Zealand explorer Sir Edmund Hillary, who climbed Mount Everest and discovered footprints believed to have been made by a Bigfoot during his famous expedition in 1953.

Of the considerable body of evidence that points to the creature’s existence, she considers the Patterson-Gimlin footage the most definitive proof of all.

“I’ve always believed she was real,” she said. “I’ve read books and never stopped studying. I just think it’s so interesting that she is out there and that there are so many people who have seen her.”

A pair of posters featured in the museum share stories of Bigfoot encounters by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and Russian President Vladimir Putin. They serve as subtle reminders that even well-known political leaders are counted among those who believe in the creature.

Whether a person who visits the museum or one of her conferences comes away a Bigfoot believer is unimportant, McFeely says. That they’re willing to look at the evidence with an open mind and join in the discussion is all she asks. There is plenty here to hold one’s interest, believer or not, she said. For young visitors, it is a place where dreams can be nurtured without judgment.

“Like my conferences, I want the museum to be historical, educational and scientific,” she said. “This is not about Bigfoot, it’s about life.

“If you can get kids interested in things at a really young age and not say, ‘Oh that’s stupid,’ you can encourage them all the way along. Here at the museum, you could be interested in becoming an artist, carpenter, biologist, anthropologist, psychologist … that’s my goal.”

For more information, call McFeely at 402-705-0000.