Bigfoot has been a staple of American folklore since the 19th century. The stories originate from Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest and likely go back centuries or more. The term sasquatch itself is an Anglicized derivative of the Halkomelem word sásq’ets.

Many people are convinced that Bigfoot is real. Others suggest that he is a cultural phenomenon. Some just want to believe. There is even a group, the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, that tracks Bigfoot sightings. They have data— thousands of reports—available on the Internet. And, where there is data, we can apply the power of machine learning.

Let’s get to the bottom of this mystery! To do it, we are going to use the Nexosis Machine Learning API. With the API, we’ll forecast the predicted number of sightings for the coming months and years. We’ll measure the impact of key cultural phenomena—primarily the airing of the X-Files—on Bigfoot sightings. And, we’ll see if we can classify some bigfoot sightings of our own using natural language processing.

So, come and learn how to use the API, the types of problems you can solve with it, and how to use it from your favorite programming language.

The truth is out there.

Guy Royse is a Developer Evangelist with Nexosis where he combines his decades of experience in building software with a passion for sharing what he has learned with others.