Iconic Bigfoot Museum Building on the Market

Felton Roadside Attraction to Evolve

By Julie Horner

The two-room building at the corner of Highway 9 and San Lorenzo Avenue that currently houses the Bigfoot Discovery Museum is for sale. Located near Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, the 390 square foot single family residence was built in 1949 on a 3,398 square foot lot that includes a fenced side yard. According to the listing, the “Bigfoot business is not for sale unless otherwise negotiated.” Price for the dwelling: $449,000.

Kenneth Rugg purchased the roadside property, which included a former Mobile Gas automobile repair garage and a number of outbuildings, including the museum storefront, in 1961. According to his son Howard Rugg, luthier and co-founder along with brother Michael Rugg of CapriTaurus and FolkRoots Dulcimers, their father opened his business, Precut Engineering Service Corporation, in the smaller building that is now the museum. Howard said that he was helping his dad with a carpentry job on a house in Felton in 1963 when the elder Rugg passed away. The sons eventually inherited the property.  

Howard Rugg, proprietor at the Bigfoot Museum poses in his Felton, California woodshop with the mountain dulcimer he hand made in 1979, a treasured instrument in his personal collection.

The Heart of the Dulcimer

Howard has always worked with his hands. After serving in the Navy and pursuing a career in plastic fabrication in the East Bay, Howard moved to Felton in 1968 and purchased a home down the road from the family compound. He opened a cabinet making and antique repair shop and dealership in the old Mobile Gas garage, which nowadays has a vibrant Bigfoot mural painted on the exterior; a faded image of the trademark Mobile Pegasus can still be seen imprinted on an inner wall. He had never tried making musical instruments, he said, until “in 1968, a couple of hippies parked in front of the shop, and they were making thumb pianos and dulcimers. So that was my first time seeing a mountain dulcimer.” A mountain dulcimer looks like a long, slender guitar but is played on the lap. It typically has four strings, and is fretted with the left hand while being strummed with a pick in the right. Its origins are rooted in Appalachia and artists such as Jean Ritchie, Joni Mitchell, Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Pentangle, and even the Rolling Stones have helped anchor the instrument in the American folk music revival that began in the 60s. 

In 1969, Howard’s brother Michael completed his studies at Stanford University and together the two went into business building instruments under the CapriTaurus label (Howard the Capricorn, Michael the Taurus). “My mother talked us into being partners,” Howard said, and Michael came up with the name. They kept busy building dulcimers in Felton and selling them at Renaissance Faires until the late 80s. Howard said, “I was the maker, Michael was the player. He became an expert, innovative in his time.” Howard and Michael expanded the business, bringing in expert woodworker Steve Jackal, and they formed the Rugg, Rugg & Jackel Music Company. In 1976, however, the Rugg brothers separated as business partners, Michael keeping the CapriTaurus brand name while Rugg & Jackel produced dulcimers under the Folk Roots name. When Steve left to start his own lumber business, Jackal Enterprises in Watsonville, Howard retired from making dulcimers and the business and inventory was sold to FolkCraft Instruments in Woodburn, Indiana. Approximately 20,000 dulcimers were produced in the Felton workshop between 1969 and 1989. 

Howard’s passion rekindled in 2011 first with ukuleles and then dulcimers. Pulling from a hefty collection of select wood types, including reclaimed old growth redwood from disassembled Santa Cruz Mountains water tanks, Howard works in his shop from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm Monday through Friday. He’ll be turning 89 this January and is still making hand-crafted dulcimers one at a time to order: dulcimuse.com/capritaurusdulcimers

All Things Sasquatch

Howard tells how it all started: “My father had a lumber mill up in Inverness, Garberville, somewhere around there. Mike was a little kid, four or five years old. He went out into the woods and saw the big hairy man.” Profoundly affected by the sighting, Michael later won a scholarship to study palaeoanthropology at Stanford in 1964. But his work was met with skepticism and a low grade for a 1967 paper reflecting years of research arguing that an “abominable snowman” type of creature could exist in California. Tackling double majors, Rugg focused on graphic illustration but, hobbled by the dot-com bust in Silicon Valley, returned to Felton to open an independent studio in the small building next to Howard’s woodshop. 

The quest to prove the existence of Bigfoot never waned. In 2003 Michael and business partner Paula Yarr launched the Bigfoot Discovery Project, and Michael converted his art space into a tourist destination; the Bigfoot Discovery Museum was launched in 2004. The museum houses an unparalleled lifetime collection of oddities and memorabilia related to Sasquatch. Quirky and interesting ephemera including skulls, plaster impressions, books, videos, vintage board games, t-shirts, toys, empty beer bottles, and a map of recent Bigfoot sightings. 

The Bigfoot Discovery Museum has attracted thousands of curious visitors to Felton to do research and share personal experiences. Michael tells of sightings in the Santa Cruz Mountains, in Stephens Creek Canyon, and Soquel Creek, to name a few. Too many strangers reporting similar experiences. After the pandemic and fires in 2020, however, the museum was no longer able to sustain itself. A “Save the Bigfoot Discovery Museum” GoFundMe campaign was launched to cover costs but fell short of the projected goal. Even with health issues, Howard said, Michael still keeps the museum open Friday through Monday 1:00 to 5:00 pm. Bigfoot Discovery Museum, 5497 Highway 9, Felton.

In the meantime, Michael is planning on selling the bigfoot memorabilia to collecttors and will close shop when the new owners of the building take over.

Interested parties can contact Heidi Hart (Lic # 01703922), Michael Lussier, Broker
(831) 247-9410 | MLS#: ML81983508 | hartandassoc.info/FeaturedListings

Photos by Julie Horner

***

Have a story or article to contribute? The San Lorenzo Valley Post welcomes your Santa Cruz Mountains news, story ideas, photos, and letters. Send us an email.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay connected to news and events in the Santa Cruz Mountains.