Small Problem With Bigfoot Sign

In the local newspaper, the Colorado Springs Gazette, a guest column appeared the other day from Barry Fagin, a Senior Fellow at the Independence Institute in Denver and a prominent skeptic.  He argued the "Bigfoot Crossing" sign on the Pikes Peak Highway is an embarrassment that makes us look like idiots and spreads pseudoscience.  Here's his column.   
I see his point.  I've spent a lot of time looking into Bigfoot over the years, and I went into it at length in my second book on zoology/cryptozoology., Shadows of Existence. My judgment is that the species does not exist: we've gone too long without bones or other hard evidence, or even DNA.  And the non-existence of the fossil record for any higher primates in the Americas is pretty hard to get around.  I've talked to smart, sane, sober people who are certain they have seen Bigfoot. I don't know what they saw, but I still think mistakes are more likely than apes.  (Yes, I was trying for a rhyme there between "mistake" and "ape," but I can't make it work.)  
Still, I would give the ape a break. Government agencies very rarely display a sense of humor, and I applaud it when they do. The sign warns people of a creature that likely isn't there, but I don't see the harm. There are "cryptid" signs and statues all over the country, some, like this one, on public property. Lake Champlain, to give just one example, has made a major tourist attraction of their local critter.  No one's trying to vote their selectmen, or whatever they have, out of office for supporting it, even if lake biologists are pretty much 100 percent on the side of "There ain't no such animal."  (In case you are curious, I once asked the local branch of Colorado Parks and Wildlife Agency whether they take Bigfoot reports (yes) and whether they do anything with them (no).  
As to the scientific aspects, one can in fact make a science lesson out of an animal that isn't there. Getting students interested in working out the food supply and habitat needs of a hypothetical ape could interest those who might not get excited over Preble's jumping mouse and hopefully spark interest in conservation science.  
So let the big guy have his sign. It's a bit of local color and kinda cool.  

Photo from City of Colorado Springs website