This State Has More Bigfoot Sightings Than Almost Anywhere Else in the U.S.
Ohio is fourth in the nation in the number of people claiming encounters with Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, the tall, furry, apelike creature said to be lurking in wooded areas across the country. In fact, the Buckeye State falls behind only Washington, California, and Florida in the number of sightings, according to statistics compiled by the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.
By the reckoning of other groups, Bigfoot has been spotted in all 88 of Ohio’s counties, including the ones with major urban centers. That includes my own county of Franklin, home of Columbus, the state’s largest city. And here I thought it was deer eating my hostas!
Why Ohio?
Most people associate Bigfoot sightings with the Pacific Northwest, so “Why Ohio?” seems like a natural question to ask. Although many may picture the state as vast expanses of flat farmland, at least a third of Ohio is quite hilly and heavily wooded, especially in the southeastern and east-central parts of the state. And that’s exactly where the preponderance of Sasquatch sightings take place.
Bigfoot believers aren’t surprised. They know that these deeply forested regions offer the creatures both shelter and plentiful food sources—the number of deer harvested in the annual hunting season, for example, was well more than 5,000 per county in the regions of the state where Bigfoot is said to be lurking. Plus, the state’s many lakes, rivers, and streams provide a source of water—many sightings occur within a short distance of these waterways.
Bigfoot Immersion
I know these things because I was immersed in all things Bigfoot last year when I attended two separate conferences devoted to Sasquatch studies and also a street festival celebrating the elusive creature.
The Ohio Bigfoot Conference at Salt Fork State Park attracts the biggest names in the country in Bigfoot research, with attendees coming from all over the U.S. and Canada as well as from as far afield as Japan and Great Britain—its nearly 400 slots regularly sell out each year within minutes of registration opening. Salt Fork, with its sizable lake and forested terrain, lies smack dab in the middle of what’s called the “Sasquatch Triangle” in eastern Ohio, with multiple sightings in such areas as “Bigfoot Ridge” near a primitive campground site.
I also attended “Bigfoot Basecamp” held in the area surrounding Mohican State Park in central Ohio. It attracted a number of speakers who’ve had Sasquatch encounters or written books on the subject. The two-day meeting also featured a night-time hike through the woods to track Bigfoots (and yes, that’s considered the proper plural of Bigfoot, not Bigfeet). None were seen, but that’s not surprising—any Bigfoot in its right mind would have hightailed it out of the area hearing hundreds of people stomping towards him.
And in just three years of operation, the Hocking Hills Bigfoot Festival is attracting thousands of visitors to the town of Logan in southeast Ohio in one of the most touristed parts of the state, known for its rock formations, caves, and waterfalls. The family-friendly activities at the festival included a “Squatch and Seek,” “Walk Like a Squatch,” and “Squatchy-okie.” Street vendors sold Bigfoot artwork, clothing, wall plaques, and novelty items like “Bigfoot Finger Feet,” and “Bigfoot Bath Bombs.” Attendees definitely get into the spirit, with many sporting t-shirts reading “Bigfoot is my homeboy” or “Bigfoot saw me. But no one believed him.” One man dressed up as Bigfoot wearing a pair of bib overalls. A panel of speakers also presented their stories inside Logan’s downtown theater.
Salt Fork State Park, where the Ohio Bigfoot Conference is held
So clearly, Bigfoot is a big deal in the Buckeye State. High-caliber speakers at the conferences have included Matt Moneymaker and Cliff Barackman, co-hosts on Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot” TV series, which ran from 2011 to 2018, and Jeffrey Meldrum, a professor at Idaho State University, who calls Bigfoot a “relic hominid,” a primate just like us whose numbers have dwindled to perhaps just several thousand across all of North America. Meldrum even thinks Bigfoot may well be humans’ closest primate relative.
At this year’s Hocking Hills Festival, Matt Pruitt, author of the recent book “Origins: The Phenomenal Sasquatch” offered detailed theories of how Bigfoot may have descended from Asia’s extinct giant apes, crossing over the “land bridge” that once connected Siberia and Alaska and then evolving into its own species. Bigfoot-like creatures remaining in Asia may include the Yeti, or the “Abominable Snowman” of the Himalayas.
Close and Not-So-Close Encounters
Both the speakers and other eyewitnesses at these events consistently portray Bigfoot as a giant 8- to 10-foot-tall, largely nocturnal creature that walks on two feet, just like humans. They’re described as having brown, black, or reddish fur—and in Ohio, there have even been reports of silver or white fur. Many eyewitnesses say that the creatures have short snouts with almost pointed heads. They have long arms, a burly body, and can run much faster than humans and leap long distances. Like people, they’re omnivorous, eating both plants and animals. To gather enough calories per day to sustain something of its size, they’re constantly on the move.
As much as possible, the creatures avoid contact with people. “Bigfoots are intelligent animals,” said Matt Moneymaker from Finding Bigfoot. “They’ve evolved to understand that contact with humans often doesn’t end well for them. That’s why they live in remote areas and will flee if they hear people approaching.”
Nevertheless, if a Bigfoot is surprised by an unexpected human encounter or if they feel threatened, they can get aggressive, Moneymaker said, often throwing sticks or rocks to warn people off. Two fishermen at Salt Fork’s lake reported melon-sized rocks heaved at them with great force. Families camping at Salt Fork have corroborated that sticks were thrown at them, even though they couldn’t see who or what was doing the throwing.
Those stories of eyewitness accounts are the most riveting parts of the conferences. Among the most common sightings are road crossings when Bigfoot crosses in front of an approaching vehicle to get from one wooded area to another. In rural Holmes County, six people in three different cars claim to have witnessed one such crossing.
Other people hear “wood knocks,” when Bigfoots strike a tree with a piece of wood, perhaps to warn others of their species that people are approaching. Others have heard eerie howls coming from deep in the woods. Naturalists who’ve heard recordings of those howls haven’t been able to identify them as sounds made by other Ohio woodland creatures, such as coyotes.
Statue of Big Foot in OhioLucidDreamsPhoto/Shutterstock
Although many of the reports of Bigfoot sightings are of fleeting glimpses, some are downright hair-raising. Suzanne Ferencak, who recorded “The Ohio Howl,” has had Bigfoot activity in the backyard of her rural home and a night-time encounter on her front porch that “was way too close for comfort,” she said. Matt Moneymaker has personal experience with Bigfoot’s aggressiveness. He saw his companion being charged by a Bigfoot at Berlin Lake in northeast Ohio, who came within 20 feet of his friend, making aggressive noises. And Marc Dewerth, organizer of the Salt Fork conference who has personally interviewed upwards of 300 people who’ve reported Bigfoot encounters, tells of a hunter who’d just thrown a deer he’d shot into the back of his pick-up truck. The hunter stepped away from the vehicle for a few moments, and when he returned, he saw a Bigfoot retreating into the woods with the deer’s carcass thrown over its shoulders.
Verify, Verify
Hundreds of these reports are compiled on the website of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, listing the reports state-by-state and even county-by-county. These reports make for entertaining, yet spooky, reading. I was quite startled to see a report of a Bigfoot emerging from a cornfield not two miles from where I grew up in the small town of New Philadelphia, very close to the house where one of my best friends lived.
Before the reports are mounted on the website, the persons describing an encounter are thoroughly interviewed by a network of trained investigators nationwide to determine if the sighting is credible or not.
Not surprisingly, a number of hoaxsters are invariably identified during this vetting process, perhaps people who’ve read up on other Bigfoot sightings and know all the right things to say. Speaking at the Hocking Hills Bigfoot Festival, Steve Kulls, a trained forensics investigator, says he can almost always detect within a few minutes if a person is trying to pull his leg. “Either their story keeps changing, or they say something like, ‘Why would I be hoaxing you?’ That’s almost a sure sign they are hoaxing me,” he said.
In other cases, people may not necessarily be lying but may have genuinely mistaken something else for a Bigfoot. Marc Dewerth, organizer of the Salt Fork conference, insists on interviewing people at the very site they’ve reported an encounter. “What we’re trying to do is eliminate all other possibilities,” he said. “Investigators have to be skeptical of what they’re hearing and not immediately assume an actual encounter has taken place. I always remind a new investigator to ‘keep your skepticals on,’” he said, quoting Ray Crowe, the author of several books on Bigfoot.
Things that amp up the credibility of a sighting include whether more than one person reports the same experience—like those six people seeing the road crossing in Holmes County, for example. Another telltale sign is when the persons making the reports have been visibly terrified by their experience. “I’ve almost had to serve as a counselor for people who are almost having PTSD because of their encounter,” said Cliff Barackman, the co-host of Finding Bigfoot.
Barackman is also an avid collector of another type of evidence—footprints. He has upwards of 300 castings of footprints from across the country that he considers genuine at his North American Bigfoot Center in Oregon outside of Portland. He continues to find footprints, of 12 to 14 inches in length, sometimes just miles from his home, and is always excited to find what he calls “trackways,” a series of footprints showing the creature’s movement through a forest or wetland. He’s also recently found handprints, perhaps when a Bigfoot slipped and lost its footing and leaned down to steady itself.
A possible big foot imprint found in Ohio.Courtesy of Rich Warren
Keeping a Healthy Skepticism
But of course many argue that if Bigfoot exists, why has no body of a dead Bigfoot ever been found, or even any bones? In woodlands where thousands of hunters descend each hunting season, why has no Bigfoot ever been shot? Why has no one ever found a “Bigfoot nest,” where the creatures sleep or care for their young? And where do they find shelter in the winter? — Ohio’s winters are snowy and cold.
And yes, there’s the famous Patterson-Gimlin film from 1967 that purports to show a Bigfoot striding through the woods of northern California and glancing over its shoulder at the person holding the camera. (Many believe this film is a hoax—many do not). But in this day and age, when nearly everyone is carrying a smartphone, why haven’t there been more convincing full-frontal photos or videos that would convince the skeptics?
Be patient, says Matt Moneymaker, who believes as do many others, that we are on the verge of convincing documentation, what with the advent of thermal imaging drones and the like. Moneymaker also says that a laboratory at North Carolina State University has recently begun DNA examinations of remnants of fur believed to have come from Bigfoots, which could produce interesting and perhaps conclusive results.
In short, for those asking why there haven’t been any conclusive sightings so far, Bigfoot believers would argue that hundreds, if not thousands, of such human-Bigfoot interactions have already been documented.
And as for Me…
I numbered myself among the skeptics before I made my deep dive into Ohio’s Bigfoot world. My goal before attending the conferences last year was to avoid laughing out loud at the preposterous assertions I expected to hear. I heard things like Bigfoots are stinky and have big butts, that they can knock people to the ground with force fields they can throw at intruders, or that they can communicate telepathically, planting such thoughts in people’s heads as “This is our home. Go away.” I nevertheless managed to keep a straight face.
A big foot crossing sign gives a tongue-in-cheek nod to supposed sightings in the area.Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock
I was downright incredulous, however, when I learned that a subset of Sasquatch enthusiasts believe that Bigfoots are supernatural beings, capable of appearing and disappearing through portals in the time-space continuum. I overheard one gentleman telling his story of a Bigfoot sighting lasting just a few moments before the creature “cloaked itself in invisibility” and disappeared. I didn’t laugh, but I’m sure my jaw dropped in amazement.
The bulk of the Bigfoot community, however, seems to scoff at such fringe beliefs. “There are people who believe Bigfoots are angels or demons, that they’re from outer space, or that they’re time travelers,” said Cliff Barackman. “There’s no evidence that they’re anything other than flesh-and-blood animals.”
As for myself, I would argue that if you sat and listened to as many stories as I did of people telling their Bigfoot experiences, I’ll bet that even if you’re an ardent skeptic, you may well begin to have doubts about your doubts. There are too many commonalities among the stories, and the sincerity of these people describing what happened to them is genuine. And how can you argue with multiple people standing side by side who’ve shared the same encounter?
And so, who knows? Maybe someday I’ll look out my window and catch a glimpse of Bigfoot munching on my hostas. He can have them—they’ll grow back. But if he starts in on my jasmine or hibiscus bushes, that’s when I’ll go ballistic. You can buy sprays to deter deer or rabbits from making a meal of your garden or to ward off bears you come across in the wild. Does such a spray exist to deter Bigfoot?
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