COLUMBUS – If you want to catch a glimpse of Sasquatch, you are in the right place.
Ohio ranks in the top five states in the U.S. for sightings of the (probably, almost certainly) mythical man-beast known as Bigfoot and the state is cashing in on its reputation.
The Division of Parks and Recreation says many “eyewitness accounts” come from visitors and rangers at Ohio state parks, three in particular, and the agency has organized a variety of events intended to attract visitors hoping to spot the elusive (not real, we think) creature, supposedly a Simian-like creature said to inhabit forests in North America.
Punderson State Park, in northeast Ohio, has recorded some sightings, and reports (surely in error since there’s no such thing as Sasquatch. Right??) have increased since 2010 in Mohican State Park, especially in the Big Lyons Falls area where as many as 500 people have been known to take part in the park’s “Bigfoot hikes.”
But Bigfoot Central is Salt Fork State Park, the state’s largest, where there have been more than 30 documented sightings since the 1970’s, according to the division’s website.
The park is home to the annual Ohio Bigfoot Conference, which attracts more than 3,000 participants from as far away as Australia every May.
Creature Weekend (Oct. 20-22) is an event that centers on cryptozoology, the study of hidden animals.
Visitors can attend a Bigfoot Adventure Weekend, held in June this year, a three-night campout with workshops, demonstrations and hikes, or they can take a monthly Bigfoot Night Hike, which feature information about Bigfoot sightings at Salt Fork and other strange events from members of the Ohio Bigfoot Organization, according to the Cambridge/Guernsey County Visitors and Convention Bureau.
Visitors can conduct their own search for your own search during your stay, pick up a Bigfoot Hikes map from the lodge’s front desk, and follow the trails where there are “documented sightings” of Bigfoot, which totally doesn’t exist.
We’re pretty sure…aren’t we?