CLEVELAND — This weekend, researchers are planning to use state-of-the-art technology to search for signs of an elusive species. 
 

What You Need To Know

  • Pleasant Hill Lake Park is hosting Bigfoot Basecamp Weekend Sept. 9 - 11

  • Researchers said they plan to use state-of-the-art high-definition thermal drone and handheld cameras to search for activity after dark, hoping to find signs of sasquatch

  • Ohio is fourth in the country for the number of bigfoot sightings in the country, according to the Bigfoot Field Researchers  Organization
 
The Bigfoot Basecamp Weekend is welcoming enthusiasts of the legendary creatures to Pleasant Hill Lake Park. 

Ohio is among the top five states in the country with the most sasquatch sightings, according to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. 

Thousands of people are expected to take part in a mass search for sasquatch at the park. 

The group is planning to use high-definition thermal drone cameras and handheld thermal cameras to search the grounds with the goal of learning more about bigfoot habitats or behavior.

Matthew Moneymaker, founder of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization and host of Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot”, is leading the investigation. 

“We’re demonstrating and testing the technology, but we’re doing it in a place where we actually could get one,” he said. 

The park is playing host, since it’s the site of a reported sasquatch sighting in Aug. 2020. 

Louie Andres, program specialist for the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District, said a family of four reported seeing an 8-foot-tall hairy being after dark, while spending the night at the park’s primitive campsite. 

“They just thought it was odd that something was throwing things at them and made some loud noises they never heard before,” he said. 

The region’s been a consistent location for reported sightings since the first one was recorded in 1899. 

“That’s the oldest known report that we have and that’s just up from the clear fork here, less than 10 miles upstream from where we are here,” Andres said. “So, this has a long history. It’s just not very well documented for whatever reason.”

The documentation is something the group wants to change. Andres said he hopes the event provides a safe space for people to report their own encounters without a fear of being ostracized. 

The data will help provide a clearer picture of the mysterious creature that Moneymaker said evolved from the largest primates that roamed the earth. 

“And the theory is that some of them adapted and became more and more remote, more and more recluse, more and more avoiding humans, and we’re seeing the descendants,” he said. 

Moneymaker said he started studying sasquatch as a kid and founded the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization after coming face-to-face with one in Ohio. 

“I was ecstatic after that. I knew they were real,” he said. “And more importantly, I knew that all the naysayers, the skeptics and the scientists that say there’s no such thing - suddenly you realize they’re all totally wrong.”

The Bigfoot Basecamp Weekend runs Sept. 9 - 11.