Ohio Bigfoot Encounters: NEO's Portage County Leads The State

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- To the jaundiced and suspicious eye, the accounts might be written off as totally bogus. After all, it is hard to accept that some as yet unidentified branch of the humanoid family could be lurking out there in the endless distance. And why would they want to stay in Portage County, the home of Kent State University? No answers or explanations -- just the fact that the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization notes that the largest number of reports in any Ohio county originate from Portage.

Maybe somebody in Kent should open a juke joint called the Sasquatch. Or those spiritualists who used to gather on Brady Lake really did know something the rest of us didn't.

Thirteen of nearly 200 known Bigfoot encounters, or suspected encounters, have taken place in Portage County. Nearby Geauga County accounts for another 7, including this fairly fresh report of a brief glimpse of a "monkey man" standing erect upon very large feet last August:

"We moved to this location two years ago. We only lived here a few weeks and my four year old came running into the house and said he didn't want to play outside anymore. He seemed upset but not extremely frightened. When I asked him what was wrong he said he saw a monkey man looking at him through the trees. I went out and nothing was there."

Some time passed, and another son, 15, saw a Bigfoot out the living room window. Then again in the yard. No pictures.

Not solid enough for skeptics. The Ohio Bigfoot Organization, which appears to be based in Strongsville is soliciting eyewitness reports. The Bigfoot Field Research Organziation has compiled this list about Ohio, which is fun to read and wonder about. There are reports from other states, too.

There is nary a single sighting in Cleveland or Cincinnati, which spins an intriguing tale about hominids that can't be bothered with the practicalities of urban life, things like a diet of McDonalds. But they might get close to the bars on Water Street in Kent, especially the joints that serve Moosehead.