Bigfoot in New York

Recently, I wrote about the possible Bigfoot sighting in Kentucky that has garnered a good deal of media attention. The coverage started when an image was captured from a motion sensing camera that seemed to indicate something besides a bear was raiding a Fairdale man’s vegetable garden. However, what the creature was is still a mystery.

Now I’m a California native that spent the first part of my life in Northern CA. As most of you know that area is a positive hot bed of Bigfoot sightings and other encounters. Needless to say, the idea of Bigfoot residing in the pristine wilderness of CA seemed very reasonable to me having personally spent a lot of time in the Sierras and always hearing stories about the cryptid’s existence. However, while doing some background research on my recent article I accidentally discovered something rather interesting about the area I now live in.

I have recently relocated to the East coast and never really gave much thought to the West coast Bigfoot perhaps having a New York relative. Well, when I was going through some books and doing an internet search I discovered that New York actually has a fairly large number of reported Bigfoot incidents. According to Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), out the 50 states, New York ranks as the top 9th state in number of sightings with 95 reports. This is a little less than the top two states listed, which were Washington with 467 reported incidents and California with 414.

There was even a book published in 2008 that explores some of the reported sightings in New York. The book entitled “Bigfoot Encounters in New York and New England” by Robert and Paul Bartholomew explores Bigfoot in Native American folklore through modern day encounters and then documents some of the more interesting sightings. The Bartholomew brothers have spent the last 30 years searching for Bigfoot in the area and this book is a culmination of their research.

A few months ago I discovered while watching the national news that I lived in an area that had some fairly extraordinary Black Panther sightings. See my previous blog about the Black Panthers in Rockland County. Now it would seem I find myself in the middle of possible Bigfoot territory. I guess it’s safe to say I live in a prime region for a variety of cryptozoology encounters.

I’ll have to make sure I keep my eyes open and my camera handy just in case I spy the large furry creature known as Bigfoot lurking in my backyard or peeking in my kitchen window.