Bigfoot sightings take over Portage County

Bigfoot sightings in Portage County? The Bigfoot Society podcast says it's received a flood of reports, pointing to multiple recent sightings in Garrettsville, Windham, Mantua, Mantua Center and Streetsboro.

View the Bigfoot Society's report.

The reports have caused a flurry of interest around Northeast Ohio, with businesses and even the sheriff's office posting AI-generated images riffing on the trend.

The Bigfoot Society published a map that reflects two sightings in Mantua Center, one on March 6 and another the next day. According to a March 9 Facebook post, an unidentified local researcher reported a 9-foot brown male figure about 120 yards from state Route 44 at 12:23 p.m. March 6.

“The creature displayed high situational awareness, and retreated at high speed once it realized it was being watched,” the post stated.

A second sighting recorded at 10:52 p.m. March 7 details an 8-foot tall figure with a “deep, vibrating grunt” and oversized muddy prints in the Mantua area.

“A second witness, Dylan Obney, reported seeing an 8-foot figure with long arms and dark brown hair,” the post stated. “He heard heavy rhythmic footsteps and a deep, vibrating grunt that preceded a ‘forest hush’ (total silence). Physical evidence in the form of oversized muddy footprints was located at the scene.”

Obney told The Portager that he did not know what he was seeing until the next day, when he happened to be scrolling TikTok and saw a video pop up. Knowing what he had seen the previous night, he said he had to reach out to The Bigfoot Society.

“I am not a fan or a believer, per se. I just knew I saw something bigger than a person that was very hairy and Sasquatch-looking in the woods that night,” he said.

Jeremiah Byron, whom Obney said operates The Bigfoot Society’s social media presence, lost no time in posting Obney’s story.

“The next day, many people came forward, saying they had seen similar things to what I have seen, making a pattern and a trail or movements across this region of Ohio,” Obney said.

The Bigfoot Society reports four sightings on March 9. The first, at 10:20 a.m., placed Bigfoot, or at least a Bigfoot, about eight miles east, in Garrettsville. There, a hiker reportedly "encountered an 8-ft. Sasquatch in black fur. No additional details are available as the startled witness immediately left the area,” the post stated.

A little over an hour later, The Bigfoot Society recorded an 11:47 a.m. sighting on Headwaters Trail near Hankee Road.

The Bigfoot Society’s Facebook page identifies one of the Headwaters Trail witnesses as Jacob Taylor.

According to Byron’s reel and a March 9 Bigfoot Society post, the pair were hiking on the trail when they had their 15-second, face-to-face Bigfoot encounter.

“Only 30 feet away, a massive 10-foot tall creature stepped out of the treeline. It was covered in jet black hair with broad shoulders, and the witnesses said the ground shook as it walked,” Byron said on the March 9 reel.

The witnesses reported that the creature did not turn its neck, but rotated “its entire shoulders in order to look,” Byron said. They also reported the creature’s “weird, stilt-like gait,” he said, adding that the witnesses reported noticing “a heavy musky smell that hit them right before the creature let out a heavy grunt and disappeared into the brush.”

Then, another sighting: this one at about 6 p.m. near the end of a dead-end Windham road. The witness, described as a “longtime skeptic,” reportedly saw a 6-foot brown figure “running with an impossibly long stride,” the Bigfoot Society Facebook post states.

Stunned, the witness told the Bigfoot Society, “I know what I saw, but I don’t know what I saw,” the March 9 post states.

The Bigfoot Society’s post records the final March 9 sighting in detail: At about 8 p.m. March 9, a mother and her daughter were reportedly traveling west on state Route 303 between Streetsboro and Hudson. Near Tinker’s Creek, a swampy, low-lying area, the pair reportedly found themselves within three feet of the creature, which they described as “a lean, 6’5” tall brown figure.” The passenger noted that she could have hit it as it was walking into oncoming traffic.

According to a March 10 Bigfoot Society Facebook post, the witnesses described the creature’s face as “blurred,” with lighter hair around its facial features and no visible eyes. They described the creature’s gait as “stilt-like” and “walking in a weird fashion” as it headed toward Streetsboro.

The post advises motorists driving on state Route 303 or near Tinker’s Creek Nature Preserve to slow down.

“The creatures are moving along lanes of traffic and are not displaying their usual level of forest-stealth,” it cautions.

The Bigfoot Society concludes that the subjects appear to be using the Headwaters Trail greenbelt as a primary travel corridor. The variation in the subjects’ height descriptions, ranging from six to 10 feet, suggests that “we are not tracking a single individual, but potentially a family group or multiple subjects migrating eastward.”

Portage Park District Executive Director Chris Craycroft could not confirm or deny the existence of Bigfoot, but said she’s open to proof. 

“We’d love to see any evidence anyone has if they want to share it with us,” she said. “We always want to learn more about our natural history.”

Craycroft cautioned people to remain on the trails and not stray onto adjacent private properties. All PPD trails are open dawn to dusk. 

As for The Bigfoot Society, anyone seeing a Sasquatch is encouraged to report any sightings immediately. Emails may be directed to bigfootsociety@gmail.com.

“We prioritize witness privacy and can keep your identity anonymous upon request,” a post stated.

The Portager has reached out to The Bigfoot Society, but has not yet received a response. 

Local businesses and organizations have been having fun on social media in recent days, with posts showing Bigfoot posing outside the Garrettsville Cinema and strolling through Garrettsville’s Solid Rock Auto Group car lot. Another features a shadowy figure walking the grounds of Duke’s K9 Dash N’ Splash in Freedom Township.

“We’re not saying this is Bigfoot…but we’re also not NOT saying it’s Bigfoot,” Duke’s owner Michelle Filler stated.

The Portage County Sheriff’s Office also chimed in, posting an AI image on its official Facebook page March 11 depicting Sheriff Bruce D. Zuchowski posing with a handcuffed Bigfoot. The post jokes that he will help "deport this creature back to Canada."

And The Portage Foundation on March 11 posted pictures of an objectively fake Bigfoot stopping by the philanthropic organization’s offices.

“Apparently, after feeling so warmly welcomed by the Portage County community, he decided it was time to give something back. So…he set up a fund with us to support the very community that embraced him,” the post stated. “If you spot him around town, don’t worry — he’s just checking on his investment in the community.”