Bigfoot bonanza: What to know about sasquatch event at Ohio's Pleasant Hill Lake Park

A family camping trip in the summer of 2020 put Pleasant Hill Lake Park on the map of Bigfoot sightings.

Staying in a tent with his wife and children, a man later told a park ranger that something had been throwing sticks or rocks at their campsite. At first he suspected kids but didn't hear voices or anything sounding like pranksters.

Strange noises continued to come from the woods. Through darkness, the source of the disturbance could not be seen. So while the rest of the family remained inside the tent, the father stood outside it with a small pocketknife just in case he needed to defend himself.

Then he saw something. A tall, dark, hairy figure running off and disappearing into the woods, according to the report filed with the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District. "The first thing he thought of when he saw it was a Bigfoot," the ranger wrote of the witness.

This was the first known reported Bigfoot sighting at Pleasant Hill Lake Park in Ashland County, part of the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District and near Mohican State Park and Mohican-Memorial State Forest.

The ranger's report ultimately made it onto the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization website. And the documented incident ultimately led to last year's inaugural Bigfoot Basecamp Weekend at Pleasant Hill Lake Park, 3431 Ohio Route 95 in Perrysville.

The event returns on Thursday through Sunday at the park.

Matt Moneymaker, founder and president of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization and host of the "Finding Bigfoot" television series on Animal Planet, will be the featured guest at this weekend's Bigfoot Basecamp festivities, which are designed to attract serious investigators, as well as families and others who have a casual interest in the Sasquatch phenomena.

Children's activities will include making a tie-dye, Bigfoot-themed shirt. Food trucks, vendors and Bigfoot authors will be in attendance. A town hall event also gives people an opportunity to share their Bigfoot encounters.

"It's just kind of an open invitation to anyone who has any kind of interest whatsoever (in Bigfoot) or the environment and getting outdoors with their family," said Louis Andres, program specialist for the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District and a 67-year-old retired ranger with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. "It's not the diehard conference you tend to see (in the Bigfoot field)."

So what else will be happening at the Bigfoot Basecamp Weekend? Here's what you need to know.

A $30 pass per vehicle covers the entire weekend

Daily and weekend passes for Bigfoot Basecamp Weekend will be available at the gate for purchase. Weekend passes cost $30 per vehicle and cover Friday through Sunday. The daily gate pass is $15 per vehicle. Reservations and tickets are required for some events and can be purchased at https://pleasanthillpark.mwcd.org/.

Thursday features a VIP dinner with Moneymaker from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at the Mohican Lodge and Conference Center. Tickets, $75, can be reserved and purchased at https://pleasanthillpark.mwcd.org/.

Friday's events include a Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization panel from 1 to 5 p.m. The cost is $10 per person. Guided evening hikes are 7 to 8 p.m. Campfire Bigfoot stories will be told from 8 to 10 p.m.

Saturday events include Bigfoot crafting from 11 a.m. to noon; a plaster casting footprint session from noon to 1 p.m.; and pontoon tours from noon to 4 p.m. Tickets must be purchased online in advance for the boat tours.

For the full schedule, including Sunday, go to https://pleasanthillpark.mwcd.org/.

Maybe you'll see Sasquatch

Andres said that the August 2020 report of a possible Bigfoot corresponds with other alleged encounters in Ashland County, including at Mohican State Park as recent as 2021. Sightings also have been reported in Richland County, home to Malabar State Park.

"We learned that there were other areas of (Pleasant Hill Lake) park where people have witnessed something or heard some sounds or saw something of that nature," he said. "So it doesn't surprise us that this is kind of a hotbed of activity."

The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District takes a data-driven approach to the subject, establishing sighting patterns in the region, he said.

The oldest Bigfoot sighting in Richland County dates to an 1899 newspaper report of a creature seen in a huckleberry patch, Andres said. Huckleberries are believed to be a preferred food of Bigfoot, he said, citing research by the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.

"I'm convinced there's something there," he said of Bigfoot sightings. "But I'd like to see more evidence, and I'd like to see more physical stuff that confirms that. And unfortunately, we live in a world where people want the physical body, and we don't want people out there hunting and killing things."

Bigfoot sighting in Holmes County

Suzanne Ferencak is among the investigators who will be featured at the Bigfoot Basecamp Weekend.

Her Bigfoot story begins May 14, 2013. Ferencak said she had pulled over on the side of a back road to look at horses. That's when she says she encountered a Sasquatch in Knox Township in Holmes County.

"I was traveling down Township Road 211 ... on the way back from the Buckeye Deli in Nashville heading towards our house," recalled Ferencak, now an investigator with the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. "And it was a beautiful day.

"And I saw a big black thing jump in front of me ... over the road. It was in my line of vision. I saw it in the air as it was going over the road; its feet did not touch the ground."

Ferencak's experience has been recounted in a 2017 film, "The Back 80."

In October of 2014, while sitting on her porch around 11 p.m., Ferencak said she had a frightening encounter with what she suspects was Bigfoot.

From behind she heard footfalls and heavy breathing approaching her.

"It was horrible, it was like something out of a nightmare," Ferencak said. "And I froze and I said, 'This is not happening, your mind is taking a vacation,' but it was happening."

What does Bigfoot sound like?

Another Bigfoot experience happened July 3, 2022, Ferencak said.

Strange sounds came from the woods around 3:40 a.m. when she was sitting near a campfire on her 18-acre rural property, which is less than two miles from the Mohican River in the Loudonville area.

Following other suspected Bigfoot encounters outside her home, she invested in an audio recorder that she kept running for hours at night in her backyard.

On that summer night in 2022, fireworks boomed in the distance, triggering what she believes were the agitated howls of a Sasquatch, Ferencak said.

Holmes County Bigfoot howl? An Ohio woman is convinced she recorded Bigfoot. Experts say it could be something else.

Ferencak's roughly two-minute recording was initially reported by the Mansfield News Journal and then by USA Today.

Of the howls, she said: "The one I recorded was almost like a song."

Reach Ed at ebalint@gannett.com and on X (formerly Twitter) @ebalintREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Bigfoot fest at Ohio's Pleasant Hill Lake features Matt Moneymaker