Second Possible Bigfoot Sighting Reported in Ashland County, Ohio, in Less Than Two Months

The reported sighting location, where an anonymous man told the Richland Source he saw “a large, dark figure emerge from the trees on the right and walk diagonally in a northeasterly direction to the treeline on the left.” (Richland Source) — The reported sighting location, where an anonymous man told the Richland Source he saw “a large, dark figure emerge from the trees on the right and walk diagonally in a northeasterly direction to the treeline on the left.” *(Richland Source)*

An anonymous 51-year-old man recently told the Richland Source that he saw a large, dark figure walk across a field near where he was mowing on June 9th, only a few miles away from where a 20-year-old woman in Ashland, Ohio, said she’d seen a seven-foot-tall creature after leaving the Warehouse 24 gym on the outskirts of town last April 24th.

"I have tried to explain it away, but I can't," he said to the news site from his home north of U.S. 30. "In all the years I have lived here, I have never seen anything like it."

The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was aboard his riding lawn mower when he saw a large, black, upright figure emerge from the tree line and walk diagonally across a recently planted soybean field before disappearing into another wooded area.

He was approximately 250 yards away from the creature, he said, and couldn't record the event because he'd left his phone inside. Instead, he sat stunned as it walked across the field.

"It had been raining hard right before I mowed. I normally keep the phone in my pocket, but I didn't want to have it with me in case it started raining again," the man said. "It happened so quickly. There would have been no way for me to get back into the house and grab it. I knew it would be gone."

The man drove his mower about 35 yards closer as the dark figure crossed, but he was unable to proceed further when he reached the field’s edge.

"At that point, the dark figure was just east of the trail cam and I was hoping it would cross [in front of the camera], but it stayed to the north of it. It was following a deer trail," he said. "The whole time I was thinking, 'No one is going to believe me.'"

The creature easily crossed the field in only 90 seconds before disappearing into chest-high weeds and proceeding into the trees, said the man. He continued to watch for several minutes to see if the figure would return, but it did not.

According to the witness, deep depressions in the terrain could provide cover, including some so deep that a person "could literally park a truck in one of them that would not be visible" from his property.

"I also scanned the tree line for any vehicles that might be there from someone walking, but there weren't any. I could not figure out what I had just seen. I finished mowing and I didn't even tell my wife about it until a few days later," he said.

Initially, he wondered if the figure was one of his neighbor's checking a nearby trail cam or someone hunting for mushrooms, but his neighbors denied they could have been responsible.

"Who would have been out after that pouring rain, dressed in all black?" he asked.

The man went so far as to search the field for footprints, but didn't find any; although later he did find and photograph what he thought were two large prints, including toe indentations, close to a nearby creek.

"It's hard to tell," he admitted.

He reportedly tried to recreate the sighting with the help of his 5'11", 235 pound son, but after viewing a recording of him dressed in black and crossing in the same spot, decided the creature was larger than the teenager.

The man then sent a report to The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), and was surprised with how quickly he was contacted by investigator Matthew Moneymaker, who suggested he speak with local media outlets.

Moneymaker classified the sighting as a "Class B" observation, which is for "incidents where a possible sasquatch was observed at a great distance or in poor lighting."

"He isn't sure about it, because of the distance," Moneymaker said. "It very well could have been a sasquatch. He is a credible witness who also tried to re-create what he had seen. He has lived there long enough to know you don't usually see people walking back there, especially coming out of the woods right after the rain."

According to Moneymaker, the man was "right on the edge" of reliable viewing distance for such a sighting.

"He could see the figure, see its color, see it walking upright and see how fast it was moving. It's difficult to say at that distance if what you are seeing is covered in fur or not," he said.

Much like the 20-year-old woman who had reported her sighting back in April, Moneymaker said that this man had seen the mysterious figure in an area that the investigator believes is preferred by Bigfoot, one with plentiful deer, nearby water, and dense woods that provide cover and places to hide.

Unlike this most recent sighting, however, the woman from April said what she'd seen had looked gray, although Moneymaker doesn't think that rules out this being the same creature.

"I wonder if the artificial lighting could have reflected off the creature's fur in such a way that made it look grayish. I do think it's very possible it's the same one," he speculated.

"The man here saw a pretty tall critter moving along at a good clip," Moneymaker added. "There is nothing he or I have found yet that could rule out it being a sasquatch. There is nothing that clearly shows it was a person."

The witness freely admitted to a prior interest in the Bigfoot phenomenon, although Moneymaker said he thought that likely only made him "more observant."

"The fact the witness in this case was previously interested is something that is coming up more and more as we have more sightings. Does it influence their perception...or does it make them more observant? I think it makes them more observant and willing to consider alternatives that others may not," said Moneymaker.

Despite any doubt that exists surrounding this sighting, Moneymaker emphasized that witnesses should report their encounters to the BFRO regardless of how certain they are that they saw a sasquatch.

"We think other people in the area should be paying attention. He felt it should be reported. Our website and our database are not just for cases where the person is 100 percent sure he saw a sasquatch," he said.

Moneymaker was reportedly sent the video and photographs taken by this most recent Ashland County witness, and said on July 16th that the report would be added to the BFRO website “in the next few days.”

As of the publishing of this article, the report has yet to be made publicly available.

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