THE DROP
FOLLOWI NG B IG
FOOTSTEPS BY MADISON EBLEN | PHOTOS AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY JESSICA KOYNOCK
The search for Sasquatch continues in Southeast Ohio.
T
he forests of Southeast Ohio are home to a variety of common woodland critters, such as squirrels, deer and black bears. But some believe a certain hairy bipedal might also call the regionâs wooded areas home. The Southeastern Ohio Society for Bigfoot Investigation (SOSBI) was founded in 2008 by a group of librarians from
the Crossroads Branch Library in Cambridge, Ohio. They set out to create an open space for people to talk and share stories about Bigfoot without fear of judgment. One of the founders, Doug Waller, began studying the history of Sasquatch after starting his job at the library in 1992. âSuddenly, I had all these Bigfoot books at my disposal,â Waller says. âSo, I read
everything we had and then would send away to other libraries. Iâm up around 180 books now that I have gotten read (sic).â Waller has published two books about Bigfoot, with a third book expected to be out in April. He took his interest in Bigfoot and, with the help of a few other librarians, started hosting talks at different libraries, as well as holding official SOSBI meetings every other month. The meetings started small, with about a dozen people coming together on Wallerâs back porch, but have grown to gatherings of more than 70 people at a time. The society was featured on an episode of the Discovery Channelâs Finding Bigfoot, where longtime SOSBI member Lorena Cunningham shared one of her encounters. Cunningham says she had her first Bigfoot sighting in July 1984 while she was playing with her three children by a forest in Sharon, Ohio. At first, Cunningham thought she heard an escaped calf come out of the woods but says she was greeted by something entirely different. âI walked over by the outhouse, but I didnât encounter a calf,â Cunningham says. âWhat I encountered was this big, huge, hair-covered creature standing there looking down at me, and I was standing looking up at her.â She says the creature had huge biceps underneath reddish-brown
SOSBI members share Bigfoot encounters and experiences bimonthly at the Guernsey County Sportsmen for Conservation clubhouse in Cambridge, Ohio, on March 4.
8
backdrop | Spring 2017