Last week I received email from a person in Pennsylvania who found large muddy footprints across from his house in Sewickley Heights, Pennsylvania, a heavily wooded area not far from Pittsburgh in Allegheny County. The twenty bipedal prints – mud on asphalt – measured 18 to 20 inches in length, 8 inches in width, with a heel-to-heel stride of 78 inches. When I met Sharon Lee at a Bigfooters’ dinner party in Willow Creek, California, on August 16, I asked if she knew any Pennsylvania Bigfoot researchers. She recommended Eric Altman of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society. Sharon Lee lives in Ohio and has done some recent squatching with Eric.

Apparently Bigfoot sightings in Allegheny County, near Pittsburgh, aren’t uncommon. The Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society’s site lists 32 incidents for that one county alone! Now they’ll have one more.

The website for the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society includes a blog, the PA Bigfoot Society Journal; a forum for members only; a radio program, Beyond the Edge Radio; some fascinating photographs of squatching discoveries and techniques; and an extensive county-by-county database of Pennsylvania Bigfoot sightings and encounters. There’s also a county-by-county listing of Pennsylvania Bigfoot researchers to call on if there’s a sighting, and some Bigfoot merchandise to buy as well.

I enjoyed my tour through the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society’s website and feel I now have a much better understanding of the intensity of Bigfoot activity in that state.

A few sample sightings from the database:

1. In 1985 two couples set up camp near the Dubois Reservoir in Sasquatch territory. The two women hiked in the woods and were disturbed by a terrible rotten-egg type smell and unusual movements. Later that evening the couples enjoyed their campfire until they heard heavy footfalls circling around them. Though it was dark they decided to break camp and get out of dodge. The creature followed them to their vehicle and when they turned on the headlights they saw it only 25 feet away: 7 feet tall covered with reddish-brown hair. Read more here.

2. In Berks County, 1991, a man out grouse hunting on Blue Mountain saw a creature, at least 7 feet tall with long black hair covering the body. He estimated the creature to weigh 400 to 500 pounds. There was about a foot of snow on the ground, and ice, so walking was difficult for the man. The creature, however, was running but not winded. Read more here.

3. In 1992 campers in Erie County heard vocalizations and saw a large bipedal creature cross in front of their truck when they attempted to leave the area. It had started when one camper saw hair-covered legs in his flashlight beam. One of the campers attempted to take photographs but got nothing except eyes. Read more here.

Almost every county in Pennsylvania appears to have had multiple sightings – and the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society’s data will be helpful to anyone experiencing possible Bigfoot activity in that state.