By Jessica Miller
Outdoor sports are some of the most popular activities in the western New York region. Hunters and fishers spend as much of their free time as possible enjoying all that the area has to offer in nature. But what if humans and the animals that can easily be seen aren’t all that can be found in the forests?
There is an open segment of Chautauqua County residents that openly acknowledge their own personal Bigfoot sightings in the area, and these witnesses believe that they are not alone in both the sense of cryptid presence and fellow experiencers. The self-reported Bigfoot witnesses are equally certain that there are many more people who have also had encounters but do not discuss them. While it is relatively easy to find people who are certain of who or what they’ve seen, conclusive proof of the presence of Bigfoot has yet to be presented and accepted.
Peter Weimer, sponsor of the Chautauqua Lake Bigfoot Expo, is sure that there are fellow Chautauqua County residents with their own stories beyond those who chose to confide in him. “There’s 45 eyewitnesses that have reached out to me, there’s a hundred or more in Chautauqua County that aren’t talking to me.” While the expo is currently on hiatus, his website https://ihaveseenbigfoot.com/bigfootexpo-com/ continues to catalog area encounters and photos as they are available. Weimer’s documentary I Have Seen Bigfoot is available for streaming online on the same website. The 2022 expo stream can also be found here, and the expo’s guest speakers and experts present a strong case for Bigfoot’s presence.
Ryan Reading is a fellow Chautauqua County based Bigfoot researcher who tracks area sightings. His website https://westernnewyorkbigfoot.com/ documents activity and serves as a resource for aspiring seekers. Reading’s map of New York state sightings can be found https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1jQ1zW7Gnc5w417gQMImvunP7sWTo6wzM&hl=en_US with local sightings pinned ranging in time from the 1820-30’s to 2022. Despite the elusive nature of Bigfoot, New York ranks fifth in the nation in reported Bigfoot sightings; of note on the map is the broad yet circular range of activity.
Michael Bastine, an Algonquin storyteller and healer from South Wales, has an explanation of why Bigfoot can become scarce after an encounter. He suggests that this creature can travel between realms. A creation story Bastine shares about stone giants provides some structure to this theory. According to the story, there were stone giants who enjoyed powers of moving mountains, winds, and trees. These stone giants were humbled by the creator after becoming boastful of their gifts, and the stone giants later pledged to protect nature and sacred spaces. Bastine sees many parallels between Bigfoot and the stone giants; he cowrote a book with fellow paranormal researcher Manson Winfield Iroquois Supernatural: Talking Animals and Medicine People also includes other unexplained encounters between humans and other creatures.
Bigfoot sightings are well above average in New York as a whole, and the forest terrain combined with the water bodies would be a hospitable habitat for members of this family. While hard confirmation of Bigfoot presence—let alone existence—has yet to be presented and accepted, it is wise to keep in mind that new species of life are still being found in the land, seas, and air. After all, gorillas were also considered (mainly by Europeans and P.T. Barnum) to simply be folklore creatures until the 1850-60’s.