"Park officials said they have never found any real physical evidence of the creature, but the speculation has put the park in the national spotlight. In addition, the talk has helped tourism since people want to try to see the creature for themselves." --WTOV9.com
As acceptance of the paranormal and strange grows, and the inevitable commercialization creeps in (roadside bigfoot souvenir stands, bigfoot burgers at the local diners, etc), I wonder, "is this phenomena real? Is it possible that local residents could be perpetuating the Ohio Grassman story so that tourists and amateur 'footers' will continue to flock in numbers to the area--even if they don't really believe in it themselves?
Accusations have been made that this has been the case in Roswell, NM, Bishopville, SC (home of the alleged "Lizard Man'), and Loch Ness.
As I have blogged before in the past, I consider myself cautiously open-minded...a skeptical believer, if you will, regarding all-things paranormal and supernatural. Bigfoot has always fascinated me. I want to believe in it, and I certainly think its plausible that a large, undiscovered hominoid could exist without much detection in the vast Pacific Northwest, for example, but Ohio? Really? Granted, the Salt Fork State Park area is large, but you will almost certainly run into some human being there, no matter how far inside the park you are. Could a 'squatch' really live in Ohio? Ohio is not Washington State, Western Canada or Alaska--areas so large, so uninhabited that squatches could live there for thousands of years without detection. Surely, by now, the Ohio Grassman would have been caught, or shot for that matter, if it truly existed. Or would it have?
I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.
