Everything we know about the natural world is about to change, according to Virginia’s Manassas resident Billy Willard. The Spotsylvania County man has been investigating claims of sightings locals have had in the past ten years. Willard’s Sasquatch Watch of Virginia is making major waves in the paranormal community as he takes the search for the wild hominid into the technology of 2010.
With five motion sensing cameras set up around different observation points in the nearby woods, Willard has big plans for a second expedition mirroring the first into a wooded area around which a family declared they had seen Sasquatch stalking their property before disappearing just as elusively as it had appeared. Due to fears of ridicule, the family Willard has been working with closely has refused to go public with their claim until conclusive evidence can be gathered of Sasquatch’s presence in the area. Armed with his surveillance equipment and the drive to ensure the family’s story receives vindication, Willard is hoping to catch footage of the creature and put to rest the myopic assertion that Bigfoot is nothing more than a tall hairy hoax.
Willard believes he is on the right trail partially due to the presence of everything that is needed for a wild creature to survive in a very localized area. The area around Manass there is water, shelter, and a high concentrations of sightings. He suggests this may be the breakthrough the cryptozoological community is looking for in order to finally renew the interest Bigfoot once enjoyed in the 1960’s after the first Patterson-Gimlin film was shown to a shocked populace.
One local’s theory is that the typically elusive creature may be making more appearances as its natural habitat is destroyed. A recent subdivision being built in the area has been tearing through a considerable amount of wilderness territory. The final proof of the creature’s existence of course would be the discovery or capture of a live specimen, but failing that a slew of photographic evidence and even DNA samples may be enough to keep the Bigfoot community alive.
But if a bigfoot howls in the forest and there’s no one to hear it, does it make a sound? Several residents (an estimated 14 confirmed in recent months according to Willard) have indeed been around to hear mysterious and unexplained calls in the night or even seen the creature while out hunting or hiking.
In the meantime there is no shortage of ridicule for the community as investigators navigate a minefield of scorn. “I don’t let it bother me,” one Bigfoot enthusiast says, “There are plenty of things people believe in that haven’t been proven yet. And who’s to say there can’t be something out there?” In the mean time we can only wait and watch, and be troubled while navigating through the woods when we hear a sudden branch snapping or a tree falling in the forest. It may just be a deer or a naturally rotting tree branch. Of course it could also be something more.