By Tim Binnall
A Pennsylvania community in the heart of what is believed to be the state's proverbial Sasquatch country is considering a variety of ways to celebrate the creature in the hopes of drawing tourists to the town. According to a local media report, the bold Bigfoot embrace is being bandied about by officials in the borough of Derry, which borders Chestnut Ridge, where a series of notable cryptid and UFO sightings famously occurred back in the 1970s. Now, the community hopes to take advantage of the location's notoriety in paranormal circles by fashioning itself into the gateway to Pennsylvania's realm of high strangeness.
Spearheading the movement is council president Barbara Phillips, who came up with the idea during a trip to Indiana, wherein she saw numerous ads featuring a legendary creature said to lurk in the area. Realizing that "we need something" similar, she subsequently pitched the possibility of Derry becoming a paranormal tourist destination to fellow board member Nathan Bundy, who enthusiastically agreed and the Derry Bigfoot Committee was formed shortly thereafter. Advising the group on their nascent idea are Pennsylvania paranormal researchers and former C2C guests Stan Gordon and Eric Altman.
Detailing the development at a recent borough council meeting, Bundy reportedly explained that they "would like to explore the option, with some of the local paranormal investigators, of how to commemorate Bigfoot … with a statue, a plaque and a map of the sightings — something that people could come and interact with." This was echoed by Philips, who mused that "Derry needs something to pull people to our town. We don't have anything." One particularly tantalizing possibility put forward by Gordon is the creation of a Bigfoot museum that would detail the region's unique place in Bigfoot lore.
For now, it would seem that all manner of cool concepts are being considered by the committee, including a festival akin to the celebrations that have become enormous tourism draws for communities like Roswell, New Mexico and Point Pleasant, West Virginia. “Let's do something for ourselves," a determined Philips declared, "nothing’s going to happen if we do nothing." To that end, the group hopes to put some of their plans into action by incorporating Bigfoot into the borough's annual September event that commemorates the town's railroad heritage. Should the committee's plans ultimately come to fruition, Derry very well could be the next must-visit tourist destination for fans of the famed cryptid.