Niagara Falls has legends involving Native American maids, water fall thunder gods and headless solders and yes, one that even involves Bigfoot. In fact, the Niagara region has had many sightings of it’s own Bigfoot that go back hundreds of years.

Many feel Bigfoot, or Sasquatch as he is also called, is no legend or myth, but a real breathing, walking specimen of primate that has yet to be classified. In Niagara County Bigfoot has left behind some traces that have yet to be explained.

For centuries there have been stories among Native Americans in the region that refer to a creature that walks on two feet known as the “hairy man”. Some on the current Tuscarora Indian Reservation located in Niagara County claim that the “hairy man” still lives close by.

In the early 1980’s a decapitated head and a pair of claws were found in the woods between Lewiston and Youngstown New York in Niagara County. A photo was taken of the rotting and dismembered items and they were then tossed down the banks of the Niagara River near the Artpark Theatre complex.

The Niagara Falls Gazette then wrote a story on the find and published the photo. The publicity attracted Bigfoot researchers who traveled to Niagara County from various States.

The actual skull and claws were never retrieved so researchers had nothing to go on other than interviews with the individuals who found them. Bigfoot researchers scoured the area where the remains were found, but came up empty.

In 1986 the late Jerry Fedell, then the News Director of WKBW TV in Buffalo was shown the photographs. Feddell was also told of a conversation a station reporter had with a former Niagara County Sheriff Deputy that indicated there was more to the matter.

A confidential, off the record interview was then conducted with the former Deputy. The individual claimed he was a member at one time of a special “Bigfoot” unit of the  Niagara County Sheriff’s Department.

The interview revealed that there had been a record of Bigfoot sightings in the area going back many years. Reportedly, the Sheriff’s Department had investigated a number of these sightings, taking photographs of foot prints left behind in the snow, conducted interviews with eye witnesses and even tracked the creature with dogs.

Many times the reports of Bigfoot were not called-in as such, but rather as a woman screaming in the woods or an animal in distress. When Sheriff deputies arrived they found no woman or animal in distress, but sometimes their search found evidence of a creature like none they had come across before.

Locations where the Bigfoot sightings took place often had the tell-tale “terrible odor” that has been associated with sightings in various locations over the years. Deputies also measured foot prints made with a stride not possible by a humans.

The theory of the Sheriff investigators was that the creature frequented the area around Model City Road located just below the Niagara escarpment in the Town of Lewiston. Along the escarpment there are caves that instigators believed may have served as shelter for the creature.

Model City Road

For a brief time the WKBW investigation considered using infra-red cameras and conducting a stakeout of the area where the sightings were most frequent. A search of the Niagara River embankment where witnesses said the skull and claws found in 1980 were discarded produced no results.

The television station did have the photos of the skull and claws shown to a zoologist at the Buffalo Zoo for identification. Without the specimen in hand the Zoologist could not identify the animal and speculated that it may have been a young bear, but due to the state of decomposition he wasn’t sure.

Eventually investigation by WKBW-TV fizzled. The former Sheriff Deputy refused to go on camera or be recorded in any manner to discuss the case. With no credible authority willing to go on camera the story came to a halt.

Bigfoot has stayed out of the news for the most part since the 1980’s. However, in 2007 there was a sighting by an individual named Kevin near Middleport New York in Niagara County. This is the transcript from that incident: “
I stopped at a working stone quarry area that I had been to on many other occasions to spot for deer. As I stepped out of my truck to look into the very large field the deer are normally in I immediately saw what I initially thought was a girl with very long hair (cascaded off the head and at the considerable distance, appeared initially as far below the waist) moving very rapidly through waist high field grass covering what I estimate at around 75 yards in certainly less than 15 seconds. As I look back, I believe I was looking at the full body hair and not just hair flowing from the head. As the figure continued on to my right at approximately 225 yards away I noticed that it didn’t seem to have any clothing I could see and as the biped moved into shorter grass and moved slightly away from me and crossing a tractor path I could make out what I thought were glutteal cheeks and at the same time realized that the whole body was the same color as the head and upper torso. This biped moved very rapidly through the rocky terrain along the far edge of a huge quarry and at the same time did not appear to be running at any time but moved gracefully and smoothly with no apparent arm swinging I could see. It moved quickly into a field of corn and I did not see it again despite scanning for another 10 minutes. It is my belief that I did in fact witness a hairy bipedal animal and since that time have spent considerable time in and around the general area to spot and look for sign of some type. I have spent all my life in the outdoors as an avid hunter and camper and know what I saw, and realize that not many people have had the privilege to witness. I will continue to look forward to finding, and hopefully seeing another bigfoot as I have been told by Mike George that there was another sighting last year by multiple people at another quarry about 4 miles to the East at another working stone quarry. That information confirmed my sighting for me as a certain amount of self-doubt manifests after such an incident. I am Native American and aware of the many legends of the First Nations of long ago and consider this a sign that I must carefully consider. 

If Bigfoot exists in the Niagara Falls region he has managed to keep a very low profile over the years. Other than the occasional foot print and the documented stories from locals, Bigfoot sightings are a rarity. Unlike parts of the American northwest where Bigfoot has become a local celebrity, it’s still Niagara Falls that reigns supreme as the main tourist attraction in Western New York.