Lecturer: Local Bigfoot, UFO sightings on the rise

Dave Sutor, The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.
·2 min read

Oct. 10—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Stan Gordon said the past year or so has been an "unusually active" period for Bigfoot and UFO sightings and "all kinds of weird stuff" locally.

The author, researcher and lifelong Greensburg resident gave a presentation on Sunday at the Johnstown Masonic Event & Conference Center on reports of paranormal phenomena in the region.

"We had a very good UFO photograph taken in daylight, I believe it was May 14 this year, over the Chestnut Ridge, outside of Latrobe, and that's a very active area year after year for Bigfoot sightings," Gordon said during an interview before the event. "So a lot of activity goes on from the Chestnut Ridge and then comes up here to the Laurel Ridge area. They are very active, year after year, with UFO reports, Bigfoot reports and other phenomena."

Gordon said he did not know why the region has been so active.

"There are many unanswered questions we don't have the answers for," Gordon said. "It's just an area that historically has been very active with such reports."

He has been studying Bigfoot and UFOs for decades.

"When I got involved investigating Bigfoot back in the 1960s, I was of the opinion that Bigfoot was some type of unknown animal, unknown primate," Gordon said. "But then 1973 came around. At first, we had the largest wave of UFO sightings ever documented, with hundreds of cases all year here in Pennsylvania.

"But then in the summer of 1973, we had a major outbreak of Bigfoot sightings throughout western Pa. and other areas, and that's when some very strange things began to come to our attention."

His opinion about Bigfoot has changed since then.

"For lack of a better term, I think we're dealing with something that's 'interdimensional' — not extraterrestrial from another planet, but something from another reality that's so beyond our present scientific understanding we just don't understand it, which is why we have no bodies of Bigfoot," Gordon said.

Approximately 100 people attended the lecture titled "Strange Aspects of the Elusive Bigfoot."

"The Masonic Temple, we're just looking for different types of events to throw here, now that we've opened up the rooms upstairs to the general public," Chris Watkins, a member of Greater Johnstown Lodge 538 F&AM and event organizer, said. "With Halloween coming, we figured something paranormal would be kind of a good thing to throw. We had a pretty good turnout. ... There is some interest.

"A lot of people, they love Bigfoots, and the UFOs and all of that."