Ryan Willis Sasquatch Society (Photo provided by Ryan Willis)
A group of Trent University students are planning on making their way to Grey Bruce in hopes of launching a TV pilot about Bigfoot, otherwise known as sasquatch.
Leader of the university’s Sasquatch Society Ryan Willis says the group is officially recognized by the school and includes over 160 members who research and study sasquatch.
Sasquatch is a popular mythichal creature said to be ape-like in appearance that wanders forested areas across North America. Its existence has not been definitively proven.
Willis believes sasquatch to be close in appearance to what is depicted in popular culture as being a large up-right monkey man.
“It is a really cool society we talk to researchers from around the world every week and we also do field research and we speak to witnesses too,” says Willis. “Our mission is to get research discussed in the academic setting.”
Willis says one of these researchers includes Finding Bigfoot’s Matt Moneymaker who is the founder and president of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.
He says they are looking for the type of evidence that people are the most familiar with including hair and foot prints, but the goal is to find a specimen of the bigfoot species.
“People from all over the world have seen these animals so obviously there has to be more than one to keep reproducing like any other species. All of the researchers we have talked to, there is not one researcher we have spoken to who said they are under the impression there is just one sasquatch and people have seen even families at a time so we know there is more than just one,” says Willis. “I think a lot of the pop culture idea of sasquatch that it is just one big monster that roams around the woods, that is quite contrary to what all the evidence suggests.”
“It suggests we are dealing with a very rare primate that lives in very remote areas of the wilderness and other continents too but they have other names for it there,” continues Willis. “And it may be a completely different species over there.”
Willis says their society has been making real efforts to collect evidence of bigfoot since they became official but have not found any yet. Since the school year is over, however, Willis says they aim to spread out and look at other places to find the evidence they are looking for.
Willis adds there is a number of sasquatch researchers in Ontario and he has heard of ‘witnesses’ of bigfoot in Owen Sound.
He says they have been asked to put together a pilot episode and want to interview the most compelling Bigfoot witnesses from Owen Sound on the show.
“It’s a pilot so hopefully it gets picked up and the production people feel it will. I think we will be in Owen Sound at some point for the pilot,” says Willis.
Those who believe to have seen bigfoot and want to tell their story are encouraged to reach out to Willis by emailing sasquatchuniversity@gmail.com or by visiting the Sasquatch University website.