Starting on March 6, 2026, a run of Bigfoot reports came out of Portage County, Ohio, east of Akron, mostly posted by The Bigfoot Society on Facebook.

The first came that afternoon near Mantua Center, where a researcher said he saw a nine-foot brown figure about 120 yards away near State Route 44 before it noticed him and left. The next night, Dylan Obney reported an eight-foot figure with long arms and dark brown hair near Mantua. He said the woods went silent before he heard heavy footsteps and a deep grunt, and he found big muddy footprints. On March 9, a hiker near Garrettsville reported an eight-foot figure covered in black fur. That same morning, two people on the Headwaters Trail said they had a roughly 15-second face-to-face encounter with a ten-foot black figure that moved with a stilt-like gait and gave off a strong musky smell. More reports followed from Windham, Newton Township and along Route 303. By March 11, local posts counted eight “high-credibility” reports.

Bigfoot warning signs briefly appeared at Headwaters Trail trailheads, then were taken down. The park district said it hadn’t posted them and reminded visitors to stay on trails. The Bigfoot Society’s Jeremiah Byron compared the wave to Ohio’s 1970s Minerva Monster and said the encounters were too sudden for photos. Skeptic Benjamin Radford urged caution.

No photo, video or measured track has been published.