Tonight, we’re diving deep into the eerie world of urban legends, and guiding us through the shadows is the founder of Ohio Urban Legends. From forgotten ghost towns and haunted cemeteries to the backroads where people swear something still walks after dark, they’ve built a booming YouTube channel exploring the stories that refuse to die.

We’ll uncover the history behind these legends, the investigations that brought them to life, and the chilling encounters that keep Ohio’s folklore alive and well. If it’s eerie, unexplained, or downright creepy, it’s on the table tonight.

For decades, skeptics have repeated a simple but misleading claim: that the entire Bigfoot phenomenon began in 1958 when a California bulldozer operator named Jerry Crew cast a set of large footprints found around a logging site, prints later linked to Ray Wallace, a man known for carving wooden feet and staging hoaxes.

It’s a tidy explanation.

It’s also completely false.

Don Keating began investigating Bigfoot in 1984, inspired by reading John Green’s work. He quickly became one of the most active field researchers in the Midwest, focusing on what he later named “The Sasquatch Triangle”, a cluster of counties in eastern Ohio known for dense forests and consistent sightings.

 

Keating wasn’t just collecting stories; he was building a regional research infrastructure. He founded the Tri-State Bigfoot Study Group and the Eastern Ohio Bigfoot Investigation Center, creating organized teams long before social media made collaboration easy.

Most Bigfoot researchers chase evidence.

Grover Krantz studied it.

Here are a few fast facts about one of the most respected names in the field:

Every time you dig deep into Bigfoot reports, something strange happens; UFO sightings start popping up in the same places. Not always. Not everywhere. But often enough that researchers have been arguing about it for decades.

In the fall of 1951, while scouting routes for a future ascent of Mount Everest, British mountaineers Eric Shipton and Michael Ward stumbled upon a series of large, humanoid footprints in the snow near the Menlung Glacier. Intrigued, Shipton photographed one of the clearest impressions, placing an ice axe beside it for scale, a move that would immortalize the image and spark decades of speculation.

The footprint appeared to be 13 inches long, with a distinct big toe and arch, resembling a human foot but far larger and broader. The clarity of the print, combined with its remote location and the credibility of the expedition team, gave the photo immediate notoriety. It was published in Popular Science in 1952 and quickly became a focal point in the growing Western fascination with the Yeti, also known as the Abominable Snowman.

On June 18, an anonymous report was made to Bigfoot Case Files. It was also picked up by Bigfoot Evidence and Sasquatch Central.

A man (we'll call Tom*) has reported two different encounters. The first occurred around 30-some years ago when he was 19 or 20  years old. It was late in June when he and a buddy (let's call him Rory*) decided to go fishing at a pond that was partway up a mountain in northern Pennsylvania. They arrived at the pond at around 7 pm and set up a quick camp. The two young men heated some stew for supper and then sat around the camp lantern talking about the big bass they were going to catch.

For centuries, the dark, still waters of Loch Ness have been home to one of the world’s most enduring legends: a creature said to dwell beneath the surface, massive and mysterious, rarely seen but never forgotten.

Known as Nessie, this elusive cryptid has stirred global curiosity since the early 20th century, though accounts of something strange in the loch stretch back to ancient times. From ancient Pictish carvings and Saint Columba’s fabled encounter in the 6th century, to the infamous 1934 “Surgeon’s Photograph,” the mystery has only deepened.

The Erickson Project ran from 2005 to 2010. Its mission was to find proof that the sasquatch was real through forensic evidence: photographs, videos, footprints, skin, hair, and saliva samples.

Erickson described a typical day researching for the Project: Up in the early morning to check the area for any evidence that Sasquatch had come around. Checking for prints, checking if the food was touched. Then later in the day, he was "dealing with local residents and their issues". Maybe they would do some "B-Roll" videotaping. Then, just before dark, the team would go into the woods with night vision cameras and wait for the sasquatch to show themselves.

Law enforcement officers see many strange things throughout their careers. One thing many hesitate to report to their superiors is anything paranormal, including seeing a sasquatch. So when these two deputy sheriffs stepped forward and told their stories to John Green, he paid attention.

Although this sighting happened as a teenager, this deputy sheriff never changed his story even years later when Green interviewed him.