A documentary crew devoted to cryptid discovery recently came to the heart of Sasquatch country.
A crew from the YouTube channel Small Town Monsters filmed in Harrison Hot Springs on Thursday (May 11) to explore the origins of the Sasquatch.
The Sásq’ets – most commonly known as its anglicized iterations “Sasquatch” or “Bigfoot” – has ancient roots in the culture of the Sts’ailes First Nation. Sásq’ets means “hairy man” in Halq’emeylem. In Sts’ailes tradition, the highly revered hairy man described as a caretaker of the land that often moves between the physical and spiritual realms and can shift shape – it is only seen when it wants to be seen.
RELATED: Sasquatch censored? Harrison’s landmark carving is camera shy in Google StreetView’s eyes
Small Town Monsters researcher Heather Moser also works as a producer, with four documentaries credited to her name, including “On the Trail of Bigfoot: Last Frontier.” Unlike the upcoming origins documentary, “Last Frontier” took place in Alaska. In addition to diving deeper into the lore surrounding Sasquatch, Moser said the documentary hopes to trace the roots of Sasquatch research – including that of the late John Green – and its place in popular culture.
“We talk about these creatures and the sightings that go with them and how that has affected the community,” Moser said. “With Harrison Hot Springs, we’ll be looking into (how) that has become part of tourism.”
Moser’s love for cryptids traces back to her childhood in Carroll County, Ohio, the home of the Minerva Monster, a creature similar to our Sasquatch.
“I’ve been into the strange and weird since I was young,” she said. “I just grew up hearing about Bigfoot. It wasn’t necessarily a question of whether it existed. It was just a part of things. That kept me open to other things occurring.”
Moser said cryptids have always been a part of humanity’s culture.
“It doesn’t matter where you live or what time period,” she said. “We’ve always had these stories of monsters in the woods, and I enjoy exploring that and figuring out how that can be studied.”
Moser said she’s had close encounters with the Minerva Monster. She saw signs of strange activity on her family farm and called in Small Town Monsters filmmaker Seth Breedlove to check it out. In addition to Breedlove catching a visual glimpse of the monster, the team experienced other signs of the Minerva Monster’s presence.
“We could hear them running around us,” she said. “There were howls and whistles.”
Moser posted on local social media groups looking for tips and local stories and sighting hotspots.
“So far, everyone I’ve talked to has been very kind and receptive and pretty excited to share these stories with us,” she added.
Partially because she’s not sure how long she will be out in the field, Moser said she wasn’t expecting to see a Sasquatch on her trip to Harrison.
“It would be a very fortunate circumstance to be here and happen to come across one while we’re out and about,” she said. “I don’t anticipate seeing one, but I wouldn’t be upset if I did.”
While some Small Town Monsters crew members headed up to the inaugural Bigfoot Conference in Merritt, others worked in Harrison Hot Springs.
Small Town Monsters is based in Massillon, Ohio and has been publishing independent films on a variety of cryptids since 2014. Their YouTube channel has 521 videos and 132,000 subscribers as of Friday, May 5.
Small Town Monsters can be found on YouTube at youtube.com/@SmallTownMonsters.
adam.louis@ ahobserver.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.