On April 2, 2024, from about 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., I saw Ronny LeBlanc’s presentation at the Acton Senior Center. And I was not alone. About three dozen other people also saw his presentation, “What is Bigfoot?” So, there are a lot of eyewitnesses.
The BBC describes Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, as a “tall, hairy, bi-pedal, primate-like creature of disputed existence”. The Council on Aging newsletter invitation to LeBlanc’s presentation said that people have encountered “what they describe as a man-like being that has inhabited the forest as long as they can remember,” and asks, “But where are the bones? Where are the bodies? And why is every modern-day photo or video blurry?”
LeBlanc describes himself as “an independent researcher, screenwriter and author… who stars in Travel Channel’s “Expedition Bigfoot” and “Paranormal Caught on Camera.” At the Senior Center, LeBlanc discussed his own experiences; some of the strangest cases surrounding Sasquatch; and what he thinks this creature might be.
And he said there have been sightings in Massachusetts and throughout New England.
I skeptically asked him, “Have there been any Bigfoot sightings in Acton?”
LeBlanc answered, “Not any that have been reported in a database.”
But Leominster, MA, is another story. The database maintained by the Bigfoot Field Reseachers’ Organization records five sightings in Worcester County, including a 2010 report of six very large footprints in Leominster State Forest.
LeBlanc grew up in Leominster, where a section of the city near his childhood home was called “Monsterland.” He said, “I didn’t know why it had received this moniker, but all my friends were going there to ride their BMX bikes, pedaling through the forested trails to get there, and spending their day in the sand dunes within the power lines.”
LeBlanc added, “Teenagers would use the area to hold keg parties and bonfires, and young couples would frequent the area to evade prying parents’ eyes. Some of the ‘lucky’ ones that would venture into this area at night would experience strange sounds and lights. Sightings of flying saucers, orange orbs and hairy creatures running on two legs were part of the lore.”
If you want the complete backstory, then read LeBlanc’s two books: “Monsterland: Encounters with UFOs, Bigfoot and Orange Orbs” and “Monsterland: Shamans, Sasquatch, Synchronicity and High Strangeness.”
Or, if you want to keep up to date on the latest developments, then watch the fourth season of “Expedition Bigfoot,” which chronicles how the investigation for the elusive Bigfoot unfolded in the unforgiving Oregon wilderness.
What LeBlanc suggests…is controversial; he asks, “What if all these phenomena are connected? What if it has something to do with the area itself and its history?”
As a volunteer journalist, I try to keep an open mind. But do I believe that Bigfoot encounters continue to this day in and around Leominster State Forest?
Well, let us just say that I won’t be telling my grandkids any scary stories around the campfire, because there is no camping and no open flames allowed at Leominster State Forest. And I don’t plan to take my kids and grandkids fishing in Crow Hill Pond anytime soon, even though it is stocked with trout several times a year by the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife).