Shots fired in National Park after alleged ‘sasquatch’ encounter

Is the truth really out there?  For a group of campers in California, the answer to that question may be hard to come by.

Tales of an enormous, hairy ape roaming the dense forest areas of the United States have been around for centuries, having been passed down through the oral and pictograph traditions of North America’s native people.  Sasquatch, as they call it, or “Bigfoot” in popular culture, is not much more than a myth for many, with skeptics likening the creature to the Loch Ness Monster or little green men from Mars.

But a recent incident at a national park in Kentucky has even the most ardent non-believer second guessing themselves.

“It was Bigfoot country.”

That’s what a man told two campers after allegedly finding his campsite demolished.

“He said ‘I hope you have weapons’ and then he flashed his gun at us and was like ‘I have this so if anything happens to you then just yell and I’ll come,'” camper Madelyn Durandtold WBKO, the ABC affiliate in Bowling Green, Ky.

Just a moment later, several shots rang out, which was enough to send the campers scampering for law enforcement.

“Mammoth Cave National Park Law Enforcement Rangers responded to a reporting of an individual with a firearm in one of our back country camp sites in the early morning hours of Sunday, July 28,” Mammoth Cave’s Public Information Officer Molly Schroer told WBKO. “The rangers made contact with all the parties involved. It is an ongoing investigation at this time.”

While sasquatch has never been a scientifically-recognized creature, continued alleged sightings of the create occur nearly every day in the United States.

The phenomenon is also prevalent in American pop culture, inspiring numerous television programs, movies, and tourist traps.