That part of the state accounts for most of Pennsylvania's creditable reports of bigfoot, or sasquatch, sightings each year, explained the director of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society.
In Central Pennsylvania, he said, Adams and York counties, "areas that are more remote, a little more wooded," provide some reports, but nothing like the dozens that have come out of the state's northcentral wilds.
In addition, Altman noted, investigators for the society have recorded "some unusual footprints that we can't really say are bigfoot."
Pending the test result on that hair or the discovery of better tracks, he said "the witness testimony is the best evidence that we've collected" in support of bigfoot's hidden presence in Pennsylvania. The society maintains a database of the reports, collected through an extensive survey form employed on each reported sighting or evidence.
In that database are reports like the following from Adams County.
"Feb. 15, 2007, Caledonia State Park: Witness was leaving work around 3:30 a.m., driving down Rt. 30 and took a right turn onto Rt. 233 north through Caledonia Park. After going about two miles, he grazed a deer and stopped to see if there was any damage.
"The witness could hear something big moving around and then heard the loudest cry or howling he had ever heard in his life. He jumped in his truck and drove away from the area. The witness stated he knows wildlife screams and sounds, but had never heard anything like this before."
Loren Coleman, one of the world's most published cyrtozoologists (researchers in the study of hidden species), said, "I'm very cautious of sound sightings." He noted that even the white-tailed deer is capable of producing vocalizations that most people do not recognize.
However, he believes there is something real causing some of the bigfoot reports. In the past month, he said, he's heard of at least 10 legitimate reports, in the northwestern U.S., not in Pennsylvania.
And, Coleman expects a bigfoot-type hominid - the orang pendek - to be documented in Indonesia in the foreseeable future by a well-funded, scientific team that has been searching for the species more than 20 years.
In Pennsylvania, he believes it's more likely that some unknown species of "mystery cat" will be documented, and even more likely that some smaller cryptid (hidden species) will be found.
Chad Arment, a Lancaster County man who writes and publishes books on cryptozoology, also expects a Pennsylvania discovery to involve something smaller than a bigfoot or a mountain lion. He noted the discovery in just the past 10 years in New Jersey of the largest terrestrial leech in North America.
Like most cryptid enthusiasts, however, he does not completely rule out the presence in Pennsylvania even of bigfoot.
Arment said, "There are some interesting old stories, particularly in Central Pennsylvania, of gorilla-like creatures.
"In Pennsylvania it would be a longshot. We do have so many people here, but at the same time we do have a fair amount of habitat."
Scott Weidensaul, a Friedensburg nature writer who researched cryptozoology for parts of his 2003 book, The Ghost with Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking and the Search for Lost Species, said, "It breaks my heart to say it, but I just don't think it's true. We would have had a body by now.
"There is something fundamental to our make-up that makes us believe in big, hairy monsters in the woods. Almost every culture has legends of large, hairy men in the woods. I want there to be big, hairy men in the woods."
Altman, on the other hand, commented, "I used to be about 85 percent positive that there was something out there. I still think that there's something out there. I believe people are seeing something they can't explain. But, most cases can be ruled off as misidentifications."
After 13 years of bigfoot evidence collection and investigation, Altman now places his confidence level at about 75 percent.
The stigma attached to reporting a sighting of a bigfoot hinders the search, he noted. "A lot of people who have these sightings don't want to be made fun of. A lot of people would like to keep a low profile.
"People often come out of the woodwork 10, 15, 20 years after the fact, when they finally feel comfortable enough to talk about it."
Such was the case in the wake of trail-camera photos that circulated on the Internet in fall 2007. Many claimed the images from Allegheny National Forest showed a bigfoot crawling about on all fours. The Pennsylvania Game Commission said it was a bear that had lost much of its hair to mange.
And, most recently, last October, Tom Biscardi and the Searching for Bigfoot team were drawn to Central Pennsylvania by rough amateur video in which they claimed to have spotted a female bigfoot carrying an infant.
The debate over that video continues to rage online.
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