Whitehall names sasquatch as village's official animal

Via timesunion.com

The Village of Whitehall has declared sasquatch — the apocryphal man-beast popularly known as bigfoot — to be the community's "official animal."

Though sightings of the creature in recent years have been scarce, the Washington County community on the Vermont border has a long tradition of honoring sasquatch, including the establishment of a town law declaring the maybe-species as endangered. (No prosecutions have resulted.)

The resolution, passed at the village board's June meeting, notes the four "prominent Bigfoot statues" in Whitehall and the "annual Bigfoot Half-Marathon and a Sasquatch Festival that draws people from 200 miles around the Northeastern U.S. and Canada, all making Whitehall a tourism destination-point for Bigfoot searchers."

The Animal Planet series "Finding Bigfoot" visited the town in 2015 to talk to local officials and residents about their enactment of a law protecting sasquatch from hunters.


The resolution also declares the last Saturday of September as "Sasquatch Appreciation Day." This year's Sasquatch Calling Festival — featuring screenings of "The Beast of Whitehall" and "Harry and the Hendersons" — takes place Sept. 29 in Skenesborough Park.

The Whitehall Times reported that the vote to approve the resolution was 4-0.

"It can't hurt," said trustee George Armstrong, who called the resolution "very well-written, by the way."

The resolution was the brainchild of Dave Molenaar, who in a press release sent to the Times Union identified himself as a member of the Bigfoot Tourism Council of Whitehall.

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