As a resident of Northeast Ohio, I have often hiked in the beautiful Cuyahoga Valley National Park looking for clean air, wildlife and spare change. It is just a few hundred feet from my backyard, so the recent news of a recording of the howl of a Bigfoot in the park got my attention … especially when my research led me to an earlier famous Ohio Bigfoot recording and to another possible source of the moan … the legendary Ohio Grassman.

The recording was obtained in March 2015 by local Bigfoot researcher Charlie Page in an area of the park near the high I-271 freeway overpass on the border of Cuyahoga and Summit counties. Charlie had his recorder at the scenic Hemlock Point and picked up multiple howls from different directions but seemingly from the same creature. The park is known for its many caves and is close to farms, providing cover and food for an elusive Bigfoot.

Ice Box Cave, one of the many possible Bigfoot or Grassman hiding places in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park

The Cuyahoga River valley is home to coyotes, an occasional bear and plenty of drunken visitors but the howl doesn’t sound like any of those. It sounds more like the famous “Ohio Howl” or “Columbiana Howl” – the first known recording of a possible Bigfoot vocalization. That howl has never been identified as a known species. Columbiana County is just 100 miles southeast of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

The howl could also be from an Ohio Grassman. The first Grassman sighting dates back to 1869 in a report about a 9-foot-tall bipedal creature that was eating … don’t get ahead of me here … grass and wheat in the abundant Ohio farmlands. Some experts eventually decided the Grassman is a separate species from Sasquatch because of its grass diet (rather than apples, even though Ohio has an abundance of them too) and because it was usually seen in groups and had an odor, like the Skunk Ape of Florida.

A 2014 Grassman photo taken in Salt Fork Park south of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Is Charlie Page’s recording proof that Northeast Ohio is home to a Bigfoot or a Grassman family? I for one will be watching and listening on my next hike. So will the Cleveland Browns who could use some help on the line.