NAMPA, Idaho — The first-ever Squatch Con Idaho is set to kick off on Saturday morning in downtown Nampa, where the streets will be filled with fans of eight-foot-tall furry creatures.
While there have been gatherings dedicated to the infamous Bigfoot in Idaho before, event organizers say Saturday's event will be the first of its kind.
"Just celebrating Bigfoot, that's what it's all about," said Stew Johnson, the founder of Squatch Con. "It kind of hit me, it's like, 'You know, we don't have anything like that in the Treasure Valley that I'm aware of.' I said, 'So I'm going to call it Squatch Con."
After the conception of the idea, Johnson went to work sharing his idea online. Within the first four weeks, he said the idea had 95,000 interactions.
Johnson isn't alone in his excitement and quest for Sasquatch. Idaho is ranked number four per capita in Bigfoot sightings in the country, according to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.
"No trolls about Squatch Con because anybody that I mention it to they're like, 'That's such a great idea, I love it, I'm going,'" Johnson said.
At the historic Train Depot on 12th Avenue in Nampa, there will likely be Sasquatch sightings, according to Shania Lynch of the Canyon County Historical Society Board.
Once Lynch heard about Squatch Con, she filled in presenters and plans to fill more than one room with historical accounts of Bigfoot in Idaho.
"What I have found is if Native Americans are telling you the history of Bigfoot or it's their reports of Bigfoot, you are going to get a much different story than you are from hunters or fishers or hikers who are telling you the history of Bigfoot or what they think the history of Bigfoot is," she explained. "If you're just going by newspapers, all you're going to hear about are wild men and ape-men up until about 1910."
Lynch's interest in Bigfoot is like a lot of her generation, but she believes her connection to the mysterious creature is much more personal.
"I believe I saw Sasquatch when I was five. I remember waking up and looking out my blinds and there were two yellow eyes staring straight back at me," she recalled about a camping trip in California. "I totally froze, laid back down, tried to wake my sister up. I looked through my blinds again, bam! Right in my face: two yellow eyes, brown fur around them. At that point it was no more freeze it was fright and flight."
Lynch's parents found nothing outside, but they were also unable to explain what their daughter saw.
Luckily, Dr. Jeff Meldrum, an anthropology professor at Idaho State University and one of the leading experts on Bigfoot, may have an explanation for what Lynch saw.
"Are they in Idaho? Yeah, there's certainly a history of sightings," Meldrum said. "As a scientist, my training and my research emphasis, all my experience is focused on the evolution of human bipedalism, that habit of walking on two legs and all that goes with it. It's very possible since Idaho boast more wilderness area than any other of the lower 48, so there's lot of habitats."
Based on the number of clues and inferences from information about great apes, Meldrum estimates there may be anywhere from 75-150 Bigfoot-like creatures in the whole state of Idaho.
"I'd say you go out in those woods, you got yourself a pretty decent chance of running into the big guy," he said.
Squatch Con officially begins at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
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