Two separate sightings of small, hair-covered, upright figures were reported in western Pennsylvania on back-to-back days in August 2026. The first came from a farm in Indiana County on the evening of August 18. The second came from a driver on a rural Westmoreland County road the following evening, August 19. Both were reported to longtime Pennsylvania researcher Stan Gordon, who says he interviewed each witness within an hour of the encounter.
No photographs were taken in either case. There is no physical evidence, no recording, and no second witness to either event. What exists is two detailed descriptions, given quickly, by people who did not know about each other. That is worth reading carefully, and it is worth being clear about what it is not.
The Indiana County report: two small figures, August 18
According to Gordon's writeup, a woman was finishing a chore near one of the buildings on her farm at about 6:45 PM when she heard a noise from the wood line, as though something were being thrown around. Roughly sixty feet away she saw a figure crouched behind the trees, then a second one near it, also crouched.
She put both at around three and a half feet tall, covered in light brown hair that she described as medium length and straggly. Their faces were a darker brown than their hair. Their eyes were round and dark brown. Neither appeared to have a neck, with the head seeming to rest directly on the shoulders. Their arms, she said, were long, but slender, like those of a young child.
Then both figures stood up and began running around the area, in what she took to be play. The encounter ended when she sneezed. Both figures looked directly toward her, and she went inside.
The detail that has traveled furthest is the sound. She reported the figures making an odd noise she compared to a baby's cooing. In the days after, she reported hearing similar cooing at night, her husband reported loud knocking sounds, and the family dog would not go outside. She did not photograph any of it. Gordon's account gives the plain reason: she did not have her phone with her.
The Westmoreland County report: one taller figure, August 19
The next evening, at about 8:05 PM in a neighboring county, a woman driving slowly on a rural road reported seeing a hair-covered figure on the right side of the road, running up a hillside quickly.
She described it as roughly five feet tall, moving on two legs, covered in charcoal-gray hair. The head was somewhat dome-shaped with no apparent neck. The arms were long and swinging. The nose looked slightly flat with flared nostrils. The eyes were small and dark. She saw no ears.
Two things in Gordon's version did not make it into most of the coverage. First, the negatives: visibility was still good, her windows were closed, and she reported no sound and no odor. Second, the oddest single detail in either case. Before the figure moved off down the hill, the witness said it rotated its body roughly 180 degrees in a manner she found unnatural, describing it as almost mechanical. The whole sighting lasted a few seconds.
Who Stan Gordon is, and why these got logged at all
These reports exist in a documented form because of one person, and he is not a random blogger.
Stan Gordon was born in 1949 in Greensburg, in Westmoreland County, and has lived in the area his entire life. He began field investigations in 1965 and was the primary investigator of the December 9, 1965 crash-recovery incident near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, still one of the most argued-over cases in the state. He started a public sighting hotline in 1969 and founded the Westmoreland County UFO Study Group in 1970. He later served as Pennsylvania state director for MUFON and has written several books on the state's strange history, including "Silent Invasion" and "Creepy Cryptids and Strange UFO Encounters of Pennsylvania."
What makes his handling of these two cases notable is speed. Interviewing a witness within an hour, before the story has been retold a dozen times, is basic good practice and it is rare in this field. It does not make an account true. It does make it cleaner testimony than something posted to a forum three weeks later.
Pennsylvania's actual standing, and its actual history
Pennsylvania gets called a Bigfoot hotspot constantly, and you will see the claim that it ranks third nationally with more than 1,300 sightings. That figure comes from a Travel Channel roundup and it does not match the underlying database it supposedly draws from.
The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization maintains the most-cited public database of reports. Its own Pennsylvania listing currently shows 132 reports, which puts the state somewhere around 10th or 11th nationally. For scale, BFRO lists 732 for Washington, 471 for California, and 348 for Florida. Within Pennsylvania the reports cluster in the west: Allegheny and Cambria counties lead with 9 apiece, Westmoreland has 6, Fayette 5, and Indiana 4.
So Pennsylvania is a real and consistent source of reports, near the top of the eastern states, but it is not neck and neck with the Pacific Northwest. The gap between 132 and 1,340 is a decent lesson in how these numbers grow every time they get copied.
The history is genuinely unusual, though. In 1973 the state went through what researchers still call a flap, a concentrated wave in which Bigfoot-type encounters and UFO reports came in together across nine counties and an area spanning more than eighty miles. Gordon's fieldwork during that wave is what built his reputation. He spent a good deal of it publicly asking people not to panic and not to go hunting.
Pennsylvania also has older folklore about small hairy figures specifically. In Lancaster County, generations of stories describe the Albatwitch, a name generally traced to Pennsylvania Dutch for "apple snitch," after its habit of stealing apples from picnickers around Chickies Rock. It is usually described as a small hair-covered humanoid, and some researchers have floated the idea that it represents juvenile Bigfoot. That is the other side of the state from Indiana and Westmoreland counties, and nobody has established a connection between the folklore and these two August reports. It is context, not evidence.
The honest part: what this is and what it isn't
This is two witness accounts. That is the entire evidentiary record. No photograph, no video, no hair sample, no cast track, no audio of the cooing, no corroborating witness at either scene.
Nothing here establishes that anything unusual was in those woods. A short, hair-covered, upright shape at sixty feet in fading light has a long list of ordinary candidates behind it, and honest researchers will tell you that. Gordon himself frames these as reports, not conclusions.
What makes them interesting within Bigfoot lore is the size. The whole appeal of the Sasquatch tradition is a very large animal, typically described at seven feet and up. Reports of three-and-a-half-foot figures sit awkwardly inside that. They get explained as juveniles, folded into a separate small-hominid tradition like the Albatwitch, or read as descriptions of something else entirely. There is no settled answer.
What is not in dispute is that two people in western Pennsylvania described something specific, quickly, to someone who wrote it down properly. What that was remains exactly as open as it was on August 18.
Both reports were documented by Stan Gordon and published through his own site. The story reached wider circulation through OutKick, and the report counts above come from the BFRO database as listed on 30 August 2026.
If you want to go deeper on regional cryptid reports, our cryptids by state backcountry guide covers the better-documented cases elsewhere in the country, including how Skamania County, Washington, ended up with an actual Bigfoot ordinance on the books. And if you have ever wondered why this particular legend rides along so well with off-road culture, we got into that in how Bigfoot became an off-road icon.
For anyone who just enjoys the legend, our Bigfoot and Sasquatch collection is here whenever you want it.
Frequently asked questions
Where and when were the Pennsylvania "mini Bigfoot" sightings reported?
Two separate reports came from western Pennsylvania on consecutive days. The first was on a farm in Indiana County at about 6:45 PM on August 18, 2026, involving two figures roughly three and a half feet tall. The second was on a rural road in Westmoreland County at about 8:05 PM on August 19, 2026, involving a single figure about five feet tall.
Is there any photo or physical evidence?
No. There are no photographs, no video, no audio, and no physical evidence such as tracks or hair from either report. The Indiana County witness did not have her phone with her. The record consists entirely of the two witness accounts.
Who is Stan Gordon?
Stan Gordon is a Pennsylvania researcher who has investigated UFO and cryptid reports in the state since the 1960s. He was the primary investigator of the 1965 Kecksburg incident, started a public sighting hotline in 1969, founded the Westmoreland County UFO Study Group in 1970, and later served as Pennsylvania state director for MUFON. He documented both August 2026 reports and says he interviewed each witness within an hour of the encounter.
How many Bigfoot reports does Pennsylvania actually have?
The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization database currently lists 132 reports for Pennsylvania, placing it around 10th or 11th nationally. Washington leads with 732, followed by California with 471. A widely repeated claim that Pennsylvania ranks third with about 1,340 sightings comes from a Travel Channel roundup and does not match the BFRO database itself.
Why are "mini Bigfoot" reports unusual?
Traditional Sasquatch accounts describe a very large animal, commonly seven feet tall or more. Figures in the three-to-five-foot range do not fit that pattern, so they tend to get interpreted as juveniles, grouped with separate small-hominid folklore such as Lancaster County's Albatwitch, or read as descriptions of something else. There is no consensus among researchers.
Has Pennsylvania had activity like this before?
Yes. Pennsylvania went through a well-documented wave in 1973 in which Bigfoot-type encounters and UFO reports were logged together across nine counties spanning more than eighty miles. Stan Gordon investigated that wave. There is no established connection between those older cases and the August 2026 reports.
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