Woop!
Woop!
This is not an uncommon sound to hear when visiting Nashville, Ind.
Leroy Nail occasionally lets out such a shout when customers visit his store.
His Bigfoot store.
The noise is not one that Nail made up. It is not something that he does just to entertain guests. Rather, the noise is often accompanied by what many would consider tall tales.
To Nail, it is reality.
As owner of the Indiana Bigfoot Research Center, pursuit of the primate is perhaps Nail’s greatest passion. However, he was not always a believer.
“Didn’t believe… thought that was a joke when someone was saying it,” Nail said.
Along the way, the joke stopped being funny and became so real to Nail that he and his wife, Nancy, joined an ever-growing community of Bigfooters.
Though Nail has never seen the creature in daylight, he believes he has encountered sasquatches on several occasions.
He said the most chilling encounters come from night hikes. Nail and his fellow Bigfooters do not use bright flashlights out of concern that they might scare off sasquatches.
Lucky for them, they say the beast provides his own light for them to see him.
“I have had eyeglow right in front of me,” Nail said. “Their eyes will light up, no reflection, and they’ll light up right in front of you.”
Nail is clear that this phenomenon is unmistakable, especially when he can so clearly make out the color of the shine.
“The first set that I’ve seen, Nancy and I’ve both seen, was Emerald green eyes that was 30 to 40 yards in front of us,” Nail said.
Nail has countless stories of his own, but also from the community.
He said the best evidence that Bigfoot exists comes from commonality in storytelling.
Whether it is people hearing songbirds in the middle of the night, debris landing at your feet or an otherwise inexplicable feeling of being watched, Nail said that you can bet another Bigfooter has had the same experience.
“Not everybody, not thousands of people can be telling lies all the time and making up stories that all seem to match,” Nail said.
One of Nail’s primary goals is adding to the stories and evidence he has spent decades collecting to get people curious enough to open their minds.
That is all he hopes for non-believers.
“All I’d ever ask someone to do is step back at times,” Nail said. “Look at what might be around you, and go ‘is there a possibility?’”
