Jon Solo Sebastian 08/09/2024:

If you’ve ever seen the movie titled Dazed and Confused, you might think of the character, Wooderson, played by Matthew McConaughey as being the Grassman. At least that’s the first thing that came to mind when a friend suggested I write about it. No, Grassman isn’t out there throwing keg parties while smoking enormous amounts of grass/marijuana. Or is he?

Who, or What is the Grassman?

The Grassman is another cryptid native to my home state of Ohio. Picture this; you’re on a late evening hike in one of the popular parks in Ohio. You get a strange and foul scent in the air. Your instincts tell you it’s probably just a skunk, but as you press on, the stench worsens, and now you’re picking up hints of garbage or something decaying. A snap of a large twig or branch behind you startles you. You turn, but nothing’s there. You take notice of the sun going down faster than you’d hoped, and get the feeling like you’re being watched. You decide you’d rather not get lost in the woods when the sun goes down. You check the time on your phone. You’ve got just enough time to get back to the parking lot before it’s completely dark outside. You quickly check that your flashlight works—all good.

You turn to head back, and freeze in your tracks because standing in front of you is a roughly 8 foot tall, ape-like beast with long black hair that appears to be wet. Its facial features appear to be more primitive—caveman-esque. You quickly discover the foul odor you’ve been inhaling is from the beast; you’re just not sure if it’s his breath while you’re staring at the saliva dripping from its large fangs, or if it’s from the matted wet fur. The most striking feature on this muscular 500 pound beast is the bright and glowing orange eyes. You look into its eyes; it lets out a terrifying growl that ends in a high pitched screech. It gently, considering the enormity of the beast, pushes you aside and slowly runs off.

After leaning against the tree it pushed you toward for what feels like eternity, you gather your bearings and quickly head toward the direction you came from. You hear another shriek coming from your left, you look to see the beast standing near what appears to be a grass hut or den in the center of a few large trees. The beast is staring at you and lets out another shriek. Unsure if it’s inviting you over for dinner, or if you are dinner, you decide it’s best to get the heck out of there.

The First Sighting

Minerva, Ohio, in August of 1978, children in a small village got their first terrifying glimpse of the Grassman. He would go on to haunt and stalk the family for ages. Evelyn and Howe Clayton’s grandchildren came running and screaming about seeing a large hairy monster out in the gravel pit. They went out to investigate and were surprised to see exactly what the children told them about. It was in the pit digging through the trash, its fur was dark and matted, and it appeared to be large enough to be around 3-400 pounds. This sighting by the Claytons wasn’t the first and last time they’d encounter the Grassman.

Based on the details of the other sightings, this particular Grassman takes on more of a stalker role in my opinion. They spotted him on numerous occasions looking at them through their kitchen window. He’d often be seen on a nearby hill looking toward their home. Many assumed it was a hoax until the police began investigating, and people witnessed it for themselves. Considering the village was small, many people began to keep an eye out for the Grassman who had been stalking their neighbors. An eyewitness reported seeing multiple Grassmen on the hill claiming they were different sizes. This could mean there was a family of them nearby. It could also mean people seeing this wanted to seek attention. They should be grateful it wasn’t them receiving the attention. The media got wind of the Grassman, and that put Minerva and the Clayton family on the map. There was a time when they had hundreds of cars parked all around their home as people hoped to see the Grassman for themselves. As you can imagine, the family tried to keep to themselves after all of this, and they tried their hardest to stay away from any publicity.

In 1995, there was a sighting near Brandywine Ski Resort in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. This story is slightly similar to my introduction story about a late night hike. Three friends went on a hike around 11:30pm. They heard a loud shrieking sound from afar, but assumed it was a coyote. They kept going until they heard the sound again; this time it was closer. They decided it was time to head back. “Just then, a very large creature charged through the marsh right at the hikers. The creature, according to the witnesses, was bipedal and swung its arms as it ran through the water of the marsh. It moved extremely quickly for being chest-deep in mucky water. The hikers ran at full-speed back to their car. The creature stayed near the edge of the swamp, and the three hikers were able to escape unharmed.”

So is the Grassman a relative of Bigfoot, or just an alias for the Bigfoot fellow we’ve all come to know over the years, or is he some strange experiment created by a mad scientist that escaped?

I understand the last part of the question is just as wild as most cryptids actually being real, but is it really that farfetched? There was a whole thing in a Dean Koontz novel about a dog that could communicate—yes, fiction, but if the collective consciousness is thinking it, then what are the possibilities of secret labs working on such things? I’d say pretty high, but in my defense, I teeter on the line of being a real life Fox Mulder (X-Files if you’re unfamiliar). If none of those are options, then it must be aliens (insert tongue in cheek)!