Location of Sighting: Claytor Lake, VA
Date of Sighting: July 2006
History of the area:
If the bottom of clear, cold, deep, 21-mile-long Claytor Lake was visible, visitors would get a glimpse of one link on the chain of history connecting early settlement along the frontier area known as southwest Virginia. The 4,475-acre impoundment of the New River lies south of Radford and east of Pulaski in Pulaski County, an easy jump from Interstate 81.
The nearby interstate and US 11 follow closely the old Wilderness Road, a footpath and wagon trail for settlers traveling south down the Shenandoah and Roanoke valleys from Pennsylvania. Thousands of years before European pioneers started streaming down the valley in the mid-1700s, the road was a well-traveled hunting and raiding route used by southern Cherokee and Catawba tribes, as well as members of the northern Iroquois Confederacy of Five Nations. A mystic German sect called the Ephrata Brethren (later to be known as Dunkards) decided the land now covered by Claytor Lake was the place they wanted to stop. When the New River was dammed to form Claytor Lake for the generating of electric power in 1939, the community known as Dunkard's Bottom was swallowed by the rising waters.
Claytor Lake State Park. With 472 acres of mostly hardwoods and pines, Claytor Lake State Park is now the centerpiece of 21-mile-long Claytor Lake. The park is a magnet to some 300,000 people a year whose primary recreational interests are waterbased.
At 350 million years old, the New River is hardly "new" at all. In fact, many geologists believe the New is second only to the Nile as the oldest river in the world. In prehistoric times, the river flowed north to the St. Lawrence River on the United States border with Canada.
Jason is an avid fisherman. He takes his boat to Claytor Lake often to spend some time with his fishing line in the water. On one particular summer late afternoon, he situated his boat into a cove area on the lake to do some fishing. While there, he hears something off the edge of the lake bank. He hears what he describes as three (3) low grunt noises and then something takes off through the woods and up a hill. As it quickly moves, he can hear it breaking limbs as it goes. After his brief moment of excitement, he goes back to fishing. Just a few minutes later he hears the sound of tree limbs snapping and breaking as a large 100-150 lb. boulder comes flying out of the woods and lands in the lake approximately 50 yards in front of his boat. At this point he feels unwelcome and leaves the area quickly.
The encounter occurred over a year ago. Jason has agreed to meet with the Sasquatch Watch of VA crew in upcoming Spring/Summer of 2008 to take us to the area. We will conduct an investigation of the area and report field activities in the "Research Blog" located on our website.