Derry plans park around Bigfoot statue

Something's afoot in Derry Borough, and community leaders are hoping it could have a large impact on the town. Of course, we're talking about Bigfoot.

Borough Mayor Nathan Bundy says that Derry has a rich history and the Bigfoot lore is a big part of it.

"All the new development and everything that goes in in our area is focused on the main highways, Route 30 and Route 22," Bundy said. "We don't have the ability to tap into that, so we need some way to get our town recognition, we need a way to market our town, we need a way to stand out. And what better way to do that than tapping into this history?"

Derry already has a large Bigfoot sculpture in their Mossback Park, but Bundy says that location for the statue was always meant to be temporary.

Now thanks to an almost $30,000 state grant, they're planning to move their wooden Bigfoot across the street from its current location and build a small park and plaza around it. 

"The idea is, because it sort of is the connector to the downtown, is to create that walkway where you can walk through the park and get to our downtown and sort of cut the corner and come in," Bundy said. "You know there is going to be some benches and some low-maintenance shrubs, and we want to tie that into the natural beauty of the Chestnut Ridge. Also, add some picnic tables and things like that."

The new Bigfoot park technically does not have an official name as of yet, but Bundy says that is something they are working on. Construction on this new park is set to commence sometime in the spring and they hope to have it completed sometime before the annual Railroad Days Festival later in the year.

For more information, see the mayor's original Facebook post out the project here.