Pennsylvania ranked No. 3 when the Travel Channel and the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization crunched the numbers in search of the best places to see Bigfoot.

Washington topped the list with 2,032 reported sightings, followed by California, with 1,697, and then Pennsylvania, with 1,340.

To come up with a list of “Eight Best Places to Catch a Glimpse of Bigfoot” researchers sorted through never-before-released tracking data from BFRO’s Follow-up Log and Tracking System, which is billed as the world’s ultimate sasquatch database of compiled sightings and testimonies. They analyzed 23,000 sightings reported from across the county.

They concluded, “For the absolute best chance of spotting Bigfoot, head to Washington state. With a whopping 2,032 sightings and counting, this is the world’s most active region”

For Pennsylvania, they noted, “Not surprisingly, the Appalachian range has a high number of Bigfoot sightings. With hundreds of miles of connected forestlands, it’s a prime space for a large animal to go undetected.

“One of Pennsylvania’s most interesting cases involves a mountain biker who, while taking a rest, thought he was watching the back-end of a bear as it rummaged through a downed-tree. The biker’s curiosity turned to shock when the animal stood up. What he thought was a bear was actually a giant 7-foot bipedal creature covered in black hair.”

Filling out the top 8 are Michigan, 1,131 sightings; New York, 1,068 sightings; Ohio, 1,042 sightings; Oregon, 1,009 sightings; and Texas. 806 sightings.

The Travel Channel developed the list as part of the premier earlier this year of its new show, “In Search of Monsters.”

Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is a 6- to 10-foot-tall, hairy, human- or ape-like creature, the most widely known and instantly recognized of the hidden animals known as cryptids. It has been part of pop culture and the focus of monster hunters since the early 1960s.

Although many Native American cultures include ancient references to hairy, wild men and similar creatures, the modern surge of Bigfoot into the public eye launched with a 1951 Eric Shipman photo of an alleged yeti track (the name "Bigfoot" had not yet been coined), a 1958 set of plaster casts of tracks by Bob Titmus and Gerald Crew and, in 1967, the big one: a 53-second, 954-frame motion picture of a purported Bigfoot by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin.

A footprint measuring 17-3/4 inches long and 7-1/2 inches wide was discovered, Sunday, August 26, 1980, at a residence in the Conemaugh Twp. area in Johnstown. (AP Photo)ASSOCIATED PRESS

All those early Bigfoot events, and many lesser known incidents, came out of the wilderness of northern California. The ongoing flurry of reported sightings that use the word "Bigfoot" in Pennsylvania are of much more recent vintage.

However, the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society has traced Pennsylvania accounts of wild men back as far as December 1858, when newspapers across the country reported:

"Wild People - In Lancaster, Pa., a thing like a man, but hairy as a bear, has been seen by the people. It was very wild and strong. It was once seen in a pen, sucking the cows, and when discovered it started as if about to fight, and then turned and fled, bounding like a deer. It walks upright and is supposed, to be a wild man."

Reports of wild men - "Bigfoot" since the late 1960s - in Pennsylvania have continued more or less steadily ever since.

More recently, in October 2012, a Bigfoot hunter claimed a Bigfoot attacked his motor home, with him in it, on state game lands near Lykens. In October 2013, a man posted video to the Internet of what he claimed were two Bigfoot creatures near Kinzua State Park in Bradford County but are now generally seen as the overturned roots of some fallen trees.

And, in 2015, there were photos of tracks in the snow by two young men on March 22 and 29 this year and reports of wood-knocking, which believers claim is a method of communication or threat employed by Bigfoot, near Kinzua Dam and Reservoir in Bradford County. These were investigated by Eric Altman, a southwestern Pennsylvania native and current resident, past director of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society, a field investigator since the 1980s, conference organizer and host of the Beyond the Edge podcast and radio broadcast.

The best evidence Altman has come face-to-face with in the field has been some "footprints that are clearly larger than any human track that no one could identify as anything," he said.

However, Loren Coleman, director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine, author of 17 books and an active researcher for four decades, noted that there is never a total drought of Bigfoot reports.

"I wake up every morning and open my email, and there are people from around the world asking for me to consider their sightings," he commented.

Bigfoot researchers, investigators and hunters continue to gather in conferences to share their stories and compare their evidence.

Have you seen something? Share your sighting or evidence in the comments. Or, if the comments do not provide enough anonymity, contact Marcus Schneck at mschneck@pennlive.com.