Bring Sasquatch to The Ruins Project

Help bring Sasquatch to The Ruins Project


Become a part of The Sasquatch Project by helping an award-winning
artist create a true to life rendering, in mosaic, of the most famously
infamous of all mysterious creatures. 

Did you know that the state of Pennsylvania ranks third in the US for its number of Sasquatch sightings? And that our very own Fayette County is one of the top regions for Sasquatch activity?  I didn't either.


But after learning this, I decided to dive into some additional research. What I found surprised me.


The Youghiogheny River bottom is a very squatchy region. Dating back several hundred years, American Indians who hunted and fished this
area of the river shared stories of competing with hostile Sasquatch
groups. The Whitsett area, in particular, was a popular footpath during seasonal migration patterns and rut season. There is speculation that
the shallow, swift nature of The Yough is still very attractive to
Sasquatch families for mid-river night fishing.


Sightings dropped off abruptly around 1900. Once the Pittsburgh Coal Company began opening bituminous slope mines, the industrial nature of the area likely disrupted the sensitive Sasquatch environment.  

After the coal mines closed and the coke ovens were abandoned, the
land began to heal and, only recently, sightings have taken a sharp
uptick. The coke ovens, in particular, seem to be a popular hibernation
space due to their cave-like interiors and secluded settings.

The most recent sightings have been of a juvenile Sasquatch standing
approximately five feet tall. It is reported to run with two coyotes on
the steep hillsides between Wickhaven and VanMeter.  Locals
speculate that the coyotes coexist with the Sasquatch as pets or perhaps work together in hunting drives. In the summer of 1998, this juvenile rreportedly took  an ATV quad from a Van Meter residents yard and
dragged it into the woods. He then rolled it down the embankment and into the river. Amazingly, the entire encounter was caught on film.
Unfortunately, the footage was lost in a basement flooding before the
family could go public. A local university is pursuing grant money  to
further document and perform research in the area.


In the spirit of this strong Bigfoot energy, we at Sager Mosaics
have made the exciting decision to hire an award-winning and
internationally known mosaic artist to build Sasquatch to scale at The
Ruins. Yulia Hanansen is a second-generation artist , born in Russia in
the foothills of The Himalayas.  She now lives and works in Baltimore,
Maryland, but she remembers fondly her searches for The Yeti as a 
child. Yulia's work centers around nature, climate-change, the cosmos
and how we, as humans connect to those things.  She is the perfect
artist to take on this seven-foot tall challenge.


We hope that Yulia's bespoke rendering of this most elusive of
creatures will not only honor but also help attract The Real McCoy as
time marches on a The Ruins.  She will be using dozens of shades of
stained glass from Youghiogheny Glass factory in Connellsville, PA and will build most of it in her home studio on big pieces of mesh. The
finished Sasquatch will be installed on a pre-chosen wall in the early
summer of 2020.

The Ruins Project was once a coal mine and is now a giant cement
canvas for mosaic art that tells the story of American coal history.
Artists from all over the world are contributing their talents to its walls and it has become a destination for history, art, and nature.
We carefully choose one project per year at The Ruins to give the world an opportunity to sponsor  the history-making work being done on
these walls. Most Ruins artists work for the love of it but we have many expenses. Your donation will be split 50/50 between the artist and The Ruins and will go directly towards material, time, travel expenses,
maintenance and upkeep of The Ruins. 

You can refer to our last project of this kind, The Great Train 
by Stevo Sadvary as testament to our past success.


Donations of $20 and more will reserve you and a guest a
complementary tour of The Ruins. Donations of $100 and more will
secure your name incorporated artistically into the art installation
that will be seen by travelers from all over the world from The Great
Allegheny Passage Bike Trail.

For more information on The Ruins Project and how it works
https://ruins.sagermosaics.com/ 

Keep it squatchy!