A small town in North Carolina has turned to an unlikely icon in an effort to 'rebrand' their community: Bigfoot.
Nestled in the heart of the Uwharrie National Forest, the town of Troy, North Carolina boasts a population of just under 3,500 residents.
Hoping to give their community an identity that helps it stand out among other small towns, Troy has adopted Bigfoot as their unofficial mascot.
The famed cryptid is featured in the town's tourism brochures and has been prominently added into the logo for their annual TroyFest weekend of community events which will be held later this summer.
"Bigfoot is one thing some people like," town planning director Johnson Bray explained to the Courier-Tribune newspaper, "if you think about it, it brings out the child in you."
Although Troy has no specific history with the creature, Bigfoot has purportedly been sighted in and around the Uwharrie National Forest a handful of times in the past.
"We don’t want to be Roswell, New Mexico," Bray stressed, "but want to have something unique to bring in visitors."
Boasting two lakes, a major river, and the aforementioned national forest, Bray believes that Troy is poised to be "the outdoor capital of North Carolina."
And if rebranding with Bigfoot is what it takes to get the tourists to come and visit the town, Troy is on board, Bray says, "a lot of people are embracing the idea."
Whether their enthusiasm remains if Troy is inundated with Bigfoot hunters is a question we hope the community never has to answer.
Source: Courier-Tribune