A few months ago, the big news in this village of 2,053 residents was that its lone men's barbershop had closed after 42 years. As the summer wore on, however, many locals found themselves bantering about a more exotic topic: Bigfoot. For better or worse, Seneca has become a veritable Sasquatch Central following a flurry of investigations conducted by a member of the California-based Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, which bills itself as "the only scientific research organization exploring the Bigfoot/Sasquatch mystery." "My mind's open to anything. After all, they just found another planet. So, who knows? Anything's possible," lifelong Seneca resident Jim Maier, 61, joked. The rumors also create questions. From how and why Bigfoot stories can begin in a place such as Seneca--about 70 miles southwest of Chicago--to the reasons behind our powerful fascination with tales of things that go bump in the night. "Bigfoot is one of those things that people like believing in," said Dr. Christopher Bader, an assistant professor of sociology at Baylor University in Texas. "Because, how boring would the world be if we thought we had discovered everything?"

Since Stan Courtney of the BFRO first visited Seneca, he has deemed reports of four separate Bigfoot encounters near town credible enough to post on the group's Web site. Two of the alleged encounters happened in early June, and the others date back to 1979 and 1983.

Courtney first posted two Bigfoot reports on the group's Web site July 9, prompting the Daily Times, a newspaper in nearby Ottawa, to publish a story about the rumors. After that story ran, Courtney said he received information about other Bigfoot encounters. He posted two more reports in late August.

All four of the supposed sightings were within a mile of each other in a densely wooded area just south of the Illinois River along Seneca's narrow and twisting DuPont Road. Three occurred in Grundy County, while the fourth was in LaSalle County. One account involved two Bigfoot creatures.

"We heard some commotion over in the woods, and we were looking down into the trees. ... At first, I didn't know what to think," a man identified only as "Tom" is quoted as saying on www.bfro.net, the official Web site of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. "If anything, it could be a man in a suit.

"Then I saw the second one in the clearing as plain as day. I guess I don't know how to explain it, but I just knew it wasn't a man at that time."

"Tom" believes the creatures he saw in June near Seneca-- allegedly covered in hair, standing more than 8 feet tall and reeking of a pungent odor--to be Bigfoots.

To many longtime Seneca residents, such stories are actually nothing new. Tales of a towering, hairy creature stalking the woods along DuPont Road date back four decades, they say.

"Growing up, it was always the `DuPont Monster,'" said Kim Tedford, a resident of Seneca for more than 30 years. "The [Daily Times] newspaper story was the first I'd ever heard about it being Bigfoot."

Whatever the names, countless towns throughout the nation boast tales of the supernatural. And like a good scary movie, those stories can provide a dose of excitement, Bader said.

"Every state has its roads where there's a phantom hitchhiker, and every town has its haunted houses," he said. "Regardless of whether there are such things as Bigfoot, people like that thrill of uncertainty, that sense of danger. It's exciting to try and discover the unknown. And it's a lot more fun to have that little bit of doubt when you're sitting out in the woods."