While out surveying with his crew on Yonah Ridge in Lytle County, Henry Davidson has a sublime encounter with a strange ape-like creature who watches him from the shadows, then calmly turns and walks away. Henry contacts a local bigfoot investigator to privately discuss what he saw. But things take a terrifying turn when two people are viciously killed on Yonah Ridge. Strange tracks found at the sight of the first attack seem to confirm eyewitness accounts of a bigfoot-like creature being the attacker.

But economically depressed Lytle County does not need any bad publicity to stand in the way of a planned development that promises to bring much needed jobs and tax revenue for the struggling community. Disillusioned by the inaction of local officials, Henry turns to social media to tell the world about the Bigfoot menacing Yonah Ridge and arranges a hunt to go find the creature, ultimately realizing the "monster" they are after is a scared animal, plagued by disease and suffering.

In Bigfoot of Yonah Ridge Billy Plant draws on interviews with Bigfoot investigators and published encounters to create a framework for a deeper discussion: that of declining rural communities and the struggle between conservation and development.