Bigfoot in Illinois
Bigfoot in Illinois is an article posted on the Prairie Ghosts website. After reading about the Illinois sightings, I believe there’s an infestation of Bigfoot in that state. Actually, from Bigfoot’s point of view (and he was here first, right?) there’s probably an infestation of humans. The run-ins people have had with a huge hairy creature there give me the impression that he’s so used to being around people he’s become very curious and takes risks on being seen.
This is a heavily populated state but still, Bigfoot has been seen in various parts of central Illinois including Effingham, Decatur, Clinton, Pekin, Peoria, and Farmer City; south to Centreville (and St. Louis,) Murphysboro, Enfield, and Chittyville, and north to Elizabeth. There was even a sighting in Westchester, Cook County! Weldon Springs State Park and Shawnee National Forest are sighting locations. Most recently, in 2000, there was a sighting in Essex. So if you’re in Illinois, by now you probably feel like you’re surrounded by Bigfoot encounter locations. Perhaps many of the sightings are of one rogue, lost Bigfoot roaming through Illinois, not knowing how to get out of the populated areas. Or… maybe there’s nests of them here and there with entire family groups.
To the man who emailed me on August 9, 2009 about finding Bigfoot footprints near Murphysboro, Illinois… yes… they’re in Illinois and at least one has been seen in Murphysboro before! Here’s another link on the same site with more information: The Murphysboro Mud Monster.
I looked on Google Maps for all these places. I saw how skimpy the wooded areas of the state are. I can only feel sorry for the poor Bigfoot who is trying to maintain cover when there are so many people all around.
One strange sighting was the Cole Hollow Road Monster, nicknamed Cohomo. Starting in May 1972, in East Peoria, there were multiple sightings of a tall white hairy being suspected of living beneath an abandoned house. On May 25 the police took over 200 calls from people who had spotted Cohomo.
One man said he spotted the creature nearby in Fondulac Park and stranger still, said that “a set of strange lights … seemed to descend vertically and land behind some trees.” Hmmm…
The last sighting of Cohomo was on July 27 that year when two people said they saw him swimming in the Illinois River. The site says, “They got close enough to him to know that he smelled awful and looked like a ‘cross between an ape and a caveman’.” Seems strange that he was swimming and still smelled bad! The map below shows the area where Cohomo was a resident in 1972.
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After having read several hundred accounts, it’s easy to conceive that something is happening! what I find negative with most is that the spelling is terrible. These people claim to be professionals and can’t seem to spell simple words. On the other hand, if I were to do some serious research on the subject matter, I would try to replicate the smell that most people claim is associated with this creature, and wear a suit to mimic the creaature and hang out in the woods all night to confirm this thing. Most folks stories claim to be of a non aggressive nature, and if you are the folks who claim to be the experts on the subject matter, why haven’t you thought of this? Enough of the camera trips and pheromone spray. I’ve spent some scarry ass nights in woods around the world, and to tell you it’s not an easy thing to do! But your research trips are starting to sound like weenie roasts in the State park with overzealous boy scouts. It’s going to take that “special person” to get to the bottom of this thing. And if you can’t at least do that, then it would be clear that you all make more money in bull@#$% stories than the truth!
Comment by Kokomo Joe — September 3, 2009 @ 11:06 am
Hi Joe! Thanks for your insightful comments. I think you’re right in many respects. We need to take squatching to another level, to develop a relationship of some sort with this elusive and reclusive wild man/creature/ape/Sasquatch… whatever it is. I read an interesting account in David Paulides’ new book, Tribal Bigfoot, chapter one, that was from an old newspaper article. It stated that some people observed a Bigfoot “covered with gore” in front of his cave. That leads me to believe that maybe Bigfoot is intentionally covering himself with rotting meat, which could account for the intense stench. Perhaps that’s done to keep anything/anyone from wanting to be around him. So if you do this thing, to replicate the smell, you might need to do it with rotting meat. How disgusting is that?
Your idea of wearing a hair suit to your research location is another unique idea. I don’t think I’d try it. What if Bigfoot took you as an equal and wanted to fight with you because you were on his territory? Recently I read an article about Bigfoot in Wisconsin that mentioned a fight between Sasquatches. The article claims to be a genuine sighting report, but I didn’t mention it here because it seemed fictionalized to me. Still, it makes you think… do they argue and fight with one another? Maybe so!
In any case I wish you luck with your research endeavor! Maybe you are the one who will be that ‘special person’….
Comment by Linda — September 3, 2009 @ 1:25 pm
Illinois is a very intesting state. Although most folks have the impression that Illinois has only corn and soybeans fields there are literally hundreds of miles of wooded streams and rivers.
Many areas are very heavily wooded and not only have sasquatch sightings but also a large amount of cougar and bobcat sightings.
Out of 102 counties in Illinois there are published bigfoot reports in over 50. I believe it requires several things for a possible population of squatches. A large deer population and plenty of wooded streams being amongst the most
important.
I have a friend who recently had a sighting within about 50 miles of Chicago and this spring there was a sighting 15 miles from the St.Louis Arch. I hear about lots of reports that never get published.
Thanks for your thougtful article.
Stan Courtney
Comment by Stan Courtney — September 13, 2009 @ 5:57 pm
Great insights into Illinois sightings… thanks Stan. I haven’t been through Illinois since 1965, but I remember being in a wooded area then.
Comment by Linda — September 13, 2009 @ 7:31 pm
does anyone think that these werewolf sightings could just be the bigfoot? i am from lockport,il and have numerous friends say they seen or was chased by a werewolf over the past 8 years. one claim was, he was going from in his house outside to his basement to wash clothes and looked into his field and seen it running towards him but got tangled in his volleyball net. he ran inside and the next morning the net was mangled with tore up rabbits in his woods. another one said it chased him through some woods when he hid behind a log and it became aroused with something else and took off. another sighing was with 2 people driving down a back road and seen it jump out of a tree into the road and run off. i have also had a sighting with a friend while driving in the rain, something leaped across a 4 lane road in the third lane from the edge and ran into a wooded field. it looked somewhat like a kangaroo/werewolf.
Comment by Brian Morency — August 11, 2010 @ 4:08 am
I agree, Brian. Those could be Bigfoot sightings. The one with a basketball net was kind of funny. This is the first I’ve heard of something like that!
Comment by Linda Martin — August 11, 2010 @ 8:45 pm
my buddy and i was hunting a lil over amonth ago in southeastern ill we had crossed a creek as we just got over the bank of the creek we heard 3 to 4 wacks on the tree as we turned we seen a tree come down, my buddy nelt down told me to look what we saw was nothing we ever saw before. it was very tall and wide broad shoulders and dark. in the years ive hunted i have never seen anything like this before. ON sept 23rd my wife and i went to same spot and found a possible foot print at the time i took picks i also viedo taped what seemed to be movent of something dark between 2 trees. It is possible it may have a bigfoot or maybe not i know it was big and dark.
Comment by tim — September 24, 2010 @ 9:30 am
Tim, next time, take a movie camera! But… seriously, they tend to sense cameras psychically so maybe it won’t appear nearby if it realizes you’re filming. I wouldn’t consider tree felling a friendly sign!
Comment by Linda Martin — September 27, 2010 @ 12:38 pm
i took a camera the last time and possible footprint and movent in the back between 2 trees u can see it at tobyk222 at utube let me know what u all think
Comment by tim — September 29, 2010 @ 4:31 am
he is real ……..!!!!!! and icarly was on about bigfoot
Comment by lindsey — December 25, 2010 @ 4:24 pm
this is real bigfoot . he is real becuse i see him with i saw win i was go to macth room hunting
Comment by lindsey — December 25, 2010 @ 4:30 pm
Murphysboro Illinois is located near the Shawnee Forest which streches across most of Southern Illinois. The Crab Orchard Wildlife refuge is also found in Southern Illinois. This area of Illinois is sparsely populated in comparison to northern Illinois and provides home to a wide variety of wildlife. I live within 20 miles of Murphysboro, the big muddy river runs along the Muphysboro and provides a route for wildlife migration.
Comment by Kent Hale — December 25, 2010 @ 5:35 pm
As impossible as it is to believe, even for me, in the mid 70′s a friend of mine and I saw what we could only believe to be a Bigfoot, in Illinois, roughly 55 miles Southeast of Chicago in what was at the time all farm land.
We were more or less lost and ended up going down a long dead end road that was not marked dead end. When we came to the end while turning around we spotted what looked like eyes behind some bushes glowing from my car’s headlights.
I turned on my high beams and something that was about 9 feet tall or so, all but the face covered in hair, stood up and walked off into the darkness.
Several times it turned and looked back over it’s shoulder as if to check to see if we were following it.
I was there, I saw it. My friend was there, he saw it. But to this day neither of us can either believe we actually saw a Bigfoot in the farm lands of Northern Illinois or come up with any way to explain what we saw that would fit what we saw in every way other than to say it was a Bigfoot.
Comment by Ian McCullough — March 25, 2011 @ 2:47 pm
I had to comment after reading this article. It seemed that possibly whoever wrote this may have been insinuating that due to Illinois having less forest coverage than some other states ( approx 12% of Illinois land is covered in forests ) this must mean heavy or “over” population, but this couldnt be further from the truth.
Many areas…in fact “most” areas outside of E St Louis and the Chicago area are very sparsely populated, and in fact the south eastern quadrant of the state and southern portion have opulation densities far below the national average ( less than 20 inhabitants per every square mile approx…this is very saprse population.
On to thew subject of bigfoot, it seems obvious that these animals are using Illinois heavy river and stream drainage corridors that are heavily wooded. These wooded corridors may not be completely unbroken nor very wide, but run the entire lengths practically of many Illinois rivers for many miles. Given this a bigfoot could run along those wooded river drainages and remain very un detected in Illinois especially given that they seem to be “nocturnal in nature”
Comment by Eric — April 7, 2011 @ 1:27 pm
I have been interested in Bigfoot most of my life and I just have to believe that something is out there. However, I had moved to Peoria, IL back in 2000 and around 2005 started blogging. Well this one blogger by the name of Randy E. caught my attention as his name seemed to be familier. Turns out this is the same Randy E. who reported a sighting of Cohomo back in the early 70′s. I asked him if he was the same person and he said yes. Turns out he made up this story to scare a friend that was working at some gas station in the area. As for the other reports, they may be true, but his is not. I wish people would not make up stories as it makes the real ones less credible.
Comment by Randall — May 2, 2011 @ 1:28 am
I am REAL. I think. But people are scred of me and i dont know why. im not like my cousin the yeti. i am actually nice i like to play with bunnys in the meadow where my pack lives. ill tell you more if you come to my house
Comment by bigfoot — May 17, 2011 @ 9:45 am
Randall, it makes me wonder what percentage of sightings are fabricated. However, there’s no way to tell!
Comment by Linda Martin — June 9, 2011 @ 10:33 pm
@ “bigfoot” bigfoot’s cousin is actually the skunk ape
Comment by ally riddell — June 11, 2011 @ 8:54 am
I went camping with 2 friends in an area off of “Old Cobden Rd.” back in 1980. We brought my 2 dogs with. One was a 180lb Irish Wolfhound, the other an 85 lb Malamute/Collie mix. Early that afternoon the dogs attacked a horse with a rider on it’s back that happened on our campsite. we stopped that right away. Early that evening we heard noises in the brush and both dogs barked and went to check it out. They returned shortly. Later that night we heard more noises but this time the noises sounded like low tree branches were being moved. Neither dog would go check it out. they hid and whimpered. These 2 dogs never backed down from man or any animal. after seeing my dogs act this way I grabbed my .45 and sat up all night. I don’t know what it was. A bear, a big cat maybe. All I know is that I’d camped there several times a year for 6 years. It was the only time something happened. And because I pay close attention to my dogs, i never went back.
Comment by john — July 17, 2011 @ 3:08 pm
i’m scared because i live near pekin what should i do.
Comment by kaitlyn green — August 6, 2011 @ 7:32 am
Kaitlyn, don’t be scared… human beings are more dangerous than sasquatches.
Comment by Linda Martin — August 10, 2011 @ 9:05 pm
hey, my best friend lives on cole holow road in east peoria and we go four wheeling in all the trails on the road and we started seeing wierd things like bent over trees, horrible smells and green trees in one piece one day and split the next, so we serched these things in relation to cole hollow road and found that it was 1 of the largest bigfoot sighting spots in the area and since then we have been learning alot about him, who knows, we might find him!!
Comment by Aaron — August 29, 2011 @ 1:44 pm
Hi everyone,
I recently saw a show on National Geographic and was surprised at the amount of towns people who claimed they had an encounter with sasquach somewhere near New York. I live in Chicago and believe it or not back in 1995 my friends and I visited an area where there’s a place we knew as munks castle. We would go there late at night. The place is surrounded by woods. As we drove away my friend my friend who was driving behind me was pulled over by the police around 3 in the morning and I drove further up down the road to wait for him. I pulled over to the side of the road for a bit. I still had my lights on and the car is running. We were surrounded by forest all around. My friends and I were talking. In the distance I noticed a shadowy human like figure abnormally large with long arms and legs casually crossing the road and I kept starring to see if I could distinguish what it was. I turned on my bright lights and the the shadowy figure stopped in mid walking stride and turned his upper body and head in my direction for about three or four seconds then turned back and continued to cross the road and then was gone. The way it’s arms stretched out as he walked and the way it turned to look towards me is the similar to the old video everyon has seen where the bigfoot turns to look towards the camera and keeps going. Even the arm movement is the same but not as fast. This was weird. I just thought I’d share it with you all. Thanks! This is a true story!!
Comment by Raul — January 9, 2012 @ 3:50 pm
Hello Linda. Hopefully you are still out there in hyperspace. I am interested in establishing communications with other big foot researchers within the state of Illinois. I am a professional crypozoologist, meanig I have been paid well for my investigations and research into the strange enigma we generally refur to as big foot.
I have 35 years of investigiatve experience in the research field, but for the most part work striictly on my own. The exceptions have been when I have made television programs dealing with cryptozoology.
There is a reason why no one has ever established any formal of contact or most likely never will with our hairy friend.
I am hopefull of finding intelligent, quality conversation with like minded scientists or mature investigators who can agree to disagree.
I was just on the BFRO face book page attempting to logically discuss the pros and cons, but was told to leave the page by Ranae Holland herself. Oh well, such is the nature of our work. Gadday mates.
Comment by Scott House — January 17, 2012 @ 11:48 am
To the person that thought it would be smart to dress like a sasquatch and do a one man hoax . Bullets cut through fake fur and I’m sure there are people that shoot first and figure out later. Good luck with that.
Comment by Tom — January 26, 2012 @ 5:37 am