http://www.hoinews.com/news/headlines/2306146.html

Yeah, I wondered where he would pop up next - LMAO (snicker)

This is too weird. I grew up in McLean county and all my family still lives there. I ask them and none had heard anything about Bigfoot being around. There are not a lot of wooded areas. Maybe Bigfoot really lives in corn and soybean fields which cover most of the land. :new_rolleyes:

Hard to believe that bigfoot in McLean County. They probably use Mackinaw River between Bloomington and Peoria. Several Bigfoot reported in Tazewell County also the same Mackinaw River. Mc Lean is the next of Tazewell County.

The Mackinaw River doesn't flow between Bloomington and Peoria. It starts near Colfax in McLean Co., misses Bloomington/Normal and ends near south Pekin. My grandmother lived in Mackinaw until she died in 2000 and I played on the river growing up. There isn't enough cover for anything that big to remain hidden along there.

An article today in the Bloomington Pantagragh Newspaper said that Illinois is 49th out of the fifty states in terms of remaining natural vegetation. There aren't enough woods, especially around McLean and Tazewell counties. It's all been cleared for farmland.

The Pantagragh also said that whoever saw the Bigfoot claimed to have some sort of interaction with it.??

Edited for spelling.

I wouldn't rule out northern McLean County along the Mackinaw River. Not everywhere is flat cropland. The Mackinaw River valley has rich cover for deer-- and if these animals are following the deer herd during the winter months they would be there.

During October 2005, private landowners adjacent to a large forest preserve north of Pekin in Tazewell County filed a report posted on BFRO (Tazewell County, Oct. 2005 sighting report).

The most recent sighting report from central Illinois is from Tazewell County. The Mackinaw River joins the Illinois River in Tazewell County. It wouldn't be too hard to picture that the animal or group of animals that were in Tazewell County as recently as October 2005 have followed the deer herd up the Mackinaw River valley into adjacent McLean County.

Follow this link to the Squatch Detective's new bulletin board for a discussion about other recent sightings in Illinois (Recent Activity in Illinois).

hi illinois sasquatch researchers that is very interesting new article about the illinois sasquatch creature activity. im glad you are following up these resent sightings as well. are you all going out today or this week to look for sasquatch evidence in illinois forests & swamps with cameras to look for possible sasquatch footprints or nests etc. are you going to talk to the local neighberhoods in the areas to see if they had sasquatch experances etc. keep me posted ok. you all should talk to the park rangers in a off the record interviews about sasquatch. to see if they can help you all look for areas that great area for sasquatch in illinois. thanks bill

I've driven between Michigan & St. Loius,MO several times. Is that the part of Illinois that's covered in corn, and you could see a tornado coming from 10 miles away? A bigfoot would stick out like a sore thumb!

I used to live North of this area, and while there are rivers/streams that are heavily wooded along them, the area is mostly all farmland. Looks like endless seas of corn and soybeans.

If they do follow the rivers, you can definitely see where they might be hidden. (you know)

Yes, the riverways do narrow the focus of any research activity. The riverways provide migration paths between the various state parks and forest preserves (along or adjacent to the rivers) that provide ample habitat and hiding places.

Of course, these animals most likely move between hiding places under cover of night. No one is claiming to have seen an 8-foot ape walking across a corn or soybean field in broad daylight.

The woodlands, ravines, swamps and floodplains along the riverways provide sufficient habitat for foraging and daytime sleeping far from any human activities. There are so many places that are inaccessible to human traffic.

I found many old reports of Illinois strange sightings, which you can see here:
http://www.bigfootforums.com/index.php?showtopic=5705

Here's a couple of old stories I found recently.

tirademan

escAPEe posted this at Squatchdetective.com

recent sightings in Illinois (Recent Activity in Illinois).

Jan 23, 2006

Recent Illinois experiences seem to be restricted to wooded ravines, sloughs and marshes along or adjacent to rivers.

One of the most recent reports added to BFRO's database comes from far downstate Illinois near the Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky borders. A young hunter encountered an apelike animal while heading out to his deer stand during hunting season.

Earlier in 2005, the Chicago Tribune included an interview with BFRO's Matt Moneymaker in an article reporting a string of experiences last summer near Seneca (a small town 70 miles SW of Chicago on the Illinois River).

Vocalizations and footprints were found in October 2005 in the forest preserve south of where I live in Tazewell County where my daughters ride horses-- inaccessible woods cut by deep ravines adjacent to the Illinois River between Pekin and Creve Coeur. The landowner who reported the vocalizations had been putting out 5-gallon buckets full of food and seed in hopes of luring deer to his backyard at the time and may have inadvertently attracted the BF animal(s). This is a few miles from Cole Hollow (the location of the documented 1972 CoHoMo reports in Illinois).

BFRO's investigator Stan Courtney has posted several unknown animal vocalizations he recorded during 2005 in the woods behind his home in Pawnee (on the Sangamon River) south of the state capital. Check out his web site at www.stancourtney.com-- especially listen to audio clip of the unusual voice he recorded on 26-Sep-2005 that falls in pitch 3 times.

The man behind the game camera flash photo of an ape in OK at www.bigfootphoto.net actually lives in Illinois some 50 miles south of Chicago along the Kankakee River. In his correspondence with me, he reports wood knocks and vocalizations during the spring and summer of 2005 at Kankakee River State Park.

It is his theory that a small number of these animals are migrating through Illinois on a seasonal basis following the riverways. There is ample habitat in the numerous forest preserves and state parks that line the rivers-- while long stretches of land in between remains as undeveloped wetlands and floodplain. It is not yet clear which way these animals are moving in the spring and fall and where they spend the winter.

My particular neck of the woods on the undeveloped side of the Illinois River (east of Peoria) may just be a migration path for these animals. A small number of these animals may only be present in this area twice a year as they move up and down the river.

Jan 23, 2006

Go to www.bfro.net and check out the sightings by region for Illinois for more complete documentation for the following reported sasquatch activity:

You will find the teen's encounter while deer hunting in November 2005 as the only report filed for Saline County.

Newspaper articles reporting the 1972 CoHoMo activity and the Class B report from October 2005 are listed as the four (4) reports for Tazewell County. The additional detail concerning the landowner's deer feeding activities came from a phone conversation with the BFRO investigator.

Check under Grundy County to read two (2) separate encounters classified as Class A reports from June 2005 that took place across the road from each other near Seneca, Illinois.

Nocturnal vocalizations recorded this past summer and fall in the Sangamon River valley are posted as *.mp3 files at www.stancourtney.com under the category of unknown animal sounds. Interpretation of the source of the recorded sounds is left to the listener-- but they defy classification as vocalizations made by coyotes, foxes, owls or any other animal species known to inhabit the area. These vocalizations are still under investigation and have not yet been submitted to BFRO's database.

Also, the wood knocks and vocalizations experienced at Kankakee River State Park have not been submitted to BFRO's database and this area is still the subject for further investigation.

Jan 31, 2006

Yesterday I emailed the following law enforcement question to the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources:

What law(s) does Illinois have on the books that would govern the hunting or killing of animal species that are thought to have been extirpated or at least are not considered to be present in Illinois and are not specifically named in the regulations?

In other words, what if someone in Illinois would track what might be moose, elk, lynx or black bear tracks and was carrying a gun in self defense? Is there certain times of the year when this is or is not permissible? Can a gun be carried in the field during such an activity? And what are the reporting requirements in the event of killing such an animal?

Some people believe the floodplain wilderness areas along the Illinois River could be a migration path and habitat for animal species not otherwise considered to be native to Illinois. There is some speculation about how and when to find such animal's tracks, listen for vocalizations or see evidence of foraging activities.
Today I received the following answer:

Animals that are not listed under Illinois wildlife law are afforded no protection under the law except that they can only be killed on property where the shooter has permission to "hunt". (520 ILCS 5/2.2 ...It shall be unlawful for any person to take any other living wild animal not covered by this Act without permission of the landowner or tenant.)

It is not hunting in the true sense of the word since there is no season and a hunting license would not be required.

There is no reporting requirement either although in the few instances that I've been aware of, the District biologist has been contacted for species verification and to determine if the animal is an escapee from a game farm.

signed by (name protected)
Duty Officer, IDNR, Office of Law Enforcement