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Bigfoot in Illinois?
By DAVID GIBSON - Updated: Friday, February 17, 2006 9:19 AM CST
The Bigfoot craze swept this country back in the 1970s. Fueled by movies like “The Legend of Boggy Creek,” it seemed like folks were seeing Bigfoot everywhere. That included Illinois and as strange as it may seem, folks here in the Land of Lincoln have been reporting seeing a tall, hairy, smelly, critter since the late 1800s. Recently the legendary Bigfoot has been making a comeback in our neck of the woods.
In October of 2005 a couple near Shirley, Ill., claimed to have seen a large hairy man-like animal. The report was credible enough to get the attention of Tom Biscardi who lives clear out in California.
Tom is a Bigfoot expert and researcher. His website (found at www.searchingforbigfoot.com) posts first-hand reports of encounters, photos, plaster casts of big feet and footage that folks have taken of Bigfoot.
The Bigfoot Researchers Organization (BFRO) is a separate group that has a web site (www.bfro.net) that lists sightings along DuPont Road near Seneca, Ill. The area is heavily wooded and just south of the Illinois River. Two local men report being driven out of the woods one night by one of these man-apes. Then there were two Bigfoot specimens reportedly spotted near DuPont road.
The BFRO sight also has a report of an old gray creature that was sighted just north of Kewanee along highway 78. It was fall of 1999. The man who reported it was driving home from work around 2 a.m. when he got a very good look at the creature who ran off into a corn field after a couple of seconds. This address should take you straight to it — www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=8696
The reports consistently describe an ape-like creature that walks on two legs. It stands seven to eight feet tall and weighs from 400 to 600 pounds (although I’m sure none of the eye witnesses asked the beast to get on a scale). Bigfoot is described as being broad shouldered with powerful arms and chest and no neck to speak of. Its body is covered in hair that can be black, brown or red like an orangutan.
Those who have made Bigfoot their field of study say that these large mammals are omnivorous which means they will eat anything. One Ohio man claims to have witnessed at least two Bigfoot hunting deer together. He later found a cash of young deer that are only missing their liver. As it turns out liver is the perfect winter survival food for a large critter like Bigfoot.
To the people who have seen him, Bigfoot is very real. The obvious question is if there are eight-foot-tall primates living wild in the timber lots of Illinois why don’t we find an occasional carcass of one that has died or been killed by a car? Are we ready to declare that we know all there is to know about the natural world? Or is there still room for an eight-foot ape to hide in the great outdoors?
‘‘Kewanee Outdoors’’ by Kewaneean Dave Gibson is a regular feature in the Star Courier. — Ed.
By DAVID GIBSON - Updated: Friday, February 17, 2006 9:19 AM CST
The Bigfoot craze swept this country back in the 1970s. Fueled by movies like “The Legend of Boggy Creek,” it seemed like folks were seeing Bigfoot everywhere. That included Illinois and as strange as it may seem, folks here in the Land of Lincoln have been reporting seeing a tall, hairy, smelly, critter since the late 1800s. Recently the legendary Bigfoot has been making a comeback in our neck of the woods.
In October of 2005 a couple near Shirley, Ill., claimed to have seen a large hairy man-like animal. The report was credible enough to get the attention of Tom Biscardi who lives clear out in California.
Tom is a Bigfoot expert and researcher. His website (found at www.searchingforbigfoot.com) posts first-hand reports of encounters, photos, plaster casts of big feet and footage that folks have taken of Bigfoot.
The Bigfoot Researchers Organization (BFRO) is a separate group that has a web site (www.bfro.net) that lists sightings along DuPont Road near Seneca, Ill. The area is heavily wooded and just south of the Illinois River. Two local men report being driven out of the woods one night by one of these man-apes. Then there were two Bigfoot specimens reportedly spotted near DuPont road.
The BFRO sight also has a report of an old gray creature that was sighted just north of Kewanee along highway 78. It was fall of 1999. The man who reported it was driving home from work around 2 a.m. when he got a very good look at the creature who ran off into a corn field after a couple of seconds. This address should take you straight to it — www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=8696
The reports consistently describe an ape-like creature that walks on two legs. It stands seven to eight feet tall and weighs from 400 to 600 pounds (although I’m sure none of the eye witnesses asked the beast to get on a scale). Bigfoot is described as being broad shouldered with powerful arms and chest and no neck to speak of. Its body is covered in hair that can be black, brown or red like an orangutan.
Those who have made Bigfoot their field of study say that these large mammals are omnivorous which means they will eat anything. One Ohio man claims to have witnessed at least two Bigfoot hunting deer together. He later found a cash of young deer that are only missing their liver. As it turns out liver is the perfect winter survival food for a large critter like Bigfoot.
To the people who have seen him, Bigfoot is very real. The obvious question is if there are eight-foot-tall primates living wild in the timber lots of Illinois why don’t we find an occasional carcass of one that has died or been killed by a car? Are we ready to declare that we know all there is to know about the natural world? Or is there still room for an eight-foot ape to hide in the great outdoors?
‘‘Kewanee Outdoors’’ by Kewaneean Dave Gibson is a regular feature in the Star Courier. — Ed.
