YEAR: 1998

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: May

DATE: Mid May

STATE: Illinois

COUNTY: Calhoun County

LOCATION DETAILS: I don't drive out of town. My husband was driving. We were going to our friends house in Hardin Illinois. I am terrible with directions. I am going to have to ask my husband the name of the road. I know it was right next to the "chicken house" A farm family that always has a bunch of chickens in the yard.

NEAREST TOWN: Hardin Illinois

NEAREST ROAD: Don't Know

OBSERVED: I noticed that when we passed by the "chicken house" that the chickens were not out and about as usual. Then I noticed a medium size dog running very quickly down the road towards us.

Then on the drivers side of the road I saw an animal that was all black standing by a tree. It was barely 5 feet tall. At the time I saw it. I said nothing about it to my husband. It was standing by the tree and it just disappeared. I though that no real animal could just disappear like a ghost into the forest. But since then I have seen deer disappear just like that into the forest. So I don't doubt that what I saw was an animal. It appeared to be a animal with black fur not very tall only 5 foot. It was standing up like a human. It appeared to be very shy.

Like I said I have not said much about this to anyone. My husband and I are native americans and we have a great respect for animals. We know that some of our people belive bigfoot to be a spiritual being not a physical being. But the dog seemed to be running from it very quickly.

ALSO NOTICED: The whole atmoshere of the area seemed different. Absence of the usual animals. The dog running. The dog did seem frightened. It was somewhat eerie that morning. It was usually not like that. Hard to explain

OTHER WITNESSES: No one else in the truck noticed the animal standing by the tree.

OTHER STORIES: I have never heard anybody from that area say anything about seeing unusal wild life. And I did not tell anyone there about this. If there is something there it doesn't need to be harrassed by locals.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Early morning at daybreak. Weather was misty but visibilty was good.

ENVIRONMENT: Road going through the country. There were forests and bluffs right off the road.

Follow-up investigation report:

During our interview I heard a number of things that were interesting to think about. The first point the witness mentioned was how black and shiny this animal was. She said it stood like a human and she could see its hands.
Also, its face was very very dark. She also mentioned when it stepped and disappeared it turned sideways and she thought maybe there was a chance she would see a snout (maybe indicating a bear) but she did not. At first she thought it was strange how it disappeared so fast, but after watching wildlife she noticed the same ability with deer. In other words, wild creatures can disappear quickly into the vegetation and this observation was a good example of that. I inquired about its body build and she thought it had a medium, not thin or heavy build and that it was evenly built that way throughout its body. She felt it was some sort of primate and made it clear she could not see the feet as they were in vegetation.

Her observation was less than a minute long. She also mentioned that some of the stories she had heard Native Americans tell included that sometimes during a rain people would enter a cave to stay dry and these creatures would be inside and just turn their backsides to them. The area she made the observation at was not far from the Illinois River and the terrain there certainly provides ample cover for any shy elusive species.