YEAR: 2008

SEASON: Summer

MONTH: September

DATE: 19-20

STATE: Illinois

COUNTY: Washington County

LOCATION DETAILS: keep private!

LOCATION SENSITIVE

NEAREST TOWN: Mount Vernon

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 15

OBSERVED: The last two nights I have had interactions with what I think might be Bigfoots. I live out in the country and have over the last few weeks been wood knocking in my backyard. Last night at about 9:30pm I smacked the tree 5 times and immediately got a strange high pitched chatter to my left (south by southwest) and then another grumbling sound about 100 yards to the left of the first sound. My step-son also heard this with me and pointed in the same direction to the sounds which only lasted for a minute. We did some more wood knocking but never heard anymore. I awoke at around 4:00am to go to the bathroom (window was open) and was barely awake when I heard a distinct 4 knocks from across the pond (my backyard faces a pond) where there is no one living closer than a half mile from that area. It woke me up immediately and made the hair stand up on my neck. My dog growled and barked when she heard the knocking and growled for several minutes. When she stopped I went back to bed. Tonight (9/20) 12:30am I took our other dog out for the night to relive herself and walked over to the tree and picked up the log and smacked it 5 times. I started making guttural sounds and got an immediate response making the same sounds back at me. There was also another sound with it like the night before which was high pitched chattering. This repeated for about a minute when I realized I had no witnesses and went into the house to get my wife. When we came back outside the only sound we got was of a tree branch breaking, and it was loud and distinctive.
About 10 min. later I heard 4 knocks to my right (north by northwest) maybe a mile away. I came into the house and filled this out right away.

ALSO NOTICED: Twice back in the spring when going to bed there was a skunky smell that lasted only a minute by our window. That smell usually lasts for days and hours around here. Thought it was strange that it faded that quick not finding any skunks in the area the next day. It happened another time again between spring and summer. And I mentioned this to my wife.

OTHER WITNESSES: 9-18 my stepson

OTHER STORIES: not here - farther south

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 9-18 9:30pm
9-20 12:35am

ENVIRONMENT: Mixed woods around a pond 63 degrees very light rain

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Harold Benny:

I arrived at the witness' home about twelve hours after he made his report and found the entire family to be credible. After searching the area with the family, we were able to add the following to his original report:

1) We found a 5" diameter tree that was snapped
off about 5ft up.
2) There was a large, fresh path which ended
with scuffed footprints, running through a bean
field.
3) A large degraded footprint was found in mud near
the railroad tracks.
4) A large, dark, bipedal creature crossed the double
railroad tracks in four steps, about 400 yards away,
as we drove across the tracks around 6:30pm. The
creature was very large, dark brown/black in color and
crossed a double track bed in 4 steps. This was
the area we had just driven out of.

I spoke with the wife's brother the next day. He told me that as a teenager he found sets of large footprints on two separate occasions in this same area. It appears that these magnificent animals may have frequented this area for a number of years.

UPDATE:
I originally thought that our initial activity had moved the animals out of the area and that they would probably return at some later date. I was wrong! They apparently returned rather quickly to the area to resume visitations. There has been almost constant activity. The following highlights are just a few:

9/23/08
Two of the family members checked across the pond again and found unidentified scat, an unusual strong foul odor, and footprints with a stride of about 7 feet.

10/15/08
October, almost every night 1-2am the family was awakened by loud knocking sounds to the west of the house.

12/27/08
At about 1:15am the family was on the back porch investigating the strange behavior of the dogs. From 5 different locations they heard animals making a whooping noise. The whoops were as close as 150ft to the south of the house. They had never heard this sound before and weren't sure what it was. This is a common sound often heard in association with wood knocks.

1/4/09 (6:30pm)
The boys were outside north of the house and heard tree knocking coming from the treeline about 200ft away. There was also a strong skunk-like smell in the air which dissipated quickly. At the same time, the geese on the pond were agitated and rapidly swimming to the north. As the witnesses looked to watch the geese they spotted distinct red eye-shine lingering directly across the pond.

2/17/09 (6:40pm)
The father and oldest son went onto the back porch to again investigate the strange behavior of the dogs. The father saw a pair of red eyes peeking out from behind a tree about 40ft away behind a fence. He was able to see the form of a large bipedal animal just before it fled. As this was happening, the son was watching a large figure walking along the pond dam. The figure crouched down at a distance of about 125ft and stayed motionless long enough to convince the son he was watching a tree stump. There are no trees or stumps on the dam.

About BFRO Investigator Harold Benny:

Harold Benny holds two degrees in Zoology and was a Biology teacher for several years. He participated in the following BFRO expeditions: Michigan UP 07, Arkansas I 07, Arkansas II (Oklahoma) 07, N. Florida 08, Missouri 08, Tennessee 09, and Ohio 09. Harold has organized several private Illinois expeditions and in 2006 recieved the IDNR Volunteer Of The Year Award as part of the Montgomery Co. Hunter Education group.