YEAR: 1975

SEASON: Winter

MONTH: December

DATE: 6

STATE: Illinois

COUNTY: Perry County

LOCATION DETAILS: About six miles southeast of Pinckneyville.

NEAREST TOWN: Pinckneyville

NEAREST ROAD: Holts Prairie Rd.

OBSERVED: This happened to a friend of mine.

It happened in the late 1970's when a friend of mine while running his traps along a small strip-mine pond noticed a line of very large, bare-foot, humanlike footprints in the mud along the receded water line of the pond. He didn't think much of it at the time but he did think it was rather unusual that someone would be walking around barefoot in the middle of the mine spoils in December. I kind of find this to be odd myself.

He has told he has heard some loud screams while coon hunting at night before but just passed it off as Screech Owls except for once when he heard one very close and it scared his dogs and him enough to pack up and go home.

ALSO NOTICED: Don't know.

OTHER WITNESSES: None

OTHER STORIES: The 1st story I will tell happened back in the late 1940s or early 50s. A man, who I don't know, was driving at night, I dont know what time, between Pinckneyville and DuQuoin through a heavily wooded creek bottom when a large, hairy, up-right walking ape-like creature crossed the road in front of him.

This man stopped at the sheriff's office and reported this right after it happened. The sheriff, my great-uncle, said that the man, who he didn't know either, was really frightened.The sheriff's department went out to check this area out, but found nothing. This was a story my mother had told me several times.

Another story was when a girl I know said that she was walking to her aunt's house when she tried to take a short cut through the creek-bottoms when she encountered "a large hairy thing that grunted". She said she just turned around and walked back where she came from and whatever it was didn't follow her. She went on and took the long way.

Other stories I heard were about a scream that my brother heard and scared his dogs, another about a German Shepard being ripped in half.

These are some things that I over the years have heard from people that I know and have no reason not to believe them. I am from southern Illinois and from reading your web site there are not very many reports from Illinois. I currently live in Randolph County. but have lived a good bit of my life in Perry County. Jackson County is the neighboring county to the south where the Murphysboro Monster reports came from, I can remember when this was going on. I don't know if there are many sasquach around here but I wonder if some just pass through sometime.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Clear, cold.

ENVIRONMENT: Area consists or flat farmland separated by Oak and Hickory forest, many acres have been strip-mined, and creek-bottoms.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Stan Courtney:

After speaking with the submitter by phone I then called and spoke with the fellow running the trap-line and who found the footprints.

In summary:

- The footprints were fifteen inches in length.
- The footprints were six inches in diameter at the ball of the foot.
- The impressions showed all five toes in the wet mud.
- There were four or five footprints going through the wet area near the pond.
- The witness stated that the distance between successive steps was too great for him to match.

About BFRO Investigator Stan Courtney:

Stan Courtney has a special interest in wildlife audio recording. He has attended numerous BFRO Expeditions. See Stan's blog StanCourtney.com for recordings he has collected over the years.

Stan Courtney can be reached at illinois@bfro.net