YEAR: 1972

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: September

DATE: 15

STATE: Illinois

COUNTY: Marion County

LOCATION DETAILS: Near Kell, Illinois in a rural farming area, quite remote. I was only 11, and don't remember exact location, but our farm, about 60 acres, was located at a crossroad of two highways

NEAREST TOWN: Kell

OBSERVED: My mother observed a large, beige creature at the edge of a woods area, about 1000 yards from our house. The house was surrounded on 3 sides by cornfields and a densely wooded area surrounded that. It was late fall, and the corn had been harvested, leaving bare fields. My mum was talking on the phone to her mum, and our dogs, (beagles) set up a terrible racket. She walked to the edge of the screen porch and saw an animal crouched down. Thinking it was maybe a bear (none in area) she asked her mum what it could be. The dogs barked and howled, but did not go any nearer than 500 feet to animal. The inside dogs were yelping and howling too. Suddenly, the creature straightened upright and looked toward the house. My mum said "It's stood up and looking over here." Grandma told her not to go outside, but she opened the screen and called to the dogs. They were frantic; never afraid of anything, but this had them hysterical. The thing finally just walked into the woods. The whole encounter lasted about 15-20 seconds. As soon as it left the dogs settled right down and acted as if nothing was wrong. Earlier that summer, before harvest, my sisters and I found an area near the outside edge of the field, where the stalks had been trampled down and squashed, like something quite large had slept there.

ALSO NOTICED: We had several dogs, the two beagles outside, who ran the woods with absolute abandon and feared nothing, except this animal. The small dogs inside, I think we had five or six, set up a real fuss too. Nothing else.

OTHER WITNESSES: My mum was standing on the back screened porch, talking to her mum on the telephone. It was mid-morning, because we were in school at the time.

ENVIRONMENT: I was eleven years old and don't remember exactly, but I do know the nearest town of any size was Salem; our township was actually Kell. I went to Raccoon Elementary about four miles away. Our house was surrounded on three sides by cornfields of about forty acres each; the frontage was about forty acres wide on the (2 lane ) highway, but quite remote, accessible by 1/2 mile gravel road. Our nearest neighbor was about two miles away, through a dense wooded area. There was an old abandoned house on the highway intersection, and lots of wooded area between us. I only lived there for about a year.

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