YEAR: 1972

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: 29

STATE: Illinois

COUNTY: Adams County

LOCATION DETAILS: Siloam Springs State Park.

NEAREST TOWN: Chestline

NEAREST ROAD: County Road 14

OBSERVED: The following interview was conducted by Stan Courtney. The first name of the witness has been changed. I have also camped in my motor home in the same campground.

John - Well, we camped over the weekend, and I think it was Sunday morning we were tearing down the camp and I decided to take a short walk to smoke a cigarette.

And I went down a path and sat on a rock and smoked a cigarette, and I heard a sound behind me. I turned around and about I would say twenty feet, maybe a little further, standing downslope, we were eye to eye, was what I thought initially was a very large man in a fur get-up, with a stocking cap on because the head came to a point.

The color was, it wasn't a uniform color, it was different shades of brown, dark brown and gray.

The face looked more human than ape. I would have guestimated it was about seven feet tall, maybe taller, and we locked eyes for just a matter of a few seconds, then it rounded the tree that it was standing next to and took off down the slope of a gulley and I took off up the path running like crazy. My exposure was a matter of seconds.

Stan - So the height was about seven foot, what about weight?

John - It was really wide, I mean the shoulders I would say four feet. It was just bulky, really bulky. I didn't notice the waist, I didn't notice the feet. I did notice quite a bit about the face. The face was kind of a tanish color.

Stan - Did you notice a browline?

John - The browline, it had a heavy brow, but no hair on the face. There was hair on the chin, kind of like the Patterson-Gimlin creature. But it did not have a characteristic face of a gorilla or ape. It looked like a real ugly human.

Stan - What about eye color?

John - Eye color was brown, I did not see a whole lot of white of the eyes, I did see some. I did see its teeth. Its teeth were really big and really yellow. The lips were thin, very wide mouth. It didn't make a sound, I couldn't smell a thing.

Stan - What about the shape of the nose?

John - The nose was large and flat, but did not have turned up nostrils like a gorilla. I tell ya Stan if you look at the picture on the front of Autumn Williams' book, just like that. (He is referring to the book 'Enoch'.)

Stan - What about weight?

John - Oh, I would say at least 400 lbs, probably more. And it made a lot of noise when it went down the hill, I know that, just its movement. I didn't hear any vocalization whatsoever from it.

Stan - Were you able to see its whole body from head to toe?

John - I should have been, but I didn't notice it, I was looking straight at its head, which was at eye level with me but it was standing down slope. I didn't see its feet at all.

And when it was standing there, it wasn't standing like you or I would stand straight, it had like a slight break in its knee and its left hand was holding onto a tree, about an eight inch diameter tree and then when it left it just swung around the tree and the tree rocked back and forth and it went down the hill and I went up the hill.

Stan - So were both of you startled to see each other?

John - Yes, we were the only people in the campground, nobody around.

Stan - So, you were one of the fortunate few to have gotten to see so many facial details.

John - I felt fortunate that way, the only thing I can remember in detail to this day, close my eyes and remember. Because it didn't have a menacing look, it had a surprised look on its face. Its eyes were kind of darting back and forth, that is how I got to see some white and then I turned around and ran, I was scared, I was really scared.

I had never heard of bigfoot and then subsequent to my sighting, in that same time frame there was a lot of talk about the Momo Monster in Missouri, by Hannibal, which wasn't too far away.

Stan - Yes, the Momo sighting was in July of 1972.

John - Yes, that was the same time frame. And my wife told me at the time, if you tell anybody I'll divorce you, because she didn't want the ridicule and I really never told anybody.

ALSO NOTICED: None

OTHER WITNESSES: No, my wife was back at the campground.

OTHER STORIES: Just the Momo Monsters sightings close to Hannibal, Missouri which was in July of 1972, 25 miles to the southwest.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Morning. Warm temperature, clear weather.

ENVIRONMENT: Mixed oak and hickory woods.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Stan Courtney:

I was introduced to the witness while on a trip out west in July 2010. In conversation he mentioned that his sighting was in Illinois back in 1972 and I asked him if he would allow me to do an interview.

Although this report is older, the terrain has not changed much since 1972 and exemplifies the "Halibut Effect".

In summary the facial details observed were:

Browline, heavy.
No hair on the face.
Eye color was brown.
Nose was large and flat.
The lips were thin.
Very wide mouth.

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