The vast reaches of forest and open fields of southern Illinois, combined with the sparse population in some areas, seem to invite weirdness that might not occur in cities and more crowded locales. In the most southern portions of the region, the Shawnee National Forest covers miles and miles of territory. The acres of forest seem almost untouched by man and some believe that strange things occasionally pass through here, unseen by human eyes.
This southern portion of the state is sometimes referred to as the “Devil’s Kitchen”, a designation left behind by the Native Americans and the early settlers to explain strange sights and sounds like unexplained balls of light, apparitions, screams in the night and various other unsettling types of phenomena. The Native Americans often considered such sites as “sacred” but the settlers usually believed them to be “cursed”, or at least well avoided. The idea that such locations were linked to the "Devil" was the first thought that crossed the minds of the bible-reading, god-fearing folks and they promptly set about to do two things. They learned to avoid these strange and haunted places and secondly, they gave names to the spots to alert other visitors and settlers of the dangers of the area. In the case of the Devil’s Kitchen, just about anything is possible, from ghosts reports to mystery animals and weird monster sightings.
Perhaps strangest monster reports to ever take place in Illinois began in April 1973 in the small town of Enfield. This tiny community in southeastern Illinois became the scene of bizarre happenings for a short period of time and while the case has largely been forgotten today, it remains a part of the high strangeness of the region.
Henry McDaniel of Enfield almost became the first man to be arrested because of the Enfield Horror. White County Sheriff Roy Poshard Jr. threatened to lock McDaniel for telling folks about the weird events that took place at his home in April 1973, but McDaniel stuck by his story and his initial report would begin what became a nightmare for the small town. According to McDaniel, he was at home on the evening of April 25 when he heard a scratching on his door. When he opened it, he couldn't believe his eyes! "It had three legs on it," McDaniel swore, " as short body, two little short arms coming out of its breast area and two pink eyes as big as flashlights. It stood four and a half to five feet tall and was grayish-colored. It was trying to get into the house."
Needless to say, McDaniel was not letting it in and he quickly retrieved a pistol. He kicked open the door and opened fire. After his first shot, McDaniel knew that he had hit it. The creature "hissed like a wildcat" and scampered away, covering 50 feet in three jumps. It disappeared into the brush along a railroad embankment near the house.
McDaniel quickly called the police and Illinois state troopers who responded to the call found tracks "like those of a dog, except they had six toe pads." The tracks were measured and two of them were four inches across and the third was slightly smaller. [These are composite tracks of more than one footprint superimposed, most likely dog tracks and nothing to do with the sighting-DD]
Investigators soon learned that a young boy, Greg Garrett, who lived just behind McDaniel, had been playing in his yard about a half-hour before. Suddenly, the creature had appeared and attacked him. Apparently though, it just stepped on his feet, but this was enough to tear the boy's tennis shoes to shreds. Greg had run into the house, crying hysterically.
On May 6, Henry McDaniel was awakened in the middle of the night by howling neighborhood dogs. He looked out his front door and saw the monster again. It was standing out near the railroad tracks. "I didn't shoot at it or anything," McDaniel reported. "It started on down the railroad track. It wasn't in a hurry or anything."
McDaniel's reports soon brought publicity to Enfield and prompted the threats from the county sheriff, but it was too late. Soon, hordes of curiosity-seekers, reporters and researchers descended on the town. Among the "monster hunters" were five young men who were arrested by Deputy Sheriff Jim Clark as "threats to public safety" and for hunting violations. This was after they had opened fire on a gray, hairy thing that they had seen in some underbrush on May 8. Two of the men thought they had hit it, but it sped off, moving faster than a man could.
One more credible witness to the monster was Rick Rainbow, who was then the news director of radio station WWKI in Kokomo, Indiana. He and three other persons spotted the monster near an abandoned house, just a short distance from McDaniel's place. They didn't get much of a look at it as it was running away from them, but they later described it as about five feet tall, gray and stooped over. Rainbow did manage to tape record its cry. The wailing was also heard by eminent researcher Loren Coleman, who also came to try and track down the creature. He also heard the sound while searching an area near the McDaniel home.
A short time later, the sightings ended as abruptly as they began. No explanation was ever given as to what this bizarre monster may have been, where it may have come from, or where it disappeared to. Some had surmised that perhaps it was connected to UFO activity that was also reported in the general area at the time - but we will never really know for sure!
-Much is made of the detail that the creature was supposed to have three legs. There were multiple sightings by several individuals, but so far as I can tell, only McDaniel said anything about it having three legs, a tail, or anything which might be mistaken for a third leg.Other observers added the detail that it was also covered in hair. To continue from here on with "Cryptozoologist's" page on the subject:
"This reminds me of my exchange with Keel… in 1973, when we were discussing the new reports out of Illinois, from Enfield. On April 25, 1973, Mr. and Mrs. Henry McDaniel returned to their home and Henry had an encounter with a thing that looked like it had three legs, two pink eyes as big as flashlights, and short arms on a four-and-a-half-feet tall and grayish-colored body, along the L&N rail-road tracks, in front of his house."
It should also be noted that between the years of 1941 and 1942, in the sleepy village of Mt. Vernon (less than 40 miles away from Enfield) there was a similar spate of encounters involving an anomalous "leaping" beast that terrorized the local populace and was reputedly responsible for numerous animal deaths in the region. Eyewitnesses claimed that the Mt. Vernon Monster was vaguely baboon-like (hence the "Devil Monkey" analogy) and able to leap 20 to 40[?]-feet in a single bound.
[Cryptozoologist's Note: Ever since the events mentioned here took place, there has been speculation that the Enfield Horror was either an alien life form or even some sort of demon. As a scientist who is also well-versed in the metaphysical, it is my opinion that the majority of alien/UFO sightings or encounters can be explained by natural or manmade objects/activities. Those that cannot, I believe, are the result of supernatural manifestations. Since the Enfield Horror appears to have been, at the very least, frightened off by gunfire or possibly even wounded, and since the creature was observed at times going about mundane activities, which would seem meaningless for a supernatural being to be engaged in, I am of the opinion that it was neither alien nor demon, but some sort of bizzare, unknown, but entirely corporeal creature, possibly even a genetic mutation of some sort. But as I said, that is just my opinion. I leave it up to you, the reader, to draw your own conclusions.]
--I have heard it suggested that the claim of "Three legs" is a garbling of an original statement the creature had "Three toes". My impression of the matter at this point is that if the suspicious and likely spurious third leg is dropped out of the description, we once again have one of Tyler Stone's freshwater monkeys, and one which comments on the American Monsters message board compared to the Loveland Frog.It is covered with grey hair that can be shaggy on the back, but which can also be seen as wetted down and thus "Slick and Slimy".The grey colour is what is elsewhere described as "Silvery" on occasion, presumably when it is being seen as more reflective. Interesting is the included feature of "Leaping" in such reports, something on the level of a human athlete's broad jump (I queried the statement of "40 feet in a single leap" in the description above because I did not think it was a valid estimate) There are several species of lemurs in Madagascar which travel bipedally on the ground-by leaping and it seems that these FW-Monkeys also have that great leaping ability for making dives into the water: other occasions such as the Loveland Frog case do mention that it can jump a pretty good distance off a bridge or whatever. Assuming a partial description stemmong from a combination of poor viewing conditions and the agitated wstate of the winess, and a confused description resulting from it, it could actually be one of the same things. The sightings from the 1940s were included in Ivan Sanderson's book, along with the passage on the "Little Red Men of the Delta"[=Pukwudgies?] And the "30 year cycle" would only be an artefact of the reports on file that are recognised to be the same type. When you count other sightings in different pigeonholes, the reports are far more common than it might seem at first.
The Strangeark Checklist of North American Cryptids includes under the heading of Primate:
1)Anthropoid ape-like animal Reported from North
American swamps and bottomland hollows. Heuvelmans
1986; Coleman 1983; [Sanderson, IvanT, 1969 and 1970, under
the name "Abominable Swamp Slobs"]
Primate-like: Dover "demon" Reported from Dover,
Massachusetts Coleman 1983
Primate-like: "Devil Monkey" Reported sporadically from eastern U.S.;
Primate-like: Aquatic ape-like animal
Reported off eastern Maritime provinces, Canada [and] Great
Lakes Arment 2004
So now it becomes a good idea to mention Devil Monkeys.
WHAT'S A DEVIL MONKEY?: The United States and Canada aren't home to any modern-day primates, which makes the appearance of a giant monkey-like creature in rural areas even more bizarre to those who've seen it. Dubbed the devil monkey, this primate-looking beast reportedly has pointed ears, a baboon- or doglike snout, a bushy tail and only three toes on each of its narrow feet. Ranging in height between 3 and 8[?-Coleman and Huyghe field guide reads 6] feet (0.9 and 2.4 meters) tall, this strange monkey gets around on all fours and travels by jumping. Devil monkeys are supposed to be aggressive, especially toward dogs and humans, and by most accounts, they are carnivorous and feed on livestock. This fearsome monkey makes a wide range of evil-sounding noises, including hoots, whistles and screams.
MONKEYING AROUND: According to George Eberhart, author and cryptid expert, the devil monkey can be found in British Columbia and the Appalachian Mountain region of the United States. One of the first reported sightings occurred in 1959 when a "monkeylike creature" rushed the car of a couple driving down a rural road in Virginia. A second encounter happened soon after, when two nurses reported that a similar creature tore the top off of their convertible. Other sightings have occurred as recently as 2001, when a giant black monkey was seen nine different times over the course of two weeks in rural New Hampshire.
POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS: Some people think devil monkeys could be feral monkeys that have been released into the wild or escaped from research facilities, such as the ones that broke free in Florida due to Hurricane Andrew in 1992. While that's possible, Cryptozoologists Chad Arment and Mark A. Hall suggests devil monkeys could actually be a surviving species once thought to be extinct, like a fruit-eating spider monkey originating from Brazil, or a large baboon that lived 650,000 years ago in East Africa.
-The last sentence betrays a flaw in the construction of the category: the same animal cannot possibly be related to New World Monkeys in one part of its range (South America) and Old World monkeys in another part (Africa): the category must be unnecessarily lumping different sorts of monkeys together. And the description speaks of a three-toed foot while the illustration shows the opposed big toe. Still, the illustration is probably also a better and more objective depiction of Tyler Stone's Freshwater Monkey seen clearly and in good detail than any of the "Wierd" observations would lead the casual reader to believe. The type here should be tailless or have only a stump of a tail: a longtailed monkey would be something else. and checking with Coleman and Huyghe's field guide on the different three-toed tracks, the "Swamp Monster" tracks have sharp toes/claws at [8 to] 10 inches long while the three-toed "Devil Monkey" tracks are rounded at the toes (claws not showing?) and range from twelve to fifteen inches in length. The latter tracks match Momo, the Fouke Monster and the Midwest Frogfoot-probably the Scrape Ore "Lizardman" would have left something similar, except the hoaxers decided to make up one of their own instead. The average of all the tracks is just about a standard-sized human foot. I also imagine the flipper-like feet are disproportionately large to the creature in comparison to the usual human proportion of length of footprint to height: a 15 inch track need not have belonged to an excessively large creature, although perhaps that is the basis for the estimate of "Eight feet tall": there also could be some skidding and slipping in some of the longer tracks. The average of the reports is at 4 1/2 feet tall, usually reports say in the range of 4-5 feet tall, and there is a sizeable minority of reports which say "greater than human" size. One trackway in Northern Louisiana showed three ovoid (toes not discernable) tracks in the middle of a muddy bed of a drained pond-but with the next nearest tracks 20 feet distant. Here we would have confirmation of another one of those 20 foot broad jumps.
Best Wishes, Dale D.
George Eberhart under Devil Monkeys:
Hairy Biped A humanlike or apelike Entityof North Amer- ica, possessing some of the characteristics of Giant Hominids or North American Apes. Etymology: Coined by Jerome Clark as a catchall term for humanoids reported in the midwestern and eastern United States and Canada. Variant names: Big hairy monster (BHM), Billiwack monster (in southern California), Booger, Buenafoot (in southern California), Cannibal Giant, Dwayyo, Eastern bigfoot, Fluorescent Freddie, Goatman, Goonyak (in Vermont), Grassman (in Ohio), Lake Worth Monster, Manbeast, Manimal, Momo, Old slipperyskin (in Vermont), Old yellow top (in Ontario), Ole woolly, Orange eyes (in Ohio), Precambrian Shield man, Taku he (Dakota/Siouan, “what’s that?”), Wejuk (in Vermont), Wood devil, Wookie, Woolly booger, Yeahoh (in Kentucky). Physical description: Not as uniform as the Bigfoot of the Pacific Northwest, though al- ways covered with hair and walking on two legs (hence its name). It’s difficult to generalize traits from reports that might have multiple causes, but some of the following features are usually present. Height, 4–9 feet, though sizes up to 12 feet are mentioned. Hair or fur is reddish-brown to black, often described as 6–8 inches long. Often distinctly lacking in facial features, but a catlike face is occasionally reported. Red, or- ange, yellow, or green glowing eyes. Flat, broad nose. Pointed ears. Werewolflike fangs. Mane. Long arms. Hands are sometimes clawed. Long legs. Behavior: Primarily nocturnal. Usually has an awkward, bipedal gait but sometimes runs on all fours. Said to be able to swim. Occasionally seen with young. Reported calls are moans, grunts, howls, high-pitched shrieks. Strong, putrid odor like decaying flesh or rotten eggs. These crea- tures are sometimes ascribed such paranormal features as invulnerability, transparency, insub- stantiality, invisibility, and the ability to disap- pear instantaneously. Appears to show interest in and have no fear of human dwellings. Dis- likes cars and dogs, which often react with great fright. Sometimes associated with unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings. Tracks: Anywhere from two- to six-toed. Three-toed are perhaps commonest and have been reported from the South, the Midwest, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and southern California. Length, up to 14 inches. Stride, up to 5 feet. Hair samples have been found. All primates have five toes. Any Hairy biped that leaves clear imprints showing anything less than five toes constitutes an extreme evolution- ary anomaly. Pentadactyly (having five fingers or toes) is a common and primitive feature of reptiles and mammals. However, it is not an es- sential requirement, and many animals have modified the plan: frogs only have four digits, cows have two, horses have dropped all but one, and snakes have gotten rid of legs altogether. Most birds get by walking on only four (three in front and one behind), while the Ostrich (Struthio camelus) only has two. If three-toed, humanlike bipeds really exist as flesh-and-blood creatures and are not paranormal apparitions, it would be most interesting to find out more about their foot structure. Perhaps three toes is better than five when you’ve chosen a swamp or wetland as your habitat. Habitat: Secluded areas, often forested wet- lands or mountainous regions. Distribution: Nearly every U.S. state and Canadian province. Most sightings represent only transient individuals. A partial list of places where Hairy bipeds have been reported follows: Alabama—Choccolocco Valley, Town Creek. Arkansas—Center Ridge, Greene County, Jonesboro, Leachville, Poinsett County, St. Francis County, South Crossett, Springdale. California—Antelope Valley, Borrego Sink, Lytle Creek, Pearblossom, San Gorgonio Mountains, Santa Paula. Colorado—Green Mountain Falls. Connecticut—Bristol, Crystal Lake Reservoir, Winsted. Delaware—Selbyville. Georgia—Edison. Illinois—Big Muddy River, Cairo, Center- ville, Chittyville, Creve Coeur, East Peoria, Eff- ingham, Farmer City, Kickapoo Creek, Murphysboro. Indiana—Attica, French Lick, Galveston, Hoosier National Forest, Knox County, Pike County, Richmond, Rising Sun, Roachdale, Sharpsville, Winslow. Iowa—Clinton. Kentucky—Albany, Leslie County, Trimble County. Labrador, Canada—Goose Bay. Louisiana—Cotton Island, Honey Island Swamp. Maine—Durham. Manitoba, Canada—Gypsumville, Steinbach, Whiteshell Provincial Park. Maryland—Calvert County, Churchville, Dickerson, Harford County, Kingsville, Prince George’s County, Sykesville. Massachusetts—Bridgewater, Raynham Center. Michigan—Byron, Charlotte, Dowagiac Swamp, Fenton, Houghton Lake State Forest, Lake City, Marshall, Mason, Mio, Monroe, Os- coda County, Port Huron, Saginaw, Shiawassee River, Sister Lakes, Tuscola County, Yale. Minnesota—northern part of state. Mississippi—Meridian, Winona. Missouri—Louisiana, Pacific, Troy. Montana—Monarch, Vaughn. Nebraska—south of Lincoln. Nevada—Nevada Test Site. New Hampshire—Hollis, Salisbury. New Jersey—Great Bear Swamp, High Point, Middletown, Vineland. New York—Burlington County, Ellisburg, Morristown, Mount Misery, Richmondtown, Sherman, Watertown, Whitehall. Newfoundland, Canada—Trinity Bay. North Carolina—Dismal Swamp, Tabor City. Ohio—Alliance, Brookside Park, Carlisle, Coshocton County, Defiance, Eaton, Huron, Kenmore, Kimbolton, Mansfield, Minerva, Monroeville, Muskingum County, Newcomer- stown, Point Isabel, Rome. Oklahoma—Canton, Kiamichi Mountains, Mountain Fork River, Nowata, Noxie, Tahle- quah, Wann. Ontario, Canada—Cobalt, Webequie, Wee- nusk Indian Reservation. Oregon—Conser Lake, Roseburg. Pennsylvania—Allegheny County, Allison, Beaver County, Bradford County, Buffalo Mills, Chester County, Chestnut Ridge, Derry Township, East Pennsboro Township, Edin- boro, Fayette County, Gray Station, Indiana County, Jeannette, Lancaster, Latrobe, Lock Haven, Somerset County, Uniontown, West- moreland County, Whitney. Saskatchewan, Canada—Grand Rapids. South Dakota—Standing Rock Indian Reser- vation. Tennessee—Charlotte, Flintville, Lascassas, Knox County, Monteagle Mountain. Texas—Bells, Caddo, Denton, Haskell, Lamar County, Lake Worth, Newton County, Paris, Peerless, Polk County. Vermont—Chittenden, Hartland, Rutland County, Williamstown. Virginia—Colonial Beach, Middletown. West Virginia—Cacapon Bridge, Davis, Hickory Flats, Marlinton, Parsons. Wisconsin—Benton, Cashton, Deltox Swamp, Grafton, Granton, Jefferson, Medford. Significant sightings: Riley W. Smith saw a naked hairy man, about 6 feet tall, while picking berries near Winsted, Connecticut, on August 17, 1895. The incident was the first of about twenty that allegedly took place in western Con- necticut and the Catskill Mountains of New York over the next few weeks. Widely and pos- sibly erroneously regarded as a hoax by newspa- perman Louis T. Stone, the original incident may have involved a bear. An apelike, bipedal creature with a yellow head and mane was seen by workers near the Vi- olet Mine east of Cobalt, Ontario, in September 1906. In 1923, two prospectors saw a similar yel- low-headed, black-haired animal eating blueber- ries; they thought it was a bear until they threw a rock at it, prompting it to get up and walk away on two legs. Later sightings earned it the nickname “Old yellow top.” The last sighting was in August 1970 when Aimée Latreille, the driver of a bus carrying twenty-seven miners, was forced to swerve after he saw an apelike creature with a light mane cross the road; the bus nearly had a fatal crash down a nearby rock cut. In August 1963, Harlan E. Ford and a friend encountered a huge humanoid in Honey Island Swamp near Slidell, Louisiana. It glared menacingly at them and ran away on two legs. In May 1964, near Sister Lakes, Michigan, Gordon Brown and his brother saw a hairy man about 9 feet tall who made a whimpering sound. Shortly afterward, three teenagers saw a 7-foot creature with a black face running through the underbrush in Silver Creek Township. Many other witnesses came forth and were named in extensive newspaper coverage. A green, 10-foot-tall monster with glowing red eyes was seen in March 1965 by teenagers in the woods south of French Lick, Indiana. They called it “Fluorescent Freddie.” In 1965, two teenagers were chased from their campfire by a 9- to 10-foot hairy creature on the north slope of the San Gorgonio Moun- tains, California. On August 13, 1965, Christine Van Acker and her mother were driving near Monroe, Michigan, when a hairy, 7-foot giant stepped in front of their car. Van Acker hit the brakes, stalling the car, and the creature reached through the open window and grabbed the top of her head. The women’s screams and horn honking apparently made it retreat. On May 19, 1969, George Kaiser saw a man- sized creature covered in black fur on his farm near Rising Sun, Indiana. It made a strange grunting sound, jumped over a ditch, and swiftly ran down the road. Later, footprints with three small toes and a big toe were found. A greenish-white UFO was seen by a neighbor the next night. Odd, froglike noises woke up teenagers Wayne Hall and Dave Chapman early on July 24, 1972, at the latter’s home near Crystal Lake Reservoir in northwestern Connecticut. Look- ing outside, they saw an 8-foot hairy creature. It crossed a road and moved around in the shad- ows near a horse barn. After forty-five minutes, it crossed the road again and disappeared in the woods by the lake. On the night of April 22, 1973, William Roemermann, Brian Goldojarb, and Richard Engels saw a Bigfoot-like creature near the Sycamore Flats campground in Big Rock Canyon, Los Angeles County, California. It chased their truck for about twenty seconds, its long arms swinging in front of its chest. On re- turning, they found many huge, three-toed tracks. In May and June 1973, an apelike creature terrorized the area around Sykesville in Carroll County, Maryland. Five-toed, 13-inch foot- prints were found, separated by a stride of 6 feet. On June 25, 1973, Randy Needham and Judy Johnson were parked near a boat ramp on the Big Muddy River near Murphysboro, Illi- nois, when they heard a piercing cry that came from the nearby woods. They looked up and saw the sound came from a huge shape lumber- ing toward them. The creature was about 7 feet tall and covered with a matted, whitish hair. Others saw and heard the same creature over the next two weeks, and it reappeared in the sum- mers of 1974, 1975, 1988, and 1989. At 4:30 a.m. on September 2, 1973, Chester Yothers woke up and saw a Bigfoot-like crea- ture only 5 feet away outside his trailer near Whitney, Pennsylvania, apparently looking at the house next door. He woke his wife and called the police, who arrived shortly afterward. The monster was gone, but they found wet foot- prints on the concrete and in the flower bed. Dennis Smith and Jimmy Slate heard pound- ing and shrieking noises in the woods next to Overlook Drive, near Watertown, New York, in the early morning of August 10, 1976. As the sun was rising, they saw an erect, black hominid walking down the road about two city blocks away. When Smith yelled, the creature turned around and ran in the opposite direction. Later, two 15-inch-long tracks, trampled grass, and some long hairs were found. On May 18, 1977, two thirteen-year-old boys were walking their dog near the historic Roberts Covered Bridge south of Eaton, Ohio, when the dog got frightened and they smelled a rotten-meat odor. Turning around, they saw a 9-foot, apelike creature with dirty brown hair, white eyes, and long arms; it chased them to- ward the road. Both boys were terrified for weeks after the incident. Two 14-inch, human- like prints were found near Seven Mile Creek on a nearby farm. Some twenty-eight sightings of Bigfoot-like creatures 6–9 feet tall were reported in wooded areas around Little Eagle in the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota from September to November 1977. Numerous large footprints were found, and high-pitched shrieks were heard repeatedly. Cecelia Thunder Shield said the being was tall with gray, shining hair and a black face. In January 1980, an employee of Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company saw a 6- to 7-foot hairy creature while driving along a high- way at the northern end of the Nevada Test Site. It disappeared in the sagebrush. James Guyette saw a huge hairy humanoid walking and swinging its arms along an inter- state highway near Hartland Dam, Vermont, in April 1984. It moved down the embankment and headed west. A woodsman of Gray Station, Pennsylvania, was walking at the forest edge at dusk on December 13, 1986, when something threw a large piece of wood at him. He looked up and saw a hairy creature, standing 8–9 feet tall with wide shoulders and long arms, blocking the path. After a moment, it turned, stooped, and ran into the woods. Gary Lee Hayes was hunting near a tract of the Houghton Lake State Forest, Michigan, on No- vember 25, 1990, when he saw a tall, upright creature moving on the crest of a nearby hill. It had black hair all over its body and was 7 feet tall. The creature walked down to a large beaver dam, squatted down, stood up, then went back uphill. Robert Toal found huge, human-shaped tracks in the snow on his property in Kingsville, Maryland, on the night of February 4–5, 1995. Field investigators from the Baltimore-area Enigma Project arrived a few days later and photographed the tracks, which were 20 inches long, 11 inches wide, but only 1 inch deep in the powdery snow. The tracks had an average stride of 4 feet 10 inches in a straight line and apparently passed through a 4-foot-high wire fence. Since even humans weighing less than 200 pounds made deeper impressions in the snow, the Enigma group thought these were the full-body impressions of a much lighter animal, possibly a jumping rabbit. Early in the morning of March 28, 2000, James Hughes was driving his newspaper route near Grafton, Wisconsin, when he saw an 8- foot hairy humanoid standing by the side of the road. The creature was carrying something that looked like a dead goat. Human tracks 14 inches long and 5 inches wide were found in early June 2001 on the Weenusk Indian Reservation at the mouth of the Winisk River on Hudson Bay, Ontario. The stride measured 6 feet. Present status: Distinctions between North American Apes, Devil Monkeys, Hairy bipeds, and Bigfoot are nebulous and possibly arbitrary. In general, North American Apes are tailless and primarily quadrupedal, and they resemble chimpanzees; Devil Monkeys are tailed and resemble baboons; Hairy bipeds cover a wide range of descriptions, from apes to Wild- men and even paranormal Entities; Bigfoot is a robust, tall hominid with a range that seems restricted to the Pacific Northwest. Possible explanations: (1) Many hoaxes, such as pranksters wearing masks or suits. The Selbyville, Delaware, swamp monster of 1964 was admittedly a hoax perpetrated by a man in a monster suit. (2) Mentally unstable or homeless humans living in the woods. This explanation may have been especially true for nineteenth- century reports. (3) Misidentified American black bears (Ursus americanus). (4) Monkeys or apes escaped from zoos or circuses. (5) Entities associated with UFOs, suggested by Stan Gordon and Don Worley. (6) Occurrences of Bigfoot outside its traditional range in the Pacific Northwest. The only comparative analysis of Hairy biped data in eastern North America has been done by Craig Heinselman, who looked at 654 reports from fifteen eastern and northeastern states between 1838 and 2001 and found few differences in height or other narrowly selected physical characteristics from the Pacific Northwest Bigfoot. He arrived at a tentative population estimate of 210–420 adult individuals for all fifteen states. 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Andrus Jr., ed., MUFON 1974 UFO Symposium Proceedings (Seguin, Tex.: Mutual UFO Network, 1974), pp. 132–154; Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman, “Swamp Slobs Invade Illinois,” Fate 27 (July 1974): 84–88; Berthold Eric Schwarz, “Berserk: A UFO- Creature Encounter,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 1 (July 1974): 3–11; Milton LaSalle, “Bigfoot Sighting,” Pursuit, no. 40 (Fall 1977): 120–123; Mark A. Hall, “Contemporary Stories of ‘Taku He’ or ‘Bigfoot’ in South Dakota as Drawn from Newspaper Accounts,” Minnesota Archeologist 37 (1978): 63–78; Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman, Creatures of the Outer Edge (New York: Warner, 1978); Mark A. Hall, “Stories of ‘Bigfoot’ in Iowa during 1978 as Drawn from Newspaper Sources,” Minnesota Archeologist 38 (1979): 2–17; S. Stover, “Does Maryland Have a Sasquatch?” INFO Journal, no. 34 (March-April 1979): 2–6; Dennis Pilichis, Night Siege: The Northern Ohio UFO- Creature Invasion (Rome, Ohio: Dennis Pilichis, 1982); Bruce G. Hallenbeck, Bob Bartholomew, and Paul Bartholomew, “Bigfoot in the Adirondacks,” Adirondack Bits ‘n Pieces 1, no. 3 (Spring-Summer 1984): 21–26, 49–50, 58–61; Mark Opsasnick, The Maryland Bigfoot Reference Guide (Greenbelt, Md.: Mark Opsasnick, 1987); Mike Marinacci, Mysterious California (Los Angeles, Calif.: Panpipes, 1988), pp. 84–86, 93–94; Mark Chorvinsky and Mark Opsasnick, “The Selbyville Swamp Monster Exposed,” Strange Magazine, no. 4 (1989): 6–8; Michael T. Shoemaker, “Searching for the Historical Bigfoot,” Strange Magazine, no. 5 (1990): 18–23, 57–62; David E. Philips, Legendary Connecticut (Willimantic, Conn.: Curbstone, 1992), pp. 175–177; Michael T. Shoemaker, “The Winsted Wild Man Revisited,” Strange Magazine, no. 11 (Spring- Summer 1993): 30–31, 59; Joseph A. Citro, Green Mountain Ghosts, Ghouls and Unsolved Mysteries (Montpelier: Vermont Life, 1994), pp. 93–101; Michael A. Frizzell, “The Kingsville Tracks,” INFO Journal, no. 74 (Winter 1996): 17–21; Loren Coleman, “Three Toes Are Better than Five,” Fortean Times, no. 98 (June 1997): 44; Christopher L. Murphy, Bigfoot in Ohio: Encounters with the Grassman (New Westminster, B.C., Canada: Pyramid, 1997); Christopher Kiernan Coleman, Strange Tales of the Dark and Bloody Ground (Nashville, Tenn.: Rutledge Hill, 1998), pp. 53–55; Don Keating, “Active Sasquatch in Coshocton County, Ohio,” North American BioFortean Review 1, no. 1 (April 1999): 5, 41, http://www. strangeark.com/nabr/NABR1.pdf; Dana Holyfield, Encounters with the Honey Island Swamp Monster (Pearl River, La.: Honey Island Swamp Books, 1999); Keith Edwards, “Wisconsin a New Home for Bigfoot?” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 4, 2000; Tim Swartz, “The Hairy Ones,” Strange Magazine, no. 21 (Fall 2000), on line at http://www. strangemag.com; Ron Schaffner, “Retrospective: Preble County, Ohio Incident,” Crypto Hominology Special, no. 1 (April 7, 2001), pp. 50–58, at http://www.strangeark.com/crypto/ Cryptohominids.pdf; Francine Dubé, “Big Footprints Stir Sasquatch Speculation,” National Post (Canada), June 25, 2001; Joe Nickell, “Tracking the Swamp Monsters,” Skeptical Inquirer 25, no. 4 (July 2001): 15; Craig Heinselman, “Eastern Sasquatch Analysis: Potential Patterns or Dubious Data?” paper presented at the Third East Coast Bigfoot Researchers Meeting, September 22, 2001, Delmont, Pennsylvania; Chester Moore Jr., “Monsterous Sounds: A Field Investigation of Texas Bigfoot Vocalizations,” The Anomalist, no. 10 (2002): 13–19.
--Among the other categories should be added the Lytle Creek Monster in the San Bernardino Hills, seen 1966, but with a more recent outbreak of "Monkey" sightings in the San Bernardino area in 2005-2010, often confused with rumors of escaped chimpanzees or such