By TCC Team Member Dorraine Fisher Professional Writer, a nature and wildlife enthusiast who has written for many magazines.
Bigfoot Sighting In Illinois?
Assessing The Possibilities In My Neck Of The Woods
By TCC Team Member Dorraine Fisher
My home state of Illinois isn’t the most well-known state for its bigfoot sightings, but sightings do take place here. And in areas where there is virtually no wilderness. And this has led me and researchers in this state to believe they don’t really need wilderness to thrive. And there were “wild man” reports in my area down through history. But the cast of Finding Bigfoot left Illinois very unsure of its existence here.
But in central Illinois where I live, the terrain is mostly flat or with rolling hills. There are many pockets of forest that dot the landscape. Some connect to each other and could create a hidden route for a large creature. And where they don’t connect, part of the year they’re covered in rows of corn. This could create numerous hidden routes with good cover when the corn is tall, which is most of the summer. Many areas are teeming with deer that also use the corn rows as cover to trek across areas where they might normally be seen. It’s great terrain for a large animal to hide.
I don’t believe this is a hotbed habitat for Bigfoot, but I think they are here. And I think we don’t give them enough credit for being able to survive and adapt to many different types of habitat, and perhaps exist closer to humans than we might think.
Case in point: An unidentified witness recently reported an interesting sighting in Schuyler County, near Rushville (where I was born) in west-central Illinois that took place in 2000. The witness claimed to have seen the creature in the headlights as he/she was driving north on Route 67, just a little past Rushville. The witness allegedly saw a 7-foot, dark, muscular figure on two legs bend over and pick up something close to the road and was cradling it like a human would a baby. The creature then quickly ran for the woods with the bundle in its arms.
This is an area I’m very familiar with. The area described by the witness is situated somewhat in between two of my family’s farms. It’s not wilderness, but it’s VERY rural. I’ve hiked some of the area’s woods and I haven’t seen Bigfoot. But I have had what I would call “experiences” out there that would lead me to believe there’s something to the reports. Large snapping trees, the feeling of being watched, sounds of large footsteps, etc. And knowing the denseness of the woods as I do, and the deer population, I believe firmly that Bigfoots could survive there very well.
Who’s to say we don’t have a different strain of the creature here? Maybe a strain that’s better adapted to living closer to humans? Reports suggest they exist in any areas in the world that provide cover. And there’s plenty of that in my area. It’s just situated differently and offers a different kind of challenge for hiding. But a smart creature could do it, I believe.
And I also think the cast of Finding Bigfoot needs to change the way they think about Bigfoot in non-wilderness areas, and give Illinois a closer look. *******DF
[If you want to know more about Bigfoot in Illinois, no one knows more than researcher Stan Courtney. You can find his blog here: http://www.stancourtney.com/wordpress/ ]
[source: BFRO]
[source: BFRO]
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