Is has been known for a long time that sasquatches are sighted around railroad lines. It has often been thought that they use the right-of-way as an easy access point when traveling from area to area, similar to clear cuts for power lines. There have also been sightings along abandoned rail-lines that have been converted to bicycle and hiking paths.

Last fall I was contacted by a researcher from Southern Illinois about the many sightings he had experienced. Mike related that most of his sightings were early spring just before the leaves were on the trees while he was out mushrooming. So we planned to meet up in the spring. On the 28th of March 2012 I met up with Mike at his home and headed for the woods. We stopped at one of the many railroad crossings because he had had several sightings along the tracks just south of the crossing. The latest being just four weeks ago.

We arrived around 09:30 and walked several hundred yards south along the tracks. Mike showed and explained to me the details of his sighting.

While there Mike was adamant that the sasquatch were hopping rides on the trains. I was somewhat taken aback by the idea. I had never read of a report or knew of anyone who actually had seen a sasquatch riding on a rail-car. The whole idea seemed a little bit unbelievable to me. I asked Mike why he believed that, had he witnessed that happening? He said no, but the way he had seen the sasquatch kind of standing around on this one section of track just gave him the idea, it was just “a theory he had.”

Yellow highlight showing the location of Jackson County, Illinois

As we were walking back to the car a northbound train started approaching.

One of my first loves (perhaps next to birds) has always been trains. And yes I am fortunately old enough to remember the last of the steam engines of the ’50’s. In fact the movie Heartbreak Pass was filmed in the small town in Idaho where I grew up. But I digress.

As the train was approaching I positioned myself so that I could get as close as possible but still be out of danger. I wanted to take in all the sounds and feel of this wonderful machine as it passed by. As it passed, Mike yelled for me to look north at each coupling area and he would look south so if anything or anyone was riding there we could see them from two different angles.

[The woods directly behind the railroad tracks where the train was passing.]

It was one of those trains carrying large cargo carriers, double-decker style. It was travelling at perhaps 30 mph. In between each car is a good size area. About half way through the train I saw a very large hair covered animal sitting down with its back towards the container. I only could see it for a couple of seconds and then it was gone.

I was in shock and awe. It was almost surreal. It did not look at all like Patty from the Patterson-Gimlin Film. This had five inch long dark brown hair covering it down to where I could see, it’s waist. I couldn’t make out any facial details and it was looking down and not directly towards me.

As I always audio record when I am in the woods I did record our conversation as the train passed and my reactions.

Click here to listen to this sound clip:  Railroading Sasquatch

I will be traveling back to the location this next week to take a few measurements and to film another passing train. Hopefully I can do a reenactment and at least give readers an idea of what the train looked like as it passed. I won’t hold my breath on catching on film any extra riders.

This sighting has left me with more questions than answers. In my mind sasquatch (or at least one) do ride on trains. Why? Is this just some daredevil stunt by a teenage sasquatch or is this a pattern of something much larger? Is this just a local 1/2 mile hitch or are they traveling greater distances? It does show one thing for sure. Their intelligence and abilities are far higher than many having been willing to admit.