I have a friend on Facebook by the username of  Rolo Tumasi. He prefers to use this username vs his real name for business reasons. I have spoken with him over the years about his encounters in Southern Illinois.  An avid hunter and outdoorsman he is very alert and has both excellent hearing and night vision. Although he has had previous encounters and several sightings the intensity of what he has been experiencing in his local hunting area has intensified over the past year.

I spent most of the day and night of the 19th and morning of the 20th of March 2012 at his research site in Southern Illinois. We arrived at his hunting camp at about 10:30 in the morning and spent the rest of the day hiking in the woods. We walked down a long ridge and left one of my long term audio recording systems and essentially wanted to make our presence known to the local residents.

Rolo Tumasi,  kneeling next to the 26 1/2 inch left footprint.

Photographs never do justice to what a foot print actually looks like unless the print was in mud. This print being in soil along the road was a lot better than if it had been in leaf litter but still left a lot to desire.

After dark we walked the mile down the road and through the woods to an overlook along the ridge. Our goal was entice the local sasquatch, if they were in the area this particular night, to make their presence known by hopefully vocalizing.

You can click on the following link to listen to Rolo’s narrative as to our experience that evening and the track find the following morning. The first 4 minutes are from the evening and then last 15 minutes are from the next morning.

Click here to listen to this sound clip:  Southern Illinois Giant

Basically we did a series of wood knocks, waited ten minutes and did some more wood knocks. We could hear not responses but while returning along the narrow ridge we got that uneasy feeling of being followed, heard movement besides us and Rolo saw eyeshine to our side as we were coming out of the woods.

Yellow highlight showing the location of Alexander County, Illinois

While walking down a gravel road half-way back to camp Rolo turned quickly around and saw a large upright figure dash across the road.

About 5 minutes later we heard a few unusual frog-like sounds off to our left side that I thought was a preliminary vocal from Southern Leopard Frog. We stopped and listened but the vocal stopped immediately. It was odd because although we had lots of Spring Peepers there were no other frogs in the area and where this particular vocal was on a very steep hillside. Not evidence of anything but certainly an odd sound that was out of place.

We spent the night in the campsite with nothing unusual happening and while leaving the next morning we stopped at the location where Rolo had seen the figure dashing across the road. Rolo found what appeared to be a 26 and 1/2 inch long left footprint pressed into soil along the approach to the road.  The size of the footprint was shocking and something I would not have accepted if I had not been present when the creature both ran across the road the previous evening and seen the print when it was found and measured.

 

The measurement of the total length of 26 1/2 inches.

Although in the photo it appears the tape measure is not laying properly we checked the print multiple times to make sure everything was accurate.

End of the tape showing the 26 1/2 length measurement.

End of the tape showing the 10 inch width of the ball of the foot measurement.

End of the tape showing the 7  inch width of the heel of the foot measurement.

So just how big was this ‘big boy”. I really don’t want to guess. But if 18 inch prints belong to a  7  or 8 foot tall sasquatch how tall would one with a foot measurement of
26 1/2 inches be?  Perhaps 11 or 12 foot tall? No one knows.

A final thank you to Rolo Tumasi and his wife for opening up their home to myself and showing me their special camping area.  And as to why the increase in activity? I think that is because Rolo has been spending 2 or 3 days a week hiking the woods and getting to know the wildlife and terrain. The sasquatch perhaps have come to realize that he means them no harm.