StanCourtney

By Eddie Middleton

Memphis UFO Examiner

My correspondent who lives very near Hartford, Illinois and who used to play around the old Hartford Castle grounds when he was a kid went down there yesterday and took a photograph of the blackberry thicket where the Bigfoot mentioned in the last article disappeared into. This will be posted in a few days along with a pair of red eyes glaring out from behind a growth of blackberries [not the real BF folks! Just some graphics enhancement].

The woman who works at the guard gate at the large warehouse across from the field where she spotted the Bigfoot about three weeks ago has updated me on other recent BF acitvity around the warehouse. She says that over the last month she and other co-workers have during the late night hours caught whiffs of an awful odor like that of rotted meat on three or four occasions. This extremely disgusting smell sometimes is wafted directly towards them from the field across the road from the guard gate. At other times it seems to be coming from some where on the property of the warehouse itself. This may be a deliberate attack by these creatures on the human olfactory sensibility. Anyone familiar with Bigfoot encounter stories knows that this creature has often given evidence of a strong resentment of what it perceives as an unwarranted encroachment of man into its territory.

Another example of this kind of Bigfoot protest of man’s presence is furnished by something else the lady security guard told me last week. She said she has been hearing loud, metallic clanking sounds at different times throughout the night coming from the field across from her guard gate. This is caused by someone banging on the large earth-moving machines and bulldoziers parked out in that area. Apparently these powerfully strong creatures are using logs or large tree limbs to batter the sides of these machines. This would be a way to register a loud complaint against these manmade monsters that are a clear threat to their harmonious habitat. This horrible racket might also be intended to firghten the humans off. One of the securtiy guards at the warehouse was scared off. The next morning after the night before when one of these Bigfoots had stood confrontationally facing him on the other side of the road from the guard-gate and scolded him with a series of nerve rending howls, he quit his job. As the news announcer on “Saturday Night Live” used to say, “I’m out of here”!

By Eddie Middleton

Memphis UFO Examiner

Update on little-known Illinois Bigfoot hotspot

Big Foot activity in the environs of the old castle grounds outside of Hartford, Illinois has not abated since my first report on some astounding sightings occurring in this area back in late June and early July of this year [see previous article].  My key correspondent is the lady who works guard duty at the gate of a large warehouse right across the road from the area adjacent to the old castle grounds.

For a long time now she has been hearing throughout the wee hours of the night all kinds of Bigfoot related sounds and getting strong whiffs of the famous foul odor often associated with him, but now she herself has just recently had her own first ocular encounter with one of these creatures. And this happened in broad daylight. This lady works day and night shifts, and her sighting occurred at approximately 10:30 am about three weeks ago during her morning shift.

She was standing outside of her guard gate and happened to look across the road at the long field that extends to a wooded area that’s about a couple of hundred yards southeast of the old Hartford Castle. About a hundred yards straight ahead she saw a humanoid-looking creature at the very edge of the woods standing on his or her two legs directly confronting her gaze. This “Bigfoot” was covered in gray/black hair but was mostly gray in appearance. The witness estimated he was about five and a half feet tall. A short Bigfoot! This is practically an oxymoron. But she could have been wrong about this because at that distance, it would have been hard to estimate the height of someone standing. And conceivably this could have been a young Bigfoot. Apparently a whole family of them lives in this area. He was not moving, just standing very still and staring back at her. Then after about a minute or two, he suddenly turned and went back into the woods.

The exact location where he re-entered the woods just happens to harbor possibly the largest, lushest, motherload of blackberries in the world! My correspondent who had discovered huge footprints around the mote area of the old castle [see previous article] has seen this blackberry paradise with his own eyes and assures me it contains such an astonishing abundance of this sweet/tart fruit that it is no exaggeration to estimate that it exceeds the million mark in numbers.

And it is a well-known fact that BF’s are great lovers of fruits and berries. There have been numerous sightings of these big hairy fellows shaking apples out of trees and raiding people’s private gardens and orchards for other fruits and vegetables. Being at the very spot he was sighted, and in the middle of the summer growing season, one has only to put two and two together here to come up with the very plausible deduction that the creature our witness saw that day was out on a picking expedition into what must be a sacred precinct for them.

All the more reason these Bigfoots would be jealous to protect this habitat of their’s. Some strong indications of their dislike of man’s presence in this area will be pointed out in my next update tomorrow on the encounters with these beings, both direct and indirect, that continue to this day in the area of the Old Harford Castle.

Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Mountain Lion Thought To Have Attacked Teenage Deer Hunter

Springfield Journal Register

BAYLIS — A 14-year-old deer hunter said he was attacked by a mountain lion Sunday evening, just a minute’s walk from his family’s Pike County home.

His father, a Baptist minister, said his son was fortunate.

“If God had not protected that boy, it would have been over,” said Gary Dice, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Pittsfield.

The young hunter, Jeremiah Dice, managed to fend off the attack with a knife and then ran home.

Jeremiah was taken to the emergency room out of fear of rabies, according to his mother, Pam Dice. He had no puncture wounds and was treated for scratches on his face and released.

Jeremiah described the mountain lion to a “t,” Gary Dice said.

The family was waiting Monday afternoon for representatives from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to arrive and examine Jeremiah’s clothing and knife.

“DNR is concerned I can’t prove it,” Gary said. “I trust my son, and I want the truth.

“Regardless of what it was, it is still out there, and it attacked a human being.”

‘It’s big … I’m scared’

The attack occurred near Baylis, northwest of Pittsfield. There are only three confirmed reports of mountain lions in Illinois since they were eliminated from the state in the late 1800s. Missouri, however, has confirmed the big cats 26 times since 1994.

Gary Dice said his son was hunting in his stand when the boy heard a flock of turkeys take flight nearby.

“Then the deer started snorting,” Gary Dice said.

Jeremiah saw a large animal standing near a flag placed 20 yards from the deer stand to help hunters distance. Jeremiah then radioed his mother to alert her to what was going on.

The big cat walked out in the open, not far from a flag placed 30 yards out.

After hearing it leave the area, the boy radioed to tell her he was coming home.

“He said, ‘Mom, there’s a big cat back here,’” Gary said, relating Jeremiah’s words. “He said, ‘It’s big… he ran away, so I’m going to get down and go to the house. … I’m scared.’

“He took three steps, and it was on his back,” Gary said.

Jeremiah elbowed the animal in the ribs, throwing the animal off of him.

“He got to his knees, and there it was face to face with him,” Gary said. “He told me, ‘It just got real still, and I didn’t know what to do.’”

Jeremiah reported the animal’s breath smelled like “dead rabbits.”

“His fangs were out, and he looked eyeball to eyeball to me and lunged,” Gary said, retelling his son’s story.

The attack shredded the bill of Jeremiah’s cap and pushed it down over his face — providing some protection. His heavy camouflage coat was shredded down to the boy’s belt.

Verification sought

Jeremiah is already an experienced hunter at age 14.

“I’ve taught him to hunt since he was old enough to sit still,” Gary said. “He is about six feet tall and over 200 pounds. He is not just a kid.”

Jeremiah told his parents he starting swinging his hunting knife in an attempt to get the animal to leave. He cut it, but not deeply, and the animal knocked him backwards again. Jeremiah hit it in the ribs again and let go of his knife.

The big cat rolled off Jeremiah and ran off into the woods.

Gary Dice said his son started to run — backwards at first, to be sure the animal would not follow.

He grabbed his knife and ran for the house, “the fastest he had run in his life.”

When the elder Dice first heard the report of a mountain lion, he was a few minutes from home and skeptical.

“But then I saw him and the look on his face of terror and fear,” he said.

Gary Dice said Jeremiah’s description of the big cat was that it was as large as a Great Dane, with a long tail that curled.

Depending upon the sex, mountain lions range on average from 75 pounds for a female to 160 pounds for a male.

Gary Dice found the shredded cap, but never did find Jeremiah’s bow.

As for Jeremiah: “He’s fine,” his father said. “But he hasn’t slept since.”

Chris Young can be reached at 788-1528.

Identification

According to the website Living with Wildlife in Illinois, domestic dogs and bobcats are most likely to be misidentified as a mountain lion in Illinois.

Bobcats weigh 10-40 pounds, while mountain lions weigh 75-240 pounds. Both are secretive and elusive.

Most sightings are fleeting.

Mountain lions once were found throughout the United States, according to The Cougar Network.

Conversion of prairies to agriculture, logging of forests, elimination of prey species like white-tailed deer and predator-reduction programs led to their extirpation from Illinois by the 1870s.

Mountain lions

*”Mountain lion,” “cougar,” “puma,” “catamount” and “panther” all are names for the same animal: Puma concolor.

*There have only been three confirmed sightings of mountain lions in Illinois since the late 1800s.

*Missouri has had 26 confirmed reports since 1994.

Friday, July 31, 1998

St.Louis Post-Dispatch

Kevin McDermott

On the Iron Horse Triathlon Web page the conversation lately has been more medical
than athletic. “Thought it was a sinus problem and ended up on my back for six days
with massive frontal headaches, chills . . . 103-degree fever,” reads one athlete’s
message on the Springfield-based Internet site. Another: “Six days without food has
left me extremely weak. . . . My liver enzymes are still off the charts.” And
another: “Severe backache, high fever, nausea, extreme fatigue, etc. I tried to
treat the fever for three days while laying in bed the whole time. . . . This has
been an alarming last two weeks.”

Health officials say those victims and scores of others are part of what might be the biggest outbreak recorded in the United States of leptospirosis, or “swamp fever.”

The infection apparently began in Lake Springfield and has hit victims from all over the country who swam there June 21 as part of the Iron Horse Triathlon. No one has died, but 84 people in Illinois have reported symptoms, with at least three more in St. Louis County.

Officials know the waterborne _Leptospira_ bacterium originates in the urine of animals, and that it can infect humans by seeping through the membranes of the mouth and eyes. But how it got into Lake Springfield in high enough concentrations to cause an outbreak is a mystery. “It’s the largest point-source of leptospirosis that we’ve ever seen,” said epidemiologist David Ashford of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, which is coordinating the effort to track everyone who might have been infected.

Ashford said that each year about 80 to 150 cases of leptospirosis are reported nationwide, usually from many limited, unrelated infections caused by small ponds or swimming pools. (The infection cannot be spread by humans.)

It’s still unknown how many might have been infected in Lake Springfield – “That number is changing every hour,” Ashford said – but officials have found symptoms in about 12 percent of the people who were exposed to Lake Springfield last month. There were more than 850 registered participants from 42 states in the triathlon, including 72 from Missouri, 19 of those from St. Louis. That means more than 100 participants might be infected, based on the CDC averages. [Note: 87 have reported symptoms which would be within the standard error. MHJ] And that doesn’t include people who swam in the lake but weren’t affiliated with the event.

Lake Springfield remains under an advisory to residents to refrain from swimming, and most of the beaches are closed. One test by the CDC has indicated some presence of Leptospira bacteria in the lake, but it’s still unclear whether the concentration is higher than normal. Among the mysteries facing investigators is how an infection usually associated with small, stagnant bodies of water could occur in an open, free-flowing lake. They’re also wondering why a recreational lake that has been heavily used for years with no reported health problems suddenly would spawn such a widespread infection. State health officials have been testing the tributaries that feed the lake but have been hampered by dry weather. A moderate rain early Thursday might have helped the investigation, said Clint Mudgett, environmental health chief for the Illinois Department of Public Health, because it allowed scientists to finally gather watershed runoff samples in conditions similar to those on the morning of the race.

One focus of the investigation is to try to link the infection to a specific kind of animal urine – a daunting challenge, because the bacteria can be transmitted by both wild and domestic animals, and the lake is surrounded by wildlife and farmland.

“There’s no shortage of theories,” said Mudgett. His own theory – centered on a large dose of unlucky coincidences – goes like this: “This year, the wild animal population around the lake is reported to be heavier than it’s ever been. Then you have (almost) 900 swimmers in exactly the same part of the lake at the same time. There was a very heavy rain that morning (possibly washing unusually high levels of animal waste into the lake all at once). You might have just had all these factors coming together.”

The triathlon organizer said Thursday there is a new element to the case: a civil suit by one of the leptospirosis victims, naming the event “and others” as defendants. “I was served (with notice of a suit) yesterday,” said Paul McDevitt, who is in his first year as director of the 13-year-old annual triathlon, in which amateur athletes bicycle, run and swim.

“At the very first sign (of an outbreak) we moved quickly” to work with health officials, McDevitt said, but added: “The whole tenor of the thing has changed (with the lawsuit). I have to be careful what I say from here on out.” McDevitt said he couldn’t provide more details about the suit. An employee of the Cook County Circuit Clerk’s office couldn’t confirm that it had been filed.

The CDC also is investigating whether a lake used for a Wisconsin triathlon July 5 might have been another source of infection. Many of the Springfield triathlon participants who have reported symptoms swam in both lakes. But officials haven’t confirmed that any leptospirosis cases originated in Wisconsin.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Bear Out There?  Hikers say Creature Spotted Near Kaolin

Anna Gazette-Democrat

A midday hike on Tuesday led two Union County residents to a surprising and totally unexpected discovery.

Cole Kilman and Carla Chackleford, both of Anna were hiking near the Kaolin Pit when they met up with an animal not normally associated with Union County.

“There was no doubt. It was a bear,” Kilman said during a telaphone Tuesday afternoon.

Kaolin Pit is located in a very isolated area west of Cobden. The area is popular among those who like to hike.

The two hikers were looking for an old cemetery. they had been hiking for about 45 minutes.

“I smelled something.” Kilman recalled. Initially, he thought what he smelled might have been a skunk.

Then, he saw something ahead. “I wasn’t exactly sure what it was,” Kilman said. Initially, he said, “I didn’t know it was a bear.”

“I thought it was a dog at first, Kilman said. As they got within about 30 to 40 feet of the animal, Kilman said it became clear what they were seeing: “It was a black bear.”

“It  got close enough for me to know it was a bear,” Kilman said.

“We took off running,” Kilman said. At one point, Kilmas said he hollered and clapped his hands in an attempt to scare off the animal.

The bear was about 3 1/2 to 4 feet tall, Kilman siad.

Kilman said he contacted the U.S. Forest Service’s Mississippi bluffs District Ranger Station in Jonesboro to share his story.

Representatives from the U.S.Forest Service and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources have been contacted about the sighting.

Friday, September 5, 2008

 Southern Illinois Bear

Southern Illinois Outdoors

Rasputin

 An Article in the Gazette Democrat (Union County Illinois) indicated that two hikers spotted a black bear in union county. They were apparently hiking in the Kaolin Pits area looking for an old cemetery. They indicated they smelled something musky and initially thought it was a skunk and continued on . When they saw the animal they mistook it for a dog initially. They walked to within 30 feet of the animal before they realized what it was.

With all of the sightings in South East Missouri I knew it would just be a matter of time before they found their way across the river. just didn’t think it would be this soon.

ckilman5

That was me and my cousin that seen the bear.When your fourty years old and youve never seen a bear out side of the zoo its hard four your brain to believe what your eyes are telling it its seeing. I really thought it was a dog but why is it so tall, I told myself.

We were hiking looking for the old cemetary at kaolin pits, thats in between Anna and Cobden on Kaolin rd.. We found the cemetary about a half mile up the trail.The trail goes up the old Iron Mountain Ridge, after checking out old headstones we continued on for about another half mile. We smelled a strong odor before we seen it, I thought it was a skunk my cousin said no I dont think so. When we seen it up ahead in the trail we wernt sure what it was at first. I put my arm out to stop my cousin from walking any farther and we kept trying to figure out what it was. It was standing so still, my cousin said is that a cut off tree that someone did a cool bear carving on and started to walk towards it and i stopped her and said no something aint right.. I said no I think its a big dog, but it still didnt make sense to me, it was so still. at that time all we could make out was the black image with two small ears. I looked down to find a big ass stick and here it come . It charged us, my cousin took off running saying run its a bear, I started hollering as loud as I could and clapping my hands together which is pretty loud early in the morning in the woods. When my cousin seen I wasnt running she stopped and slowly walked towards me. It got pretty (I’m an idiot for swearing)(I’m an idiot for swearing)(I’m an idiot for swearing)(I’m an idiot for swearing) close to us about 15 feet before it stopped and ran back to where it was originally turned sideways in the trail looked at us and took off into the woods. My cousin was still hollering at me to run. We were so scared that as we were running we made a video on our phone saying what happened, for our family just in case.we knew that bears can track you. We ran all the way to the car and didnt feel safe till we shut the doors.

We wanted to warn people for there safety, Kaolin pits is a popular fishing,swimming and hiking area in southern Illinois. I called the local newspaper and forest ranger to post a sign at Kaolin Pits “BEAR IN AREA” but everyone I talked to seemed to be in disbelief. Nothing was posted, an article was posted in the local paper that we were thankful for.

Wednesday, Feb 04, 2009

Neponset Bear Captured; May Be First Ever Caught In Illinois

Star Courier

Neponset — The seven-month saga of Bureau County’s black bear came to an end, Tuesday, when authorities tranquilized the animal after it was found sleeping in a drainage ditch east of Neponset.

The sleeping bear was spotted about three weeks ago by Lee Bennett who was riding a four-wheeler on a farm owned by his brother, Robert, east of Neponset, where it had been spotted in late December. The Bennett’s notified authorities who went to work figuring out how best to handle the bruin.

According to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, a wildlife expert from the Quad Cities was called in Tuesday to tranquilize the male bear which was estimated to weigh approximately 200 pounds.

The animal was reportedly in a state of semi hibernation, according to an IDNR statement released Wednesday, which explains why it hadn’t moved from wher Bennett spotted it three weeks ago.

Photo Courtesy Of Cheryl Balensiefen.  Cheryl Balensiefen photographed this black bear southwest of Buda in Bureau County. The bear has been spotted numerous times since it was first sighted last June near Neponset.

The bear was transported to a USDA-licensed wildlife rehabilitation center in southern Illinois that is permitted to possess bears. The origin of the bear is unknown, but it is suspected to have been in human care prior to its release or escape.

The bear was first sighted during the last week in June three times in the Sheffield area. Then, in early September, Ron Miller, of Neponset, spotted the bear along Kentville Road. At the time, it was apparently using standing corn as cover.

Durng a mild spell in late December, cousins Tim and Matt Bennett captured some of the first pictures of the elusive animal as it roamed through a field on the Robert Bennett farm east of Neponset. By that time, several people in the Sheffield, Neponset and Buda reported seeing the bear and indicated that it may have an injured paw.

The Bureau County Sheriff’s Office took an active interest in finding the bear, for the protection of the public, and the bear, itself, and asked anyone seeing the animal to avoid contact and call them so it could be safely removed from the area.

Once they knew where the bear was hibernating, IDNR Conservation Police consulted with federal, state and county wildlife and law enforcement agencies to formulate a plan of response to the bear’s presence. After reviewing several options, officials decided it was best to take the bear alive and place it in an approved facility. Upon arrival at the southern Illinois wildlife center, the bear was reported to be in good health and will receive proper food, shelter and veterainarian care. An investigation is underway to determine the bear’s origin.

Conservationists believe this to be the first documented sighting of a black bear in Illinois in more than 40 years and may be the first documented capture of a black bear in state history.

Monday May 17, 2010

Bears in Illinois? Sighting Means It’s Possible

Springfield – State Journal-Register

Tiskilwa — Officially, there are no Bears loose in Illinois aside from the ones who wear helmets and shoulder pads eight Sundays a year at Soldier Field.

Unofficially, Bureau County Deputy Sheriff Sherry Barto believes she saw two of the wild, fur-covered variety Saturday morning in a field near Tiskilwa, about 50 miles north of Peoria.

People who live in the area reported seeing a mother and cub, and Barto, sure enough, saw what looked like a pair of bears about 10:30 a.m.

The animals were moving into some heavy brush, and she didn’t have a chance to get a photo, she said.

Illinois Conservation Police Sgt. Robert Frazier has heard all kinds of reports about sightings in areas where wild animals shouldn’t be.

“People see mountain lions. They see bears,” Frazier told the (Peoria) Journal Star. “And I’ve always halfway dismissed them. But then we find a mountain lion in Chicago. We find a bear in Bureau County. You can’t dismiss them.”

The mountain lion he referred to was found in Chicago in 2008, and the bear was found last year. It was hibernating in a drainage ditch near Neponset, less than 20 miles from Tiskilwa.

Frazier helped catch that bear, which was sent on to a zoo in Coal Valley in western Illinois.

A mother bear, he warned, could be aggressive.

“I would think her nurturing instinct would be to protect her cub,” Frazier said. “I wouldn’t be traipsing around in the woods looking for it.”

And he wonders, given the proximity to last year’s bear find, whether that bear and these two — if the animals spotted Saturday really were bears — were kept by someone on their property.

“People sometimes take wild animals from the wild,” Frazier said. “They think they’re cute, and then the darn thing gets bigger, does damage to the home, gets out, and it’s not such a good idea.”

Wednesday, Dec 31, 2008

Black Bear Resurfaces Again East Of Neponset

Star Courier

Neponset, Ill. –

Bureau County’s elusive black bear has surfaced once again, and this time someone got pictures.

Sightings of a black bear were first reported in June near Sheffield. Then, on Sept. 5, Ron Miller of rural Neponset saw the bear along Kentville Road.

Last Saturday, as snow cover rapidly melted from rising temperatures and rain fell in the area, the bear was spotted about two miles east of Neponset on the Robert Bennett farm by his brother Lee Bennett, who was taking a ride on his four-wheeler in a field near the house.

After spotting the bear, which had gone to cover in underbrush, Bennett’s nephew Tim Bennett of Kewanee arrived and began to “shadow” the large animal after it became wary of the human presence and left the ravine. Tim, accompanied by his cousin Matt Bennett, shot photos of the animal as it lumbered across a field and across a creek that was swollen from the heavy rain and melting snow.

The black bear which has been reported in the Sheffield and Neponset area was captured on film last Saturday in the photos above, one of several taken by Tim Bennett as he and his cousin, Matt, followed the bear as if traveled across his father Bob Bennett’s farm east of  Neponset.

“We got within 20 yards of the bear,” Tim said. Then it lumbered to an adjacent field.

The sighting on the Bennett farm was about three miles from where it was spotted in September by Miller. In June, the bear was seen in the Mautino State Fish & Wildlife Area, south of Sheffield, on the west edge of Sheffield near the railroad tacks, and near a landscape waste dumpsite on the west side of Sheffield.

Bennett said he has heard of several other sightings in the area including one recently by a trucker near the Macon Township maintenance shed on Route 40 south of Buda.

In September the Bureau County Sheriff’s Office said it would like any sightings of the black bear to be reported. Ultimately, authorities would like to tranquilize the bear and relocate it to a more suitable habitat.