Squatchin’ in Illinois
I receive many inquiries from people who would like to know the best squatchin’ areas in Illinois. To many out-of-staters Illinois is either urban Chicago or vast fields of corn and soybeans. What many don’t realize is what the “other Illinois” has to offer. Illinois is definitely a land of contrasts. Although Illinois is ranked # 38 among the states for amount of forests that does not mean those areas are lacking.
Illinois has 3.5 million acres of wooded lands including 78,000 miles of streams and rivers. In many ways Illinois is easier to squatch in than many of the larger states with their huge forests. In Illinois all one needs to do is head for one of the hundreds of recreational areas that are set aside by city, state or the federal government.
One greatly overlooked area for sasquatch activity are the forest preserves of Northeastern Illinois. Cook County and the surrounding counties have over 144,000 acres set aside for forest preserves. Included are an immense amount of bicycle and hiking trails.
Another great opportunity is rural cemeteries. Illinois have thousands of small cemeteries, many remotely located in woodsy areas.
The following links will take you to the major sites that describe recreational and camping opportunities in Illinois:
State of Illinois
Illinois Department of Natural Resources, 123 state protected areas: state parks, wildlife areas, recreation areas, nature reserves, and state forests.
Northeastern Illinois forest preserves.
Forest Preserves of Cook County, over 69,000 acres.
Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, over 23, 000 acreas.
Lake County Forest Preserves, 30,100 acres.
Forest Preserve District of Will County, 21,807 acres
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, several areas totaling over 54,000 acres in Illinois.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 10 national wildlife refuges in Illinois.
Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge
Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge
Cypress Creek National Wildlife Refuge
Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge
Illinois River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge
Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge
Middle Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge
Meredosia National Wildlife Refuge
Savanna District, Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge
Two Rivers National Wildlife Refuge
US National Forests
Shawnee National Forest, over 265,000 acres
Facebook – Odd Sound
I recorded this odd sound in Southern Illinois on the 29th of July 2014. The long term
continuous recorder was 15 feet up in a deer stand. The sound was recorded about
2 a.m. Immediately, after the sound the homeowners dogs started barking.
(click on photo to play audio clip)
Facebook – Like Comment Share August 27 at 9:04 am
Things that make you go “hmm”, pt.5
Last evening (August 24, 2014) my wife and I were watching TV. We have large windows facing west with a large screen TV on the wall in between the two windows. We have Venetian blinds on both windows, I keep mine closed at night so that ‘visitors’ outside can approach without the fear of being seen.
Around 10 p.m. I started hearing what sounded like small pebbles hitting the window. This went on for well over 5 minutes. I hit mute on the TV so my wife could hear better and the sound quit.
It is impossible to use my 3rd gen NV without being seen myself.
This morning on review of the sound recordings nothing unusual was heard.
Facebook – Like Comment Share August 25 at 7:22 am
Voice 36
At 3 a.m. my dog Belle started barking. I recorded this voice after one of her barks. It was coming from the ridge north of my house at a distance of about 80 yards. It was so soft and the katydids are so loud that unless you use headphones you will not be able to hear anything.
(click on photo to play audio clip)
Facebook – Like Comment Share August 6 at 4:00 pm
Things that make you go “hmm”, pt.4
The rabbit showed up again this morning, right outside my front door on the lawn. I had moved it earlier and put it under my burn pile and at the bottom of a cement block bunker. But obviously it had been removed. It was very decayed, not something my dog Belle would have been able to get to, even if she wanted.
Facebook – Like Comment Share August 5 at 10:06 am
Voice 37
First stop, evening 3rd August 2014. Chris Mason and myself stopped at a known sighting location. It was just getting dark. About 15 minutes later we heard this child-like sound coming from deep woods about 40 yards west of us. Getting a decent recording is difficult with the loud din of the katydids.
(click on photo to play audio clip)
Facebook – Like Comment Share August 4 at 4:34 pm
Things that make you go “hmm”, pt.3
Yesterday when my wife went to the back of the house to turn off the water she noticed this very unusual quartz geode. The quartz measured 4″ X 6″. She then glanced up and noticed a 3″ x 3″ hole punched out of our new siding. I showed the rock to my neighbor this morning, who is a rock hound. He was very interested and said that it was not normal to see quartzite in this area.
We are not sure exactly what time of night when this happened but our dog Belle did bark near our window three nights ago, just one bark, not like when she chases raccoons. Belle spends a lot of time laying and being a watch dog at the top of the stairs which is very close to this damage. So whether it was thrown at her, they don’t usually miss their target, or they hit exactly where they wanted, just to the left of our open bedroom window, and the point closest to where I was sleeping.
Barclay Library – Presentation
I am going to be a guest speaker at the Barclay Public Library in Warrensburg, Illinois, Saturday, July 26th, 2014. ( near Decatur, Illinois )
“Bigfoot In Illinois”
Saturday
July 26th, 2014
10:30 AM
Public Invited
Barclay Public Library
220 E Main St.
Warrensburg, IL 62573
(near Decatur)
Media Article – Tazewell, Illinois – # 5
Saturday, November 3, 1990
Cole Street Monster Story Keeps Being Told
By Jill Peterson and Paula Castros
Tazewell News
Something lives deep in the thick woods which Cole Street cuts through. Sure, there’s rabbits, deer, raccoons — but legend has it that something else is there, too.
Not many have actually seen it, but those who have say it’s big, hairy and has a foul odor. And it’s not something they want to see again.
Could the Cole Street Monster be lingering around the corner on Cole Hollow Road?
The Cole Street Monster.
The legend of the Cole Street Monster can be traced back many years, all the way to the late 1930s. Many people think the monster could somehow be associated with the old coal mines in the woods of Cole Street.
Cole Street was named for the numerous coal mines once operated in the area. Mining companies worked the area in the mid-30s, and most mines were abandoned by the end of that decade.
Then, rumors about the monster began to circulate.
The monster apparently kept to itself for the most part until the 1970s, when numerous sightings were reported.
Bill Beard, 38, of 1600 Bloomington Road, was born and raised in Cole Hollow, which is the section of Cole Street at the bottom of the hill. He recalled an incident when he was 16 which happened to his brother.
“My brother was in a car, and something big came out of a gully and then vanished,” Beard said. “It scared him pretty bad.”
He told of another time when a friend was walking through the woods, and saw something in a corn field. Although he didn’t know what he saw, Beard said the friend was shaken up.
“I think there’s something to it,” Beard said of the legend. “It was spotted at the bottom of the hill in Cole Hollow in 1978 or 1979 but people think it was a big trucker wearing a suit. But in the late 60s and early 70s I know it wasn’t a trucker.”
“There’s something around there in the woods,” said one long-time resident who didn’t want her name used.
She herself had an experience with the creature many years ago.
“My husband had a band at the time,” she recalled. “We came home at 4 a.m. from a club where he was playing one time, and when we pulled into the driveway I saw something drinking out of our pool in the back. It was not a bear and it was not a deer.”
The woman described what she saw as gorilla-like, standing about 7 feet tall, covered with brown hair and leaving a bad smell.
Based on friends’ descriptions, Beard also said the creature was tall and covered with hair, but he described the hair color as white.
The woman recalled another time when she was visiting a neighbor who had a vicious dog penned up outside. She said the dog barked often and was afraid of nothing. During the visit, the dog began to bark and then stopped. When the owner went to investigate, the dog was laying down and appeared to have been frightened by something.
One theory is that the monster resides in the abandoned coal mines along Cole Street.
“You always see black streaks heading down towards the woods when (the monster) appears,” she said.
“I don’t know what it is, but I believe there’s something down in the woods,” she continued. “I used to do a lot of mushrooming. One time I had been mushrooming and was sitting down in the woods, and all of a sudden I felt like something was watching me. That’s the last time I went mushrooming in those woods.”
Others have had “close encounters” with the monster while in their cars.
“In the summer of 86 a friend and I were driving up Cole Street in a little VW,” said Fran Roark of East Peoria. “The headlights went out and the car died. It wouldn’t start and although it was still in gear, the car rolled back down the hill and into the parking lot of the old brick yard.”
Roark said it was a dark night, no moonlight, drizzling, and about 11 p.m. The windows were down and the pair sat talking for awhile before trying to start the car again. The pair then noticed a foul odor engulfing the car. Roark said it smelled like a cat that had been run over three days ago.
They sat for another 15 minutes and then started hearing eerie noises coming from the woods behind the brick yard. She said the noises were a shrieking wail which became louder. Roark and her friend got out of the car and ran down the hill to a house where another friend lived.
Roark’s friend listened to what had happened and then related her experiences living near the area of the legendary Cole Street Monster. Roark said her friend had heard similar noises at night and had seen fires flame up near the woods when the sounds were being made. She also told Roark huge footprints had been found in the woods.
Roark’s uncle, an East Peoria native, told her about two of his classmates from high school who reportedly were driving up Cole Street hill and the same thing happened to them. They got out of the car, which had rolled into the brick yard, and hiked up the hill for help.
The one girl, who was mute and dumb, stopped dead in her tracks as she sighted the big hairy ape-man-like monster run across the road ahead of her. The same girl later claimed she had communicated with the monster through telepathy and the monster told her not to be afraid for he would not harm her.
Roark said one thing is for sure, there is something in the Cole Street woods, but what she just wasn’t sure.
The monster has been quiet during the last 10 years, with the last sighting occurring in 1978. But who knows when the Cole Street Monster will decide to start lurking in the woods again?