I have written before about “Cry Baby” sounds that have been reported near bridges and woods. Please see Cry Baby Bridge. Recently friends of mine from Spirit Bluffs Paranormal tent camped in Siloam Springs State Park, located east of Quincy, Illinois. The following is their report and sound clips from their recordings.
We are a team of paranormal researchers called Spirit Bluffs Paranormal. Sasquatch hunting is not our forte but after hosting Stan Courtney to speak at one of our local presentations, we decided to check out a state park in our county that has had one reported Bigfoot sighting back in 1972. We had planned on camping out at Siloam Springs State Park, located in Clayton Illinois on September 22nd to invite others who are interested in the paranormal to come sit by our campfire and share their stories. Unfortunately, the cold snap that came through must have discouraged folks from coming out so, it was just our team who camped out that night. We set up our tents in the Group Tent site which is just to the right of the road that leads up to Hickory Hills Campground, an unused campground that the park has closed for the last two years due to a decline in campers ( and we suspect a decline in funding from the state too). This gave us the opportunity to be able to hike the closed campground during the day and then go back later that night to see if we could do any recording of owls and if remotely possible, possible Sasquatch noises. We honestly didn’t believe we would pick up anything but it was worth a try.
We went to bed early so we could set an alarm to wake up around 1 am to hike up Hickory Hill Campground. However, the alarm didn’t go off until 2am so we got up an hour later than we had hoped. We had to stoke the fires to warm us up since by now the temps had dropped to the mid thirties. It was way too cold for so early in the season but it’s the midwest and you just never know. Once we got the fires going good we checked our equipment that we were taking, just hand held digital recorders with an external mic, a Sony nightshot camcorder, a ultra violet video camera, two logs and two rocks for wood knocking and rock clacking. We set out from our camp at 2:25am, September 23rd and walked up into Hickory Hill Campground. As clear as the night was, it was so dark in this campground that we could not see 5 feet infront of us. Four of us, 2 males, 2 females, walked for about a 1/4 of mile into the campground. We could hear the coyotes and dogs quite a distance away. You could also hear the deer walking through the woods but we could not see anything. We decided to head back down the road to an area that had picnic tables to sit on and try the wood knocking and rock clacking. We were back to the picnic tables by 2:50am. This area is on the edge of a heavily wooded area with a lake down below but we didn’t realize the lake was so close until the next day.  We took pictures, ran video and tried our hand at the knocking and clacking. At about 3:15 am after we did a series of these sounds we began to hear a child crying.  You could tell this was not a baby crying but a child a little bit older. Our initial thought was that a child was wondering the woods somewhere and got lost. The child’s crying went on for about 3 mins, then stopped. After it stopped we noticed a light moving through the wooded area infront of us. We watched it for a while and then it too disappeared. This experience was really strange and as you can tell in this clip, it’s the last thing we expected to hear at 3:15 in the morning. One of our members did note during the time that we were sitting there that the pitch of the woods had changed and indeed you didn’t hear any of the other animals making any noise, it was perfectly quiet until the child crying started. Back at camp we reviewed the audio of the crying and when we played this the coyotes would start to howl even though they were far away. We can’t explain the experience of the night at all. We did go back to the area the next day and found that the lake is right at the bottom of the wooded area. There is also, a small dammed up area there. There is another campground in the park and it is approximately a 1/4 of a mile away.  We are not sure if we would have been able to hear a child cry from there or not. It has however, peaked our interest in this field.  Our recording is not of the highest quality but you can make out the child crying. We hope to go back out sometime next Spring.
Click here to listen to the complete sound clip: Â Full Clip Cry Baby
Map showing the location of Siloam Springs State Park.
I wish it was a bigfoot but I think it’s a young child. In the quiet of the night and with another campground only a 1/4 mile away a child’s cry could easily be heard. The light was probably the kids parent going to check on the crying child.
I recently went camping with my 4 year old son and he woke around 3am crying also. I’m sure he was heard by everyone in the surrounding area! : ).
I do believe bigfoots mimic sound but not in this case.
The only way to prove what animal is making a vocalization is with a public video. At this time there are not publicly available videos showing a bigfoot vocalizing.
This could be the a fawn crying. Alternatively, you could ask the ranger(s) in charge at the time whether there were other campers in the park, and whether they had small children. It does sound like a very small child. But it also sounds a lot like a fawn. I don’t think it’s an owl, bobcat, or any other feline.
MNW
I was not at the location that night. This past summer campers had commented on unusual sounds including howls.
Cougar
To me it sounds like a toddler crying, not throwing a tantrum but just crying.
Really, really creepy nonetheless. Is there any way possible that there was another family camping or anything? If there is a lot Bigfoot sightings there than maybe it was a young Bigfoot imitating. I mean they are like us so would it mean that their kids would cry like ours?
Of course if it were a mimic there is no way to determine the size of the animal, and whether it was adult or juvenile.
baby beavers sound like infants,
Hi Stan.
Sorry I missed your trip this year to Colorado. Hope you are well. I was just reading your story and listening to your “baby crying” recording and wanted to tell you I heard something very similar this summer at the location where I first met you here in Colorado. I told Dennis about it right after I got home. The only difference was that it was crying and walking towards our tent where something was drumming fingers on my atv trailer 4ft away. It cried 4 times and each time it got closer until it was near my truck (about 20ft away) and whatever was at the trailer walked over to it and we could here the footsteps in the gravel. The only difference was how close it was to us and it sounded like a cross between a baby and a cat crying, not a full blown cry, but like a lonely baby walking towards momma. Just thought you would find it interesting. I would call you but I lost your number. Great recording!
Great to hear from you again. Thanks for the update. I have heard the "cry baby" sound in the daytime not too far from my home but never fortunate to record one. I was not with the campers so can't add too much other than it certainly opens up discussion. And hopefully others will record as well.
The baby’s cry and the light in the woods 1/4 mile away would be explained by humans at the other campground.
I really have enjoyed everyone's comments, as we posted, we didn't have the best equipment that night and we were not prepared to capture this sound. Having hosted Stan at one of our presentations I was aware of the "cry baby" sounds that have been recorded. It is now 11 months later and we have gone back twice this summer to check out this area. On a closer look the other campground is 1/2 mile away not 1/4 mile as we thought. The light we saw would not have been from the other campground but definitely from the lake area or below us in the wooded area. They do not allow boats on the lake after dark but we can't rule that out. I think what is so important in what happened is that it was 33 degrees out that night and it was after 3:00am. We plan to take a pictorial survey of the area within the week to get a better idea of how the area lays out. The Google map does an excellent job but when you are inside the twist and turns of the campground it is hard to distinguish how close the main roads are to the area. Thank you everyone for your comments.