Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Researchers look for Bigfoot; zoologist skeptical

By Sharon K. Wolfe

Bloomington Pantagraph

FUNKS GROVE – Researchers have been looking for Bigfoot in Funks Grove, but a local zoologist interested in the elusive creature’s lore said he would be very surprised if one is found there.

A report last fall by people who said they saw a large hairy upright creature in a ditch in rural Shirley attracted a team of researchers from Searching for Bigfoot Inc. of Menlo Park, Calif.

Angelo Capparella, a professor at Illinois State University, said he also heard the report and talked to the people at the time.

He said that if there is a Bigfoot – a big if in his book – Central Illinois is not the place to find one. Even though Funks Grove is a wooded area, there just isn’t much habitat locally to support or conceal a large primate, Capparella said.

“Illinois ranks 49th out of 50 in the amount of natural vegetation left,” he said. Only Iowa has less.

“As a zoologist, it’s hard to give a lot of credence,” he said.

The Pacific Northwest, the traditional center for Bigfoot sightings, has a lot of remote, rugged areas, he said.

“I’m a zoologist who’s taken a curiosity in the Pacific Northwest,” he said.

The research group from northern California has been stopping at various locations in the United States to track reports of the creature also known as sasquatch.

Team leader Tom Biscardi told a local television station he has been searching for three decades, and he estimates there are more than 3,500 Bigfoot-like animals in the United States.

Biscardi’s team has focused on Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, California, Oregon, Montana and Washington, said the group’s Web site.

The professor said he talked to the people from Bloomington who claimed they saw Bigfoot last fall. The creature allegedly scratched their car.

Capparella told them to try to record noises, get hair samples and look for footprints. He said he could make nothing out of the pictures they took.

“They gave me a call,” Capparella said. “They seemed sincere about seeing something.”

He has not heard from them since last fall. “They apparently contacted Tom Biscardi,” he said.

They told Capparella they also heard strange noises and they were able to get the creature to interact with them in some way. Capparella noted Bigfoot is supposed to be very shy so this behavior would be highly unusual.

Reporter M.K. Guetersloh contributed to this story.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Eyewitness believes he saw hairy Bigfoot-like creature

By Greg Cima

Bloomington Pantagraph

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Bigfoot encounter in central Illinois?

Bloomington man says huge creature hit his car.

By ANDREA FRAMPTON
Peoria Star Journal

FUNKS GROVE – He has such names as Bigfoot, Yeti and Sasquatch, and he may be lurking around central Illinois, according to Tom Biscardi.

Biscardi, a California resident, believes Bigfoot is more than a legend and has been hunting the creature since 1973. The founder of Searching for Bigfoot Inc. is convinced a rural area near Funks Grove can support two of the creatures he says would weigh around 350 pounds each. After visiting the area this week, he said there are enough small rodents, grubs and vegetation for the hairy pair to munch.

“Nobody in the field is doing this like us. They’re not in the firing trenches, not braving the temperatures, there’s plenty of places that those creatures can be concealed,” Biscardi said. “There may be a little hub there. Don’t be too surprised to see a bear in the springtime. I have a feeling.”

Biscardi and a four-man team of animal trappers traveled to Funks Grove early this week armed with infrared cameras, thermal imagers, motion cameras and tranquilizer guns.

The Bigfoot search team was drawn to the area this week by a phone call last summer from Bloomington resident Chris Vielhak. Vielhak said he saw a large black creature he thought at first was a bear run behind his 1990 Mustang as he drove slowly down State Route 66. After he felt a slap to the side of his car, Vielhak said he was startled and sped away to discover five large claw marks on the trunk. Vielhak called Biscardi after doing some research on the Internet.

“It kept bugging me and fascinated me about what hit my car, and it ticked me off because paint jobs cost money,” said Vielhak, 31. “Many people may not believe me, that’s up to them. I walked with Tom and took him to where I saw it.”

Bob Schmalzbach, secretary for Searching for Bigfoot Inc., said the marks are not distinct enough to indicate the kind of creature that may have made them. Vielhak said he has no plans for wildlife experts to inspect the marks.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources spokesman Chris McCloud said there has never been a public demand to check possible sightings of a Bigfoot.

The IDNR deals with animals native to Illinois, and Bigfoot is not one of them, he said.

Andrea Frampton can be reached at (309) 686-3041 or state@pjstar.com

Media Article – Madison County, Illinois – # 6

Sunday, August 09, 1970

‘Monster’ Sighted Near Kickapoo

Champaign-Urbana – News Gazette

Possibly Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster has wings . . . or there are a few “strange types” left over from the recent Kickapoo Creek Rock Festival….

One way or the other, there are people who claim “monster sightings: in the Heyworth-Farmer City area.

Most generally, the reported monster has kept to the Kickapoo Creek area ambling in and around the river and near by timber area. It is as big as a cow, some say . . . Its eyes are red and it snorts, others claim.

The eating habits of the unchained creature are a bit strange as one individual, who after sighting the creature, followed it and found a string of opened clams, but half eaten minnows.

Three Rantoul youths recently decided on a fishing trip very early in the morning. As they were trekking down toward the river in the marshy, foggy, bottom land, they saw in their car’s headlight, it.

At the time, the trio, non of whom were aware of previous creature sightings, tried to discover what it was. Their lights did not seem to bother him, her, or it, any as it, him, or her, continued along ambling through the shore of the river heading for the nearby
timber.

The trio, well schooled in the Boy Scouts and being prepared, took their collective weapons of a hunting knife, a flashlight, and fishing knife, and sought to stalk the creature.

They claimed it was about as big as a cow, which, was standing on its back two legs. They said it did not make a sound which was audible and it moved into the timber and they lost track of it.

The Bloomington Pantagraph had a report of a sighting some two weeks ago, but this time, he, she, or it was in the Farmer City area.

“Something destroyed some tents and scared the daylights out of some kids who were camping,: it was reported.

The Rantoul trio, after failing in their attempt to find the monster, settled down to fish a little when they heard a rustling in the woods behind them.

This time, it was not the monster but a local farmer who was complaining about fences being down and his cattle scattered all over the country side.

A spokesman for the DeWitt County Sheriff’s office gave little credence to the story:

We had a monster up near Weldon Springs a few years ago and it turned out to be a kid playing games with a bear rug.”

A resident of Farmer City claimed:

“There is not truth to that story at all. It is just a couple of long haired hippies who are causing trouble.”

No matter what he, she, it, is; it , he , she, is real to young fishermen from Rantoul.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Bigfoot announces his presence Big-time in little-known Illinois Gothic hotspot

By Eddie Middleton

Memphis UFO Examiner

There is an isolated, wooded area just outside of the little town of Hartford, Illinois that has long been reputed to be a very spooky spot indeed. This is where the old Lakeview Castle was built in the late 19th Century by an eccentric and wealthy Frenchman as the dream home for his new wife. There is nothing left of this formerly palatial place now but crumbling ruins, most of it destroyed by fire in the early ’70’s. This mansion with real turrets was built right out in the middle of the woods. The romantic Frenchman even constructed a moat around it [view Google Earth aerial photo at www.untameddimensions.com ]. He had created his own private fantasy world for himself and his new bride. They thoroughly enjoyed their life here for a few years until she died. Then he moved away never to be heard from again [read the colorful, storybook history of this place at : http://www.altonhauntings.com/hartford.html]. One might be reminded of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” that once was a place of bright cheer and happiness until it fell upon evil days and a deadly gloom descended upon it, an ominous zig zag crack running diagnonally down its wall as if symbolizing the curse that had fallen upon the Usher family. This comparison easily comes to mind when one sees the bleak atmosphere this Hartford Castle location now has compared with its glorious heyday. Of course there have been tales told over the years by those bold enough to venture into this forbidding spot after dark, of having seen the sad ghost of the deceased wife roaming the site of her once splendid abode. This is all part of the supernatural lore of “Eerie Illinois” written about in various ghost tour guides.

But what almost nobody knows about is that this place is also heavily haunted by Bigfoot. There has been a recent rash of sightings of this being in the immediate vicinity of the old castle starting back in late April of this year that never got reported to the news media or even to any paranormal investigator. A correspondent of mine who lives about ten miles from Hartford just filled me in on the details. This man told me that he used to play in the woods around the castle when he was a kid and every now and then returns to have a look around. Back around May 2nd of this year, he was wandering over the property (in the daytime)and spotted tracks of what looked like a human foot—but were 15 inches long and twice as wide as his own foot! A few days later he was talking to a friend of his who works the late night shift at a warehouse directly across the road from the woods that harbor the remains of the old castle. This person told him that over the previous two week period she and two other gate guards on their respective late night shifts had been badly scared a number of times by what was obviously Bigfoot activity. In her case she had not actually seen the creature, but had heard over and over again throughout the wee hours of the night (nearly every night) loud reports of heavy rocks hitting the side of the building [rock throwing is a typical Bigfoot retaliatory tactic]. And when this was occuring, she also smelled an awful odor like that of rotting meat. The Bigfoot stench is often mentioned by those who have had close encounters with this being. One can imagine how unnerving this must have been, especially considering that she was all alone at the time.

Within this same two-week period another guard at the warehouse had an even more dramatic, up close and personal, encouter with Bigfoot. This guard had always ridden his bicycle to work. He was riding-in one night to assume his late night shift, traveling along a lonely stretch of Poag Road that runs by Cahokia Creek which winds through the woods and crosses the old castle acreage—when he suddenly found himself face to face with a 9 or 10 foot tall hairy manlike creature standing on the side of the road. This thing let out a blood-curdling howl just as this guy almost ran right into him. I guess it’s a miracle that the guard didn’t fall off his bicycle! He somehow continued to manage to peddle his vehicle—and a lot faster then. He raced on until he reached the guard gate, and in an extremely agitated state told the man he was relieving all about his encounter. This man, simply not believing his story, laughed at him, telling him he was full of sh**!

As fate would have it, on the next night this man who had made fun of the first guy’s fantastic tale of a Bigfoot encouner had his chance to reconsider the wisdom of his ridicule. During his shift a Bigfoot came and stood directly across the road from the guard gate and vented a hideous howl at him. It would have been poetic justice had he actually messed in his pants, considering the ugly thing he had said to the other guard. And for all we know this did happen as he was so shattered by what he witnessed that he quit his job the next day.

Postscript : My friend who found the huge footprints all around the moat area of the castle ruins tried to talk to the guard who had had the encounter on his bicycle, but this man refused to talk to him and, in fact, said he didn’t ever want to talk to anybody about it again. I suppose this is typical of people who have experienced the unknown much too close for comfort. It’s hard for those who have never had this privilege to imagine how traumatizing it can be.

As one interesting side note, when one looks at the aerial photo from Google Earth of the castle moat, it is seen as a perfectly symetrical triangle with curved edges with one of its angles pointing directly east in the directon of Cahokia Mounds only twenty miles away. This is the largest Native American burial site in the U.S. It probaby is situated on a ley line. If this is the case, then the Hartford Castle due to its proximity to it may be a paranormal hotspot as well.

The Bigfoot activity in this area continues to this day. I wouldn’t advise going there though to snoop around at night. These awesome, possibly supernatural, beings apparently don’t appreciate people intruding into their playground. Mark this down as a newly discovered window area for more sighitngs like the ones described above. Remember : You heard it first on Night Search! (www.nightsearch.net)

Thursday, June 07, 1973

Police Told of Red ‘Creature’

Edwardsville Intelligencer

What is 5-feet 8-inches tall, broad-shouldered and reddish in color, has red eyes that can’t stand light, smells musty and walks without making a sound?

A Frederick Street resident doesn’t know what it is either, but he told police there’s one lurking in Springer’s Woods.

He reported the creature at 1:30 a.m. today to Edwardsville police. He said he saw the creature Wednesday night and that it also had been sighted Monday night in Springer’s Woods.

He said that a friend of his told him that the creature had come up behind him Monday night and grabbed him, tearing his shirt and scratching his chest.

Police wet to Springer’s Woods This morning, but the creature could not be found. The man who made the report told police that it is afraid of light.

It screams when light is shined in its eyes, he reported.