| --by Lynn
Taylor
One question I have been
asked on numerous occasions is, "Has there ever been Bigfoot
sightings in Indiana? The answer is a simple; YES.
According to one witness account reported to BFRO.net, a camper observed a
"bipedal primate" in March of 1998 as he was setting up camp in
a wooded Brown County forest. Preparing for supper, the camper was in the
process of gathering firewood when he began to hear leaves and brush
rustling in the ravine, below. At first, he thought it was probably a
deer. Moving down the hillside to investigate, he saw a "very tall,
upright, human-looking being hiding behind a clump of trees." He went
on to describe the creature as standing about seven feet tall, judging
from the creature's silhouette against the surrounding trees. The camper
further indicated that the creature "was leaning forward and exposing
his head to view me. He, or it, was approximately 40 feet from my
position, and the light from my flashlight shined into its eyes. I could
see that he had dark hair covering his conical-shaped head, and [the
creature had] dark eyes in the front of his skull."
A more recent sighting
event occurred near the Hoosier National Forest, just south of Lake
Monroe. Kurt Van der Dussen, a writer for the Bloomington paper, Herald-Times
announced, Mystery animal sighting prompts wild suggestions from readers.
The article garnered national attention when it spoke of "a strange, human-sized animal that stood on its hind legs
-"
Three witnesses described of a
"5-foot-tall, shaggy black creature" near Chapel Hill Road.
The HT article prompted a flurry
of phone call and E-mail responses. The more relevant ones were:
A resident of the Chapel Hill area claimed to have seen
the mysterious creature, and was convinced it was an "emu" [a large
ostrich-like bird].
Two independent witnesses called the newspaper claiming
to have seen an animal that fit the recent creature descriptions; one, a decade
ago; the other, about eight to ten years ago. "One sighting was along a small
lake near Hardin Ridge, the other along Ind. 446 about three miles north of the lake."
Both witnesses indicated that the animal they saw walked on its rear legs. The
creature was described by one witness as "very agile," as it entered the woods
from the direction of Hwy 446. The individual was sure that the animal was not a bear.
A respondent from Parke County in west-central Indiana
provided a report of a similar creature which was witnessed from twenty feet away, while
traveling on a country road, north of the Brazil, IN on July 2, 2001.
"It was not a bear nor an ape. I do not believe it was a man in any kind of suit,"
the man indicated. Researching the subject, he discovered that many similar
sighting reports have come out of the Parke County area since the 1940s. The man
further indicated that a local panic ensued in the mid-1970s after a number of sightings,
prompting area citizens to carry firearms and guard their kids at school bus stops.
Bibliography
Kurt Van der Dussen; Herald Times article,
It's a Bear! It's a Sloth! It's an Emu?,
February 5, 2002
http://bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=2461
(BFRO.net has a
comprehensive database of Bigfoot reports, including many more from Indiana.)
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