Crawfordsville Bigfoot
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 9th, 2007
The Crawfordsville Review tells a long and wonderful story of one Mr. Hardee, living in that vicinity, who, while out coon-hunting, “was confronted by an appearance” which, he assured the editor, baffles description. By the light of his shell-bark torch, it appeared like a gigantic ape, sitting in the path in front of him.
What it was, he had no idea, and the party being yet some distance in the rear, he hesitated about approaching it. His dog, meanwhile, crouched down at his feet, and refused to stir.
Thinking it better to advance than retreat, Mr. H. waved his torch until it blazed brilliantly, and made a few steps towards the monster, when it uttered a yell so terrific and appalling, that it well night froze the blood in his veins. At the same time it seemed to beat upon its breast with long, uncouth arms. Mr. Hardee, although by no means lacking in courage, beat a hasty retreat. The remainder of the party[,] hearing the yell, had fled precipitately.
The monster, animal, or whatever it was, did not, however, offer to pursue them. A party has been formed, to hunt down the monster some time during the present week.
The Review adds: “Most of our readers are aware of the fact that the country where Mr. H. encountered the untamed monster, is very wild and broken.
It is on the route leading to the far-famed ‘Shadow of Death,’ than which a wilder or more desolate region is rarely to be found.”Fort Wayne [Indiana] Daily Democrat, January 25, 1869
Thanks for this historical item from Jerome Clark.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
hey loren & everyone very interesting new historical article about the crawfordsville sasquatch. thanks bill green 🙂
This quickly got my attention, in that this very descriptive account from 1869 took place in Crawfordsville, Ind., which is in Montgomery County. Just this year, there was a flap of sightings which took place in Putnam County, which directly borders Montgomery County to the south.
I grew up in Vermilion county, IL, just about 30 miles west of Crawfordsville, IN. There are several river systems in that region including the Vermilion and Wabash with plentiful deer and wildlife to sustain a large predator, and I recall occasional stories growing up told about hairy wild men and “werewolves” in the woods outside of town.
A friend and I had a “near” encounter in 1981 at Kickapoo State Park NW of Danville, IL. Here’s the abridged version: We were fishing and had a sense of something on the hill behind us, and soon we went over and I lifted up overhanging foliage and shined a lantern up the hill while my friend looked. He backed up into me and said let’s get the hell out of here and took off to my car.
After we peeled out and got 4 or 5 miles down the road he said he saw what looked like 2 hair covered tree trunks till he saw they had human like knees and they started moving at which point he freaked and backed into me. He maintained they were not deer and nothing else that big lives in that region. Someone pulling a hoax would likely make more noise or commotion I’d think. We went back the next day armed with a compound bow and BB pistol and climbed the hill, finding large mashed down foliage at the top and evidence of something disturbing the soil going down the opposite side of the hill down to the river on the other side of the fishing area.
We were met with the usual ridicule by family and friends, with few exceptions, one a great uncle of mine who told me how my grandfather, who died in 1940 when my dad was only 7, had been part of a posse in the early 30’s hunting a “wild hairy man” about 7-8 miles south along the same river my friend and I had our little encounter. They found prints and their hunting dogs acted strange but found nothing else.
I’ve checked several other squatch sites with searchable state databases with sightings from eastern IL/western IN, and thrown out the question on local blogs and such, and from what I’ve gathered I think that the area is majorly overlooked with consistent, if not significant sasquatch activity.
The chest beating and howling sounds like an angry and frightened gorilla to me….
Loren, keep us posted on this story. Thanks
Ok, that gorilla comment prods me to respond again.
Not that darkshines necessarily meant to imply it was a gorilla, but it amazes me how many people do respond to a bigfoot story with that concept.
I mean, how many escaped gorillas can there be? And has there ever, really, been any bona fide account of an actual gorilla escaping into the woods? Anywhere?
It’s late, and I’m not up to checking facts right now, so forgive me if I err, but would the date indicated above not place this encounter before the official discovery of the gorilla anyway?
It’s late here too and not really into fact checking right now myself, but I believe the late-discovered gorillas were the mountain gorilla in 1912 -I remember that part because my grandfather was born in 1907 and it amazed me that he was already 5 before they were discovered. I think gorillas as a general species had been known for quite some time before that. If anyone has the real facts, throw em up here…
uh… i like grafikman’s story im a midwesterner so i find it intrigueing