Rising Sun: Gateway Event
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 19th, 2006
Thirty-seven years ago today, a small town in Indiana served as the temporal and spatial gateway to the Midwestern hairy hominoid reports that would sweep across the hinderland of America in the 1970s. Momo (pictured below) was two or three years away (depending on what report you consider “first”), and the high strangeness of the ’77’s sightings was still around the time-span warp. Some events seem to have just the right names. It was almost sundown in the town with the opposite moniker.
May 19, 1969 – 7:30 p.m. CDT, near Rising Sun, Indiana, at a location outside the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lester Kaiser.
The Kaisers’ son George was walking through the farmyard on his way to a tractor, when he was startled to see a weird figure standing about 25 feet away.
“I watched it for about two minutes before it saw me,” young Kaiser said later. “It stood in a fairly upright position, although it bent over about in the middle of its back, with arms about the same length as a normal human being’s. I’d say it was about five-eight or so and had a very muscular structure. The head sat directly on the shoulders and the face was black, with hair that stuck out of the back of its head. It has eyes set close together, and a very short forehead. It was covered with hair except for the back of the hands and the face. The hands looked like normal hands, not claws.”
When Kaiser, who had been standing transfixed, moved, the creature made “a strange grunting-like sound,” turned, leaped over a ditch, and disappeared down the road running at great speed. Subsequently, investigators made plaster casts of footprints found in the dirt by the ditch. These casts show three toes plus a big toe.
From Chapter Three, “The Manimals,” pages 75-78, in Creatures of the Outer Edge by Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman.
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.
As I am from and still live in Indiana I have read a lot about this sighting as well as others from Ind. The thing with the 69 site is that he was so close and got a perfect look at the entire figure of the BF. He gave such detail about the look of BF. It is sightings such as these that just goes to show the debunkers and non-believers yes their is something out their and yes we will discover it and prove it beyond a reasonable doubt no matter how long it may take us in this journey.
Imagine an omnivorous predator at the top of the food chain who is considered extremely dangerous, not so much for it’s aggressiveness but for the changeability of its effective behavior. Maintain as much distance as is feasible between yourself and these unpredictable creatures. Teach this to your children as a learned instinct. Do not encroach their resources. Now they have changed their behavior-something has changed for no apparent reason. They are hunting you-mimicking you-entering your territory-baiting you. What do you do? Run-fast.
I doubt they hunt humans. They spend the majority of their time avoiding us. But as with any animal of any kind, be wary and do not frighten them, nor get too close. Do not infringe on their “space”, nor make any move that could be construed as threatining. I doubt seriously that my short, fat-legged self could outrun any of them anyway. Best to lower your eyes and quietly back away if you get too close.
I was referring to us-not them.
Ha Ha Haaaa….
Good one.
It wasnt a joke. Time for this field to grow up.
This article instantly caught my eye, as I live in the town next to Rising Sun, Indiana (Aurora, IN). This area is not what most people would consider ‘typical’ Indiana landscape – which is mostly flatlands and fields.
Rising Sun resides directly on the Ohio River Valley, which is very hilly and forested. I’ve driven through Rising Sun many times in my life and have seen a wide variety of wild critters like, coyotes, turkeys, foxes and deer. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to drive through this town without seeing at least one deer wondering about.
Now, I’ve heard rumors in the past about people spotting bear and big cat’s around here, but bigfoot sightings are something I was unaware of. There are plenty of ‘haunted houses’ and ‘glowing grave’ tales to be told and even the occasional UFO story popping up from time to time, but bigfoot sightings are more popular to the west in Monroe county, near the Hoosier National Forest.
Since I’m part of a paranormal investigation team located here in Aurora, Indiana, I’ll be sure to post any ‘new’ information I find out about this report.
Aurora is near Rising Sun? What are the other towns adjacent to it, Eos and Dawn?
No, but the towns of Rabbit Hash, Bear Branch, and Buffalo are just down the road a piece.
Well, while that was meant somewhat facetiously, thanks, Loren. I’ve always loved place names and their origins. I’ve also been quite fascinated by your discussions of place names in relation to Bigfoot and other cryptids. You may already know this, but in New Jersey, some folklorists have suggested that place names ending in -squan, Lenni Lenape for door or gateway, correlate to places said to be sacred or where spirits may manifest. The usual translation of one place, Manasquan, is even more suggestive- Spirit Gateway (from manito, meaning spirit).