1972 -
Back in the early 70's I believe between 1970 and 1972 I had an experience that I believe could have been a Bigfoot. I lived in the country at the time about 2 miles from the Mackinaw River, which is a pretty heavily wooded area. I was sitting on the ground shooting at birds and it was getting dark out.I was about 150-200 feet from the barn when all of a sudden the barn door opened and something started coming out. I do not recall any details about what I saw because I was so scared! I do know that whatever it was it took up the whole space of the barn door!
It was dark so if it was a black man he would have had to be a large black man and I am not convinced that this is what I saw. The reason that I say this is, although Pekin, Illinois is a pretty good size town, around 30,000 people then, and not too much larger now, it is a town that does not have very many blacks that live in it. At that time Pekin did not have a black population at all, so it would seem almost unlikely to me that a black man is what I saw.
I ran into the house right away, I was around 10 or 12 at the time, and we locked the doors. The dogs started barking real soon after I saw whatever it was and barked for about three solid hours, more than I had ever heard them bark before or have ever heard dogs bark. Nobody else saw it but a friend saw a shadow go across the barn when he looked out the window.
We called the Sheriff's office and a couple of officers went out and looked around but did not find anything. I wish I would have just stayed there and got a better look but I didn't. I cannot recall how much time later but within a couple or so months that me and my brother and cousin found the front half of a pig down about 150-200 ft behind the barn. There were no bones of the missing part of the pig left just a half of a young pig probably about 6 months old.
Something unusual about this is that there were no animals around us that could have done this and if a human was going to do this I am sure he would have stolen the whole pig, not just half of it. I have thought about this, it happened around the time that Bigfoot was the subject of a lot of sightings in Illinois.
In the early 1970's there were a few sightings reported around this area.
I know that this is not a very good report being that it could have been something else other than a Bigfoot. I am not without doubt, but I believe that it may have been a Bigfoot more than a human being and being a Bigfoot enthusiast I would like to think that it might have been him.
-Rod Erps Friday, December 31, 1999
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