The Farmer City Monster

Early spring 1970. Three sheep were found dead near Farmer City, a small town in DeWitt County, Illinois. Officials blamed wild dogs. The site that would make the town famous was a wild 10-acre piece of land covered in buffalo grass, a mile south of town near Salt Creek. It has been described as a remote lover's lane.

Thursday, July 9, 1970. About 10:30 p.m. Four 18-year-olds, Don Ennis, Beecher Lamb, Larry Faircloth and Bob Hardwick, were camping on the plot when they heard something moving in the grass.

Lamb switched on the car headlights. The beams caught a creature "squatting by the tent." Its glowing eyes were "widely-separated." Then it ran off. On two legs. The boys fled. Ennis had a broken ankle in a cast, and in such a hurry, Ennis left his crutches behind.

The next night, more than 10 people said they saw a pair of glowing eyes near the same spot. On July 12 and again on July 14, at least 15 people reported a furry creature in the area. Witnesses noticed a pattern. It seemed drawn to loud radio music and campfires.

Early on July 15, between about 2 and 3 a.m., Officer Robert Hayslip of the Farmer City police went out to the campsite. He "heard something running through the grass." Then: "Out of the corner of my eye I could see these two extremely bright eyes." It was "just like it was standing there watching me." He turned toward it. It was gone. Hayslip came back at about 6 a.m. The heavy steel grommets in a tent that had been intact at 3:00 a.m. were ripped out. A nearby quilt had been shredded.

The Farmer City police chief had his own answer. A Shetland pony. He locked the gate to the plot, and the monster, in Loren Coleman's words, "apparently moved on."

The reports moved with it. On July 24, Officer Warren Wilson examined tracks at Willis Bridge on Salt Creek. They were blamed on a bear, though Wilson thought they looked more like a large cat's. In early August three Rantoul youths described something "as big as a cow" near Kickapoo Creek, "standing on its back two legs." Vicki Otto saw a creature near Ireland Grove Road, southeast of Bloomington, and compared its size to a baboon. Near Waynesville, three youths reported a 7 to 8 foot creature on a cliff on August 11. On August 16, two construction workers described a 6 foot 5 inch, brown, stoop-shouldered creature.

Coleman interviewed witnesses, including Hayslip, and published "Mystery Animals in Illinois" in Fate in March 1971. It remains the foundational account. He sent teletype inquiries to circuses and animal shows in case something had escaped. On August 9, 1970, the Champaign News-Gazette noted that the Pantagraph had reported something that "destroyed some tents and scared the daylights out of some kids who were camping" near Farmer City.

The explanations followed. Wild dogs for the sheep. A pony for the campsite. A bear or a large cat for the tracks. Later writers observed that teen involvement made the case ripe for dismissal, then pointed out that a police officer was among the witnesses. No hoax confession has surfaced.

The Farmer City Monster has grown in the retelling. Later accounts give it a height of six to ten feet, yellow eyes, and a coat that is pale in some versions and black in others. The original reports gave no size or colour. Online it now stands beside the Cole Hollow Road Monster, the Murphysboro Mud Monster and the Enfield Monster among Illinois Bigfoot stories. At its core the case is simpler. Two bright eyes in the grass. And a tent torn open before dawn.