This week is about Indiana’s cryptid. Indiana has fascinating cryptids, which include a demon snake. This demon snake haunts a graveyard in Evansville, Indiana. Witnesses say the demon snake has red glowing eyes and has horns on its head. 

I wanted to write about the demon snake, which is an exciting story I will write later. This week is the Indiana Bigfoot.

The cryptid reported most times is the Evansville Monster. Yes, it is a Bigfoot-like creature. Indiana State University Folklore Archives is the largest university-based folklore repository in the Midwest. Tony Ward, an Archives representative, recorded Janet Archibald’s first-hand account. Archibald told of a tall, large-footed, man-like monster seen by many witnesses. The couple was parking in the woods when the monster held back a car.  

The driver was trying to sneak away, but the enormous apelike creature wouldn’t let them. Finally, breaking free and escaping, the couple returned the next day. When they returned, the couple saw a two-foot-long sneaker prints. This sighting was in Crawford, Indiana.

This Bigfoot creature wore sneakers. The witnesses didn’t report what the beast was wearing, except that it had sneakers. I have read many different articles about Bigfoot. None of the witnesses reported seeing the elusive creature wearing sneakers.

The account time-stamped April 5, 1970, is one of many reports. The archives received information of a sighting in Vigo County, Indiana. Kristal Davis recorded Trench’s scary run-in with something on November 2, 2009. Trench said he was playing hide-n-seek. Climbing a tree to hide, while waiting to be found, he fell asleep. Trench jerked awake by a horrible sound seeing a tall, black furry creature. The creature was making these sounds Trench never heard before.

A Pike County, Indiana newspaper reran an article printed in Pike’s Past. Pike’s Past did a story about a bigfoot sighting. Pike’s Past posted their recount on March 4, 1996. Shirley Parks told the Pike’s Past of her unexpected encounter. 

In the winter of 1987, Parks and her family moved into a Chenoweth Fork Road trailer. Her son, Greg, age fifteen, was miserable. He missed his friends and hated the isolation of where they moved. Parks decided after much discussion, Greg would go to Florida. Greg’s birth father was there, and this was the perfect way to spend time with him. 

Parks backed out of the trip, so Park’s husband, Terry, drove Greg to the bus stop. The bus stop located in Huntington was off icy and frozen roads. Two miles off Route 32 on Sunfish Creek, Terry and Greg saw an amazing sight. Passing the snowy countryside, in the brightness of Terry’s headlights. They saw a vague figure standing in the road.

Terry slowed his car, thinking it might be either a farmer or a hitchhiker. When he stopped close to the figure, Terry received a shock. It wasn’t a farmer; it was a ten-foot black hairy creature with glowing green eyes. As Terry stared at it through his windshield, he noticed with shock. The animal was staring back at Terry. 

After what seemed like an eternity – the unusual, hairy cryptid bolted away. 

Terry swears what happened was real. It happened the way he described. His story matches earlier reports about a similar creature. The same monster, but different locations. It matches the description of the cryptid from other accounts. It makes a person think about the endless possibilities. 

A hunter recounted the latest sighting on October 20, 2015. The hunter wishing to remain anonymous says he was nearly killed by bigfoot. Forty years earlier, there was another sighting in a Martinsville State Forest. 

There have been many sightings in Indiana of a bigfoot like cryptid. So many that Indiana created a website titled Indiana Bigfoot reports. Reports have come out of just about every county in Indiana. Most accounts happen in Brown County and Terre Haute, Indiana. The best chance to see these furry critters is during the fall and spring seasons. 

That makes sense. Summer would be too hot for them with all that fur. In winter, most warm-blooded animals hibernate. It seems bigfoot does also.

Indiana’s archives contain decades of Bigfoot sightings in the Hoosier State. A hairy 600-pound elusive figure that walks on two feet is the usual description. 

At Mill Race Park in Columbus, Indiana, Cataline had a terrifying encounter. Cataline was with two friends in her car when they saw movement in the distance. The thing ran up to the vehicle so fast; the girls didn’t have time to escape. The enormous furry thing threw itself at the car. The girl’s stated the face was slimy and horrible to look at. 

The girls finally escaped, but the scary encounter left the girls terrified. The town went looking for the Mill Race Park Monster as the locals labeled it. Many thought the girls saw someone in a costume. That whatever the girls saw was not the Bigfoot creature. 

Christ McDaniels manages the website titled Indiana Bigfoot Reports. McDaniels says they get three to four reports of Bigfoot sightings a year. 

A law enforcement official reported a sighting as well. He wanted to remain anonymous, even though he states he saw the creature. A hunter separated from his two friends heard it in Martinsville. Reuniting with his friends in Morgan-Monroe State Forest, the lost gentleman heard a howl. It was the scariest howl our intrepid hunter had heard. He claims that the cry scared him so bad that it haunts him still today.

Except for the two-foot sneaker prints discovered, there has been no evidence. There have been sightings of a tall hairy creature walking on two feet. Reports have him as fuzzy, with matted black fur. 

It is hard to dispute this myth when there have been so many reports of this elusive cryptid. 

If you are ever driving down an Indiana road at night, keep an eye on your surroundings. If you aren’t careful, you could have a run-in with the elusive Indiana Bigfoot.