The Tuttle Bottoms Monster

Tuttle Bottoms is located in a swampy area just north of Harrisburg on the Saline River watershed, in Southern Illinois. On August 5th, 1963, the first reports came in of what has since been called the “Tuttle Bottoms Monster.” It has been described as being eight feet long and four feet high, ape-like and hairy, and with a long, almost anteater-like snout. On Aug. 6, 1963 The Harrisburg Daily Register reported what appeared to be the first sighting of the creature:

“Saline County Sheriff James L. Thompson spent a busy night last night, starting about 11 p.m. and ending about 4:30 a.m. The Sheriff said he ran across a youth at Tuttle Bottoms about 11 p.m. The young man was armed with a rifle and told Thompson that there was a monster loose in the bottoms. He said it was eight feet long, four feet high and had a nose like an anteater. The young man put his rifle in his car and left, and later Thompson ran across about a dozen boys, armed with shotguns and other weapons and all looking for the 'monster' in the bottoms. The Sheriff soon dispersed the boys and sent them home.”

Since that point, there have been around 50 reported sightings of the creature during the following 28 years. One police officer claimed that he had come across a group of youths in this vicinity who seemed to be very spooked about something they had seen emerge from the woods. The teenagers said it had been an 8-foot-tall monstrosity with a long snout “like an anteater,” and which loitered around the area and frightened them all before fading back off into the woods.

A local resident named Virgil Smith told the Register he believes the creature is not a mythical monster but was an actual animal “released by the federal government” that has long since died. Smith said the creature was a hairy primate, stood on two legs, and was not scared of humans, adding that one couple reported the animal walked right up to them. Smith also claims that a former employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture confided to him that the department had launched a private investigation into the Tuttle Bottoms Monster.

Here is artist John Meszaros’ representation of the creature:



Being as I live only 20 miles from the area of the monster, I’m glad it hasn’t been spotted for about 30 years.


TCB

a reply to: TrulyColorBlind

Looks like a sloth but even that's unlikely IDK

a reply to: Randyvine2

Totally looks like a giant ground sloth.

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

But why would a group of young men have trouble hunting a sloth?

Maybe it was an extremely able bodied sloth? IDK