Big Muddy Monster

The Big Muddy Monster: The Summer a Hairy Giant Haunted Murphysboro

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A black-and-white photograph of the Big Muddy River in Illinois, tree-lined and slow-moving — the river beside which the 1973 sightings took place, not the creature itself

About 6 min readShortly before midnight on 25 June 1973, a young couple parked by the Big Muddy River watched a seven-foot creature, covered in mud-matted hair, walk toward their car. The police came, heard the shriek themselves — and the whole town spent the summer hunting a monster.