Momo is the name given to the legendary Missouri Monster, a bigfoot-like creature first sighted near Louisiana in the early 1970s.
| Cryptid Name: | Momo (Missouri Monster) |
| Location: | Mostly reported in and around the town of Louisiana, Missouri, USA. |
| Category: | Hominid Cryptid |
| Description: | Large, hairy, ape-like creature with a huge, pumpkin-shaped head and glowing orange eyes. Strong, muscular build with an unpleasant odor. |
| Size: | Around 7 feet tall. |
| Behavior/Characteristics: | Intimidating presence. Aggressive. |
| Diet: | Unknown possibly omnivorous. Speculated to feed on small animals (including dogs), vegetation, and possibly scavenged human food. |
| Habitat/Environment: | Wooded areas near water. |
| Evidence: | Eyewitness reports, footprints. |
| Sightings and Encounters: | Numerous sightings and encounters since the early 1970’s. |
| Skepticism/Explanations: | Some suggest that the Momo is a misidentification of known animals or possibly an escaped exotic pet or bear. |
First Reports & Sightings Of Momo The Missouri Monster
One of the first reports to surface about Momo was in July 1972. The story was reported in The Pittsburgh Press on the 28th of July 1972.
The article is quite long so here is a transcript of the full article which gives a really great overview of Momo sightings in the area:
At 3.30pm on July 11, Terry Harrison, 8, was playing in the backyard of his parents’
home when he saw “a big, hairy thing with a dog under its arm.”Terry ran to the house and hollered for his older sister, Doris, 15. Doris
looked out the bathroom window and saw “a tall, black hairy thing standing
in the ditch.” She locked the doors and called her mother.Whole Town Buzzing
At 4pm, her father, Edgar Harrison, arrived home and found no trace of the
monster. But he saw the brush was beaten down where the creature supposedly had
been and there were some faint footprints in the dust with back hairs around
them.Since then, this quiet Mississippi River town of 4.600 has been alive with
reports of the monster on Marzolf Hill.At City Hill, the town’s bars and the A&W Root Beer stand people are
buzzing with tales of “it”, “the beast”, “the
creature”, or, as they have nicknamed it, “Momo” – Missouri
Monster.Three days after Terry first said he saw the monster it was church night at the
Harrison’s house. The family was showing more than 30 persons out at 9.45pm.“About 12 of us were left wen balls of light, moving east to west, fell
over the trees in the next yard.” Harrison said, “Two more came over
Lincoln School. One was white, the other green, both about a foot in
diameter.”Then there was a loud growling sound, getting louder and louder, closer and
closer. My family jumped into the car and began urging me to drive off,”
he said.Not Coming Home
“Over 40 people were coming toward my house, some carrying guns. They had
heard the same noise we did” he continued. “I stopped the car and my
wife told them: ‘Here it comes’ And those 40 people turned around and ran down
the street.”Harrison, who worked 21 years for the city’s board of public works said his
wife and daughter have moved out of the house and said they are not coming
back.“I spend my noon hours with some fellas looking in the woods”,
Harrison added. “I’ll look under every piece of brush, every piece of
rock. I won’t stop until I find out what it is.”The city had declared Marzolf Hill “off limits” because of the
newsmen and trigger-happy adventurers who have flocked to the heavily wooded hill.The city owns 40 acres of the hill, which is better known as “Star
Hill” because town elders put up a star on its summit every Christmas. But
Harrison owns six acres and “nobody’s gonna keep me off”.Ellis Minor is a grizzled, toothless fisherman who spends summers trying to
catch catfish near his cabin on the river.I’m 63 and lived here since I was 6,” Minor said. He stopped cleaning
fish long enough to describe in a slow drawl what he saw at 8.30pm last Friday.Ugly As Sin
“I was sitting right here in front of the house; the rest of the family
were at the fair at Pleasant Hill,” he said. “My white bird dog
started to growl. He’s usually quiet. And I shone a light, right there about 20
feet up the road.”“It was standing there, hair black as coal. I couldn’t see its eyes or
face – it had hair nearly down to its chest.”“As soon as I threw the light on it, it whirled and took off thataway.
It’s the first time I ever seen an ugly looking thing like that,” Minor
said.“If that dog hadn’t growled, it might have walked right down into my
yard. It was headed for the water. I don’t know which would’ve run faster – me
or the dog.”“We tried to track it the next day, but couldn’t ’cause it’s so
dry”, Minor said. “Besides a person would be a damn fool to try to
catch that ugly thing. He’s absolutely the darndest looking thing I’ve ever
seen in my life.”Patrolman John Whitaker, an easy-going man who has been patient but amused
at the flock of newsmen and sightseers, listened carefully to Minor’s account.“I’ve known Ellis Minor all my life and I’ve never known him to make
anything up”. Walker said later “Something just might be up in these
hills.”I Know What I Saw
About 11 miles southeast of Bowling Green, a young, pregnant housewife stood
angered and embarrassed in front of a small two-story frame house.She had been harassed by sceptical neighbors and her landlord threatened to
throw out her family because of her report of what she saw in a field the night
before.She refused to give her name, although it was stencilled neatly on the
mailbox in front.“We’re church-going people” she said. “We got no need to lie.
I’m not crazy and I’m not afraid of those who’ll say I am. I know what I
saw.”She said she had been washing the dishes last Saturday night and smelled
“something dead”. She said she went outside where she saw two balls
of fire and thought one of them landed in the cow pasture.“Then we heard grunts and like a scream”, she said. “We’ve
got coyotes around here and I’ve heard wild hogs – but never anything like
that”.May Be Imagination
Jerry Floyd is a painter and assistant of chief of the town’s six-man police
force. He’ll be happy to dup the whole monster business into the lap of Police
Chief Shelby Ward when Ward returns from his Michigan vacation.Dutifully, Floyd had investigated the various reports – that a shaggy beast
was seen running across a road with a dog in its mouth, or lifting the read end
of a foreign car containing two frightened teenagers.“we’ve investigated in hopes of ending the rumours” Floyd said.
“I walked up and down Marzolf Hill with a flashlight and found nothing but
three carloads of kids looking for the monster.”“I think I’m open-minded about this thing, but I’ve investigated
everything and haven’t found any substantial evidence” he said.“It could be a combination of things. People don’t have much to do in
the summertime. They might let their imaginations run away with them. or it
could be kids”.“Most of the people are disgusted with the whole thing. They think it’s
ridiculous”.Asked whether there had been other sightings by persons who didn’t want the
publicity, Floyd replied, “In all fairness we have had other people say
they’ve seen this thing. Most at a distance of about 20 feet and at night. Some
good, reliable citizens. I just don’t know.”‘Scientific’ Theory
One man who thinks he might know what is haunting Marzoli Hill is Hayden C.
Hewes, founder of the International Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) Bureau
based in Oklahoma City, Okla.Hewes and an assistant camped out a night on the hill – hoping to record the
growls of Momo.However, the next morning he said, “we did not see or smell or hear
anything. But from the several reports, it’s apparent that something has been
sighted.”Hewes said the descriptions match those given in nearly 300 other sighting,
including two last year in the Florida Everglades and Washington, of a
“giant hairy biped.”The hair biped is said to have a large pumpkin-shaped head, glowing orange
eyes and an ape-like growth of hair. It walks upright, has clawed hands and
arms that reach to the knees and intelligence of a chimpanzee.According to Hewes, hairy bipeds emit an odor like sulphur and reacts
violently if disturbed by humans.He added that, if Momo is not a biped, it might be a troglodyte.
A troglodyte is an ancient cave dwelling creature which, some believe, is
the missing link. Hewes said the abominable snowman of the Himalayas is said to
be a troglodyte.Bear, beast or shadow, Momo has given citizens of Mark Twain country something
to talk about other than the dry spell.Some are amused. On resident cracked, “From the description, I’d say it
was the guy dating my oldest daughter.”Another, dubious about the national publicity, muttered, “The probably
think we’re a bunch of country bumpkins.The Pittsburgh Press – 28 July 1972
A few days later, The Robesonian included the Momo story on its front page.
