The Enfield Monster
The southern portion of Illinois is known by some as the ‘Devil’s Kitchen.’ This strange name is from Native Americans in an attempt to describe to early settlers the strange sights and sounds that occurred throughout the area. Anything is possible in Devil’s Kitchen, some believe. One of the stranges, though, is that of the Enfield monster. Sightings of the nearly Lovecraftian Enfield Monster began the night of April 25th, 1973.
The first story on record was by 10 year-old Greg Garret, who was attacked by a strange monster while playing in his backyard in the early evening. Greg described the being as having at least three legs, slimy grey skin, claws, and red eyes. Paralyzed by fear as the creature approached, Greg said the creature clawed, with its feet, his sneakers totally to shreds. Greg, in hysterics, ran back into his house. Although Greg was the first reported in the timeline, he was far from the last...
Shortly after Greg’s experience, Henry McDaniel and his family encountered the same being. At around 9pm, he heard scratching at his front door. Curious as to what was making the noise, Henry opened the door. It was then he saw the same beast Greg had and described it to the Carmi Times as - “about five feet tall, with a flat body, grayish in color, ...with a strange disappearing head at least twelve inches across. It had three legs and two pink eyes the size of flash light lenses.” Henry, no doubt shocked at what was before him, fired a pistol which caused the being to hiss and then bound away from the house. He watched it cross the railroad tracks.
His wife then telephoned the state police and did confirm they say some strange animal tracks near the railroad. That night, over the following hours, nearly 50-75 residents of Enfield converged near the McHenry’s home to discuss the strangeness that had descended upon the town.
By April 27th, stories of the monsters were released to AP and UPI news services and were being printed throughout Illinois, notably in the Champaign-Urbana News Gazette, which highlight Henry as a “rational and sober person.”
A few weeks later, on May 6th, Henry awoke in the middle of the night to dogs howling. He looked out his front door, curious as to what was causing this behavior, and saw the monster once again. This time, it was by the railroad tracks. Henry said, “I didn’t shoot at it or anything. It started down the railroad track. It wasn’t in a hurry or anything.”
The appearances brought news reporters, monster hunters, and other curious types to Enfield. However, Greg and the McDaniels family weren’t the only ones who saw the creature.
Rick Rainbow and three others with him spotted the same, slimy monster near an abandoned house close by the McDaniels. It ran away from them, but they gave the same description except they described its stance as “stooped over.” Surprisingly, Rick got its leaving wail on tape. This wail was also heard by Loren Coleman, famed paranormal investigator, who had traveled to Enfield to help investigate. Like the others, he first heard the wail (but did not see the monster) near the McDaniels's home.
A few weeks later, the sightings and experiences ended. No proper explanation was ever given, though some speculate it may have been connected to UFO activity in the area. No direct explanations were ever provided for why the creature so liked the area near the McDaniel’s home (despite potentially being shot by Henry), nor its propensity to travel along the railroad tracks.
Others compared it, potentially, to some sort of missing link. And others simply shrugged, because things like this just tend to happen in the Devil’s Kitchen.
The blog image comes from BigOakFlickr and is licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) . It is not related to the story.