Mystery at Devil's Elbow
Chapter Twelve – Third Week of October 1969

The next morning Tammy got back to the office. She worked in a large open room with six desks for reporters. At one end of the room was a conference room with the editor’s office beside it. The reporter’s desks had piles of paper, and there was intense cigarette smoke in the air.

Tammy met with her editor, a large man with a bald head who always wore his shirt collar open and his tie loosened. He suggested she call a reporter on the Kansas City Star that had information on something called the Beaman Monster. That story seemed to be relevant.

Tammy went back to her desk and made the call.

“Hello Tammy, what can I do for you?”

“My editor suggested I call you. You’ve done some research into something called the Beaman Monster?”

“Sure, what can I tell you about it?”

“Well, can you start from the beginning? I haven’t heard of it.”

“I guess I can spare a few minutes. What’s in it for me?” he asked sarcastically.

“My appreciation and I think we may have a similar monster down here in Pulaski County,” she replied with as much sarcasm.

“Really?”

“I could provide you with the information I get.”

“Okay, that’s a deal. The Beaman Monster is thought to be a hybrid gorilla. You can trace the legend back to the 1900s. Legend says a circus train wrecked in 1904 near Sedalia, Missouri. Several circus animals were aboard and escaped after the crash. One of those animals was a 12-year-old gorilla.

“Really!”

“Yes, and some believe the Beaman Monster was the offspring of the escaped gorilla and a human woman. There were several searches for the beast over the years, but none were successful. Over the years, some of the farmers found pigs and calves mauled to death, without tracks nearby or any other sign of another animal. Others have seen a dark creature moving around the forest during thunderstorms.”

She took a deep breath. All she could say was, “Wow, that’s quite the story.”

“I think something does exist that’s unexplained. There’ve been reports of large footprints. The stride of the footprints was far apart. There are claims from Native Americans too that similar creatures have existed for centuries.”

“Is there any proof that such a creature exists?”

“Just footprints and eyewitness testimony.”

“Yeah, we have both too, but that’s not enough for most people.”

“No, it isn’t. I know of another monster if you have another minute.”

“Sure.”

“This monster is called Jacko. People said it was captured by railway workers near the town of Yale, British Columbia back in the 1880s. The descriptions of this beast are like the Native American Sasquatch. The monster stands upright like a man, about eight feet tall, and is covered with red hair. Like the Beaman Monster, the beast escaped after a train wreck. Unfortunately, the rail lines weren’t in place until long after this event supposedly occurred so there couldn’t have been a train there.”

“That is the description people are reporting here, a tall hairy creature that walks on two legs. An eyewitness claimed it was 84 inches tall.”

“Have you heard of Roosevelt’s sighting?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Teddy Roosevelt said he saw a Sasquatch and it tried to attack him. Backpackers and campers have also reported Sasquatch having a desire for killing and eating people. This was the explanation for unarmed backpackers that came up missing throughout the great west. Unfortunately, they can’t explain how hundreds of thousands of backpackers and campers visiting every corner of America’s forests have never seen a Sasquatch.”

“I’m going to have to look that one up too.”

“There’s also another legend that comes from Louisiana. This beast is known as the Honey Island Swamp Monster. This legend started in the early 1960s. This one also involved a crashed train with animals from a circus that escaped because of the crash. Some believe this beast is the offspring of an escaped chimpanzee that mated with an alligator. Not very believable though.”

“Perhaps not, but they are all remarkably similar, aren’t they?”

“You’ll need to check out the Patterson-Gimlim film. Some think it is real evidence for a Sasquatch. In 1967, two men were searching for the beast, and they found one and filmed it near Bluff Creek, in Humboldt County, Orleans, California.”

“I gotta chase that down!” she said as she wrote the information down.

“There is one last story that’s going on now. Do you have any contacts in the town of Louisiana, Missouri?”

“No, but I bet my editor does.”

“That is Pike County, north of St. Louis. Sightings happened this summer of a beast like yours, near the Mississippi River. You need to check that out, too.”

“Thanks, so much Matt. I’ll drop my information in an envelope for you.”

“Sounds good.”

“I have taken a lot of notes while listening to you, 12 pages to be exact. I’m shocked I haven’t heard about the film.”

She took her notes to her editor’s office, which was also packed with papers and books. The air stunk from his cigars not cigarettes.

“Hello boss just got off the phone with Matt,” said Tammy. “Do you have a source in Pike County?”

“What for?”

“They had sightings like ours in that county this summer.”

“Yeah, let me look in my sourcebook.”

“You must have sources everywhere.”

“You will too, kid when you’ve been in the business as long as I have.”

“Think so?”

“Here it is, Pike County Tribune. Call Harold Wolfe. Here’s his number.”

“I’ll get right on it.”

“Leave me the notes to read through!”

Tammy returned to her desk and cleared a spot, so she could write. She dialed the source.

“Hello, this is Harold.”

“Hello, my name is Tammy Jenkins. I’m calling from the Pulaski Journal.”

“Hello, Tammy. What can I do for you?”

“My editor recommended I call you about a story your paper is working on about a tall, hairy creature that has been sighted.”

“You must mean the Momo.”

“Is that what you’re calling it?”

“Not what I’m calling it. That’s what people are calling it. Momo is short for Missouri Monster.”

“Oh, I get it.”

“This creature is more of a legend than any real beast. People say they see a monster with a large, pumpkin-shaped head, with a furry body and hair covering the eyes.”

“That sounds horrible.”

“Well, that’s why people call it a monster. People claim to see this monster up and down the Mississippi River. The creature has also been reported to be seven feet tall, hairy, a man-like creature with a terrible odor.”

“Parts of that description sounds like a creature people say they’ve seen here in Pulaski County.”

“Don’t say!”

“I can drop you an envelope with our information.”

“I’d appreciate that. People here also found tracks. Law enforcement submitted them to an expert down in Oklahoma who claimed the tracks were from an unknown primate species.”

“Wow, you’ve been a big help, Harold. One last question. I’ve heard people say Sasquatch and Bigfoot. Which is correct?”

“Both are correct. Sasquatch is the Indian word for a big monster. English speaking people just call them Bigfoot after the footprint they leave behind.”

“Thanks again, Harold.”

Tammy remembered a file she had on Indians in southern Missouri. She read through the data and found a reference to a cave not far from Devil’s Elbow. It was called Miller’s Cave, named after the American family that owned the land. The cave had several entrances, but the most interesting was in a bluff approximately 150 feet above the Big Piney River. This entrance also provided a spectacular view of the Big Piney River Valley. The cliff below the opening was nearly vertical, making it a dangerous drop-off. She had visited the cave as a young student and seen the entrance, and no human could climb up that cliff. So, how could someone who lived there reach it?

Tammy sat down to write a piece on the local sighting of a Bigfoot in Pulaski County. She included a bit of the history from the other beasts that she learned about. She wrote two questions on her notepad.

Could Bigfoot be the original inhabitant of Miller’s Cave? And could the creature have something to do with the missing women?