Did You Know Cliff Barackman Saw A Black Panther In Illinois?

After a night of investigating in Illinois, Cliff and the gang were headed back to the hotel when something strange caught their attention. Matt and Cliff both witnessed what could only be described as a black panther. So while they may not have spotted a bigfoot that night, they still managed to catch a glimpse of a cryptid.

Black panthers are of interest to me not only because sightings of them are unusually persistent throughout North America, but I personally saw one while shooting an episode of Finding Bigfoot.

In the very early morning hours of November 25, 2012, the Finding Bigfoot crew was driving back to the hotel after a night investigation for the Illinois expedition. After a visit to Stan Courtney and doing numerous interviews, we headed out to a nearby river bottom where Stan told us vocalizations had been heard. We didn’t get any bigfoot action that night, though we tried late into the night.

After the quiet night, we had a long drive back to the hotel. Matt Moneymaker was driving the cast car, and I was riding shotgun. Bobo was in the back (I’m not sure if Ranae was with us in that vehicle or not). At some point in an otherwise featureless ride, I saw what I initially thought was a dark-colored German shepherd trotting towards the highway at the edge of our headlight beams off the right side of the road. As we drew closer, I saw that it wasn’t a dog at all, but a large cat. It had slightly rounded ears, a flatter face than a canine, a sleek body that was fairly low to the ground, and a long, flowing tail behind it. It wasn’t quite black, as I could see the tip of the tail and the tips of its ears were darker than the fur on the rest of the body. It was now well-illuminated, and it was clear that I was looking at a charcoal-colored mountain lion of some sort. The legs looked a bit shorter than other mountain lions I have seen, but that could have been due to the way it was trotting at the time.

To read all about it, click here.