Seneca Sasquatch

Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 12th, 2008

On 9/11/08, as I was waiting, and waiting on a delayed flight in Philadelphia, I had a long conversation about Bigfoot with an engineer who has worked for DuPont for 17 years. He told me that the hairy beast reports from Seneca, Illinois, are still quite active and all the people he has recently worked with there talk about them all the time. (My informant, Brad, is a consultant to clean up the groundwater in Seneca. The location used to be owned by DuPont but is now owned by an Australian company. DuPont has responsible policy of cleaning up sites discovered through new technology to have been a lot “dirtier” that previously thought, I was told.)

The Seneca reports were in the news a great deal in 2005, and can be found in media articles such as this one here. As that article mentions, four accounts from Seneca, Illinois — two of which were from June 2005, while the others date to 1979 and 1983 — were deemed credible by the BFRO.

In the 1960s-1970s, accounts from nearby Pekin, Illinois, were investigated by me and others, and included a Bigfoot seen swimming.

But it is Seneca I wanted to note again today (and yes, I know that a certain Tom Biscardi piggybacked on the BFRO work by journeying there in the recent past),

Longtime residents call the beast the “DuPont Monster” because it has been reported in the forest along DuPont Road for more than 40 years. Of course, it has been discussed on Cryptomundo before.

What I learned that I haven’t seen in the usual reviews of this is that the actual concentrated area of the sightings is a former TNT manufacturing area for DuPont, and now the Australian company. The components of dynamite are created and stored there, for the construction of explosives used, mostly, reportedly, for mines.

Now, as everyone knows, the reports of Mothman and Bigfoot, as well as other weird events, around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, were mostly in one specific spot – the TNT area, outside of town. The location was used to manufacture TNT during World War II. The first thing the “airport” gentlemen from Indiana whom I met, who is consulting in Seneca, asked me when I mentioned the WVA site was, “Was it a DuPont factory?”

I didn’t know, although I don’t recall hearing DuPont associated with Mothman. But I now wonder what company (or spinoff or parent company) owned the TNT site near Point Pleasant. Something to think about and research later, when I return home unless a Cryptomundian finds the answer before then.

The following drawing was shared by the BFRO on the site, as coming from one witness (“John”) encounter for June 10, 2005:

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.


21 Responses to “Seneca Sasquatch”

  1. Mïk responds:

    Here’s a quick look at Point Pleasant’s TNT site here.

    It seems it was a Gov’t thing.

  2. Loren Coleman responds:

    Yes, TNT/Point Pleasant is acknowledged as a government project. But which corporations were the Dept of Defense contract holders?

    Please note in the linked document in comment #1: “Although owned by DoD, WVOW was operated by a private company to produce TNT.”

    What private company?

  3. unknown-thing responds:

    POINT PLEASANT, WV– “Stella Mash, 64, wants to know whether a substance that has seeped into her water supply caused the cancer that killed her 39-year-old daughter earlier this year. For years, rumors have circulated that C-8, a substance used to make Teflon by DuPont’s Wood County plant, causes cancer. At least six local water districts in West Virginia and Ohio, including Mash’s in Mason County, are known to be contaminated with C-8… ‘It’s impossible for us to make an informed decision,’said Point Pleasant resident Ben Stevens. ‘We drink this water. We bathe in it. We wash our clothes in it. It’s impossible with the information we’re being given to know what to do. We live here. We have to take the risk. It’s like playing Russian roulette with our drinking water,'” JoAnn C. Elmer, State Journal.

    There does seem to be a Dupont Plant in the area. I don’t know how long its been there, or if Dupont worked with the TNT. The link is here.

  4. bill green responds:

    this is a very interesting new article about seneca sasquatch. thanks bill green 🙂

  5. ShefZ28 responds:

    Seneca? Really? Wow. That’s an hour or two drive, due east of Starved Rock. I might have to head down there in a week or so and snoop around.

  6. Cryptoraptor responds:

    That drawing settles it. Bigfoot is real! No need for absurd plaster foot casts or phenomenally blurry photographs.

  7. cryptidsrus responds:

    Interesting “possible” connection between Mothman and Sasquatch there, Loren.

    What private company indeed…

  8. korollocke responds:

    This reminds me of a a old Scooby Doo episode, mysterious creatures sighted around a secrete goverment operation. “And I would have gotten away with it too! If weren’t for Loren Coleman and those darn meddeling cryptozoologist snooping around! Bah!”

  9. maslo63 responds:

    Darn, I was hoping this might be about Seneca Lake NY, near where I live. All well.

  10. unknown-thing responds:

    I dunno if this is useful, but: Pantasote Inc. “Located within the heavily polluted West Virginia Ordnance Works facility, this small manufacturer of resins had its own wealth of environmental problems” Seems this company would have been on some of the WVOW land after the war….including the era of the original MM sightings. Here’s the link.

  11. Jjm3233 responds:

    I wish I had known about this a month ago when I was visiting family in Ottawa. Oh well, Shef, where are you coming from?

  12. acrossthesea responds:

    Is there a Dupont occult conspiracy or connection?

  13. unknown-thing responds:

    Here is the company who ran the site: It’s not DuPont.

    WVOW WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1942 AS A GOVERNMENT-OWNED, CONTRACTOR-OPERATED PLANT FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF TNT FROMTOLUENE. GENERAL CHEMICAL DEFENSE CORP. OF NEW YORK (A SUBSIDIARY OF GENERAL CHEMICAL CO., NY,WHICH, IN TURN, WAS A SUBSIDIARY OF ALLIED CHEMICAL AND DYE CORP.) OPERATED THE PLANT UNDER CONTRACT.

    Today the company is known as Honeywell.

    Here is the link.

  14. Loren Coleman responds:

    I note that the history of the Joliet Arsenal, or the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant, in Illinois, not too far from Seneca, has a shared legacy of involvement of DuPont and Honeywell.

  15. Apache responds:

    I have spent quite a bit of time at the site of the BFRO reported sightings. I interviewed the witnesses and camped all night in the woods. I spoke with and signed legal documents to do research on the corporation lands.

    If you travel the length of the Illinois River you will quickly realize how thickly wooded it is and how much wildlife there is. Mountain lions have been seen many times along this river system.

    There have been many bigfoot sightings along the length of the Illinois River, from Calhoun County near Alton, Illinois up through the Pekin and Peoria areas and further north into the Starved Rock State Park and Seneca area.

    Is there anything special or unusual about this area? The only difference at this location is the fact of a large industrial plant in the middle of the woods.

    Of special consideration to researchers is to remember that most of the area is private property. The corporation has high security (especially since 9/11 and you will be arrested if caught in their woods.)

    If you look at a flash presentation for the State of Illinois you will quickly realize how widespread reported sightings are for the entire state.

  16. springheeledjack responds:

    Interesting possibilities here.

    Is the connection perhaps a smell or something that draws creatures to that spot?

    Is it just coincidence?

    Is there a government…nope, not even going to go there…:)

    Something that has more to do with the fact that maybe both plants are out away from towns because they do produce “stuff” for TNT, and kids, people tend to go out there and end up running into humanoid things because it is further out.

    Personally, I’m putting in a call to Fox Mulder…

  17. unknown-thing responds:

    It does seem to be an interesting question to ask because of the sightings in and around areas like these. Don’t most UFO sightings happen around military bases? Or at least places that have been related to radio-active nuclear experients? Could these phenomena be related to the toxins left in the environment? Or is the fact that places like these are “off limits” to the regular person fuel the perception that there is a “cover up” or conspiracy?
    Looking at that drawing again it does resemble a man in a hazmat suit.

  18. The Y2J Problem responds:

    Okay I signed up just because of this. My mom used too work at a Honeywell building. Its now a different company but quite strange. There always seems too be huge abundance of wildlife near there also. It’s also kind of weird because there was a Beast of Bray Road sighting in the same town a few years ago.

    I’m curious too know if there is any contamination or secret happenings at these type of buildings causing unknown fumes too contaminate the area. Afterall in 12 years they have only let non workers in on 2 occasions.

  19. ShefZ28 responds:

    Jjm3233, I’ll be coming from The ‘burbs, Wheaton to be exact. I try to make it to the Starved Rock area once a year (mainly skip SR and head to Mathiesen, it much prettier, and less crowded). I’ll head past on my way back. I could even sneak down there this Sunday is the weather is kind.

  20. Jjm3233 responds:

    Both are nice, growing up in the area I went to both often as a kid. I have an Uncle who runs a trail ride business in SR.

    I do remember as a Cub Scout, back in the early to mid 80’s; our camp counselors were always telling us stories of Bigfoot; but they always seemed to half-joking . . .

  21. jakfrost responds:

    Have seen the Dupont Monster at three different locations since 2009 until just last week near my home.

    It is as real as it gets.

    Not only does it exist, but it has quite the following among the area people, if you can find them and get them to chat about it.

Sorry. Comments have been closed.

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