Episode 57: The Legend of Mo Mo the Missouri Monster Transcript

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NatureBoost Podcast Episode "Mo Mo" October 2024

SMA

[0:00.]  

[Music ♪.]  

>>  Hey there, and welcome back to NatureBoost. I'm Jill Pritchard with the Missouri Department of Conservation, and I'm bringing you the most anticipated episode we've ever released. We've learned about many animals through the course of NatureBoost, but there's one in particular I haven't been able to track down.

[Music ♪.]  

This elusive creature goes by many names. In the Himalayas, it's called "the Yeti" or "abominable snowman."  In the Pacific Northwest, it's known as Sasquatch, or Bigfoot. Florida knows this monster as the "Skunk Ape", but in Missouri, we know it as "Mo Mo."  

[Music ♪.]  

>>  Do you believe in the Mo Mo?  

>>  Yes.

>>  Do you know what the Mo Mo is?  

>>  Yes.

>>  What is it?  

>>  It's pretty much like Bigfoot, or some hairy creature. People have said they've seen him and have been reading around about it ...I kind of do believe that something's out there, possibly.

>>  You know, I haven't heard of, but I probably don't ...but I'd like to see it.

>>  I'm not a big cryptid person. I like learning about them, but I don't really believe in them.

>>  There's a million game cameras out there. If there's a Mo Mo, we'd have pictures of them by now.

>>  I like the theories behind it. I've heard some really interesting theories.

>>  But, no evidence.

>>  No evidence.

>>  You need proof to back it up.

>>  Correct.

>>  I hope Mo Mo is real.

>>  You work in the forest, right?  

>>  Yes, I see a lot of things in the forest, but they've never found anything. But, it would be awesome if it was there.

[Music ♪.]  

>>  [Lyrics.]  "One hot night on a hill at the edge of Louisiana, Missouri ...a family reported a huge monster roaming around behind their house."  

[2:03.]  

"He was big, mean, hairy, smelly, and ugly…"

>>  Different cultures describe the monster in various ways, but all accounts have similarities. An ape-like creature, standing up to 10 feet tall, covered in hair with a human-like face. Terrifying accounts excite us, scare us, and prompt the question, could it actually be true?  Shows like "Finding Bigfoot" debuted on television, showcasing a group of sasquatch hunters fixated on proving the existence of the monster. In 2021, an Oklahoma State lawmaker put a $3 million bounty on Bigfoot, when that TV show was filming an episode in their state. To collect the reward money, the monster had to be captured alive and unharmed. This was also a few months after that same lawmaker proposed a "Bigfoot hunting season."    

[Music ♪.]  

>>  [Lyrics.]  "Within days, this monster, fictitious or real, became a folk legend regionally. Stories of him were printed worldwide. This Missouri monster was nicknamed ...Mo Mo."  

>>  Why do we find the legend so alluring?  An obsession with the paranormal, and all mythical creatures?  The idea that something so scary or freakish could actually be living among us?  For me, it's the stories and reports from witnesses, people who say they've encountered strange things in Missouri that they can't quite explain. Many have called MDC to report these sightings. When they call headquarters in Jefferson City, they speak to wildlife management coordinator Alan Leary.

[Music ♪.]  

[4:00.]  

>>  Alright Alan, does MDC have an official statement on Mo Mo the monster?  

>>  Not that I'm aware of. I've never been a part of any discussions about an official statement since we don't know that it actually exists. So, I guess if we ever confirmed a sighting of one, at that point, come up with a statement. What we're going to consider, is it a nonnative species in the state of Missouri?  Then, do we have to list it as endangered?  At that point, we'd probably only know of one, so it'd obviously be pretty endangered ...[laughing.]  It'd be a single observation. So, yeah, at this point I don't think we have an official statement. If we did confirm one, we'd have to sit down and consider that.

>>  Wow. So, tell me about these Bigfoot or Mo Mo reports you've received from the public over your career here at MDC?  Whenever someone calls with a report like that, how do you typically handle that?  What do you say?  

>>  I let them tell me, I ask them ...explain to me what happened, what you saw. Usually, they're very excited to explain what they saw, and they usually have some really good details. It was something they observed, whether it was actually a Mo Mo or not, we don't know for sure. We've never confirmed that there was one. But, they saw what they saw, and they're convinced that it was, so they have good details. They definitely believe that's what they saw. Yeah, I listen to them and I don't ever tell anybody it couldn't be, because it could be. We don't know for sure. No one can say absolutely, for sure, that it doesn't exist.

>>  Right.

>>  But we also just don't have any solid evidence that it does.

>>  Have there been any similarities in the reports that you've received over the years that you can think of?  Or, have you received any photos?  

>>  Yeah. Obviously we don't get a lot of reports, but we have had a few of them, we have had photos. The similarity in the photos is that they're generally too blurry to really say what.... I think if five people looked at them, they might say five different things.

[6:00.]  

One person might say, hey that looks like a black bear to me. Somebody else might say "that's an old snag of a tree, just dark and it's raining and it's blurry and you can't make out what it is."  Whoever took the photo, you know, probably did have a better look ...you know, sometimes photos don't turn out that well. They know what they think it was, but others look at it ...some might say, "I can't tell anything from that, it's just a blurry photograph."  The similarity is that they're just not clear enough to make ...in my mind, to make a determination.

>>  Yeah. Yeah. Other than Mo Mo, have you received any other weird, strange reports from the public?  

>>  Yeah. We get one occasionally of the chupacabra. Those I think always are a coyote with mange. That's people who have never seen a coyote with really bad mange, where it's basically completely bald. They're not sure what that is. Some of them think that it's a chupacabra. [Laughing.]  That's what they call it in as. We had one a few years ago, and I can't remember what the animal was. It was some kind of prehistoric raptor. It's something I've heard of, but I should have wrote it down when we got it, because I don't remember ...I think it was down along I-44 or something. Who knows ...[unclear.]  

>>  Was it flying?  

>>  No, I think it was running, but it had wings, but it was running ...I don't know. I don't remember a lot of detail, but it was something that I remember vaguely that we got a call about one time. The main one would probably be the chupacabra. Mange is not an uncommon thing in coyotes. So, sometimes people see a bald animal running around, and they're not sure what it is. [Laughing.]  Obviously ...

>>  Getting back to Mo Mo, if anyone thinks they see Mo Mo. What would you encourage they do?  Try to look for footprints, or get a photo, or ...maybe leave wildlife wild, don't get too close?  Do you have any tips?  [Laughing.]  

>>  I think that's a very good idea. Don't get too close.

[8:00.]  

We don't know if these animals would be friendly or not. Definitely, not get too close. I would think, a creature of the size that everybody thinks Mo Mo is, would leave footprints. If we've been in drought for 2 months, then no.

>>  That's a good point.

>>  Around here, things are pretty soft and you'd leave a good footprint. So, you could definitely look for footprints, or if the animal crossed the fence, they oftentimes leave hair on the fence. You can get a hair sample and run DNA on the hair sample. Or, a photograph is obviously the best thing. We also don't encourage ...don't go trying to get a selfie with the Mo Mo. [Laughing.]  Bad things happen when people get selfies with bison and things like that, elk ...

>>  That we know to be true. Okay, those are good suggestions. Alright, Alan, I appreciate you speaking with me today. Before I let you go, do you yourself believe in Mo Mo?  

>>  No ...I don't. I think with all the trail cameras we have out these days, by this point somebody would have gotten a good photograph of them. We get so many photographs of other rare things, or ...like you mentioned before, a footprint. A thing of that size would leave a footprint. We look at it being as least as large as an adult human being. We leave footprints all over. Even when I've been out west, hiking in the mountains or something, and I'm feeling like "wow, I don't think many people have been here", and I look down and see all the footprints ...[laughing.]  And all the cigarette butts. It's not quite as remote as I thought it was. I would think we'd have seen some evidence, or ...it has to live somewhere, it has to inhabit a cave or something somewhere.

In Missouri, we've documented over 7300 caves, and they've been explored, mapped, whatever. If something was living there, it'd obviously have to collect and eat food ...I'd think we'd see evidence of it. I personally don't, but I know a lot of people ...there's several TV shows of finding Bigfoot and stuff. There's definitely a lot of people that do believe or want to believe. It provides something to do, to go look for, which is kind of exciting for them.

[10:01.]  

Plenty of people watch the show, I think, and find it exciting. So, it's kind of a neat thing. I mean, it's kind of an interesting thing.

[Music ♪.]  

>>  [Lyrics.]  "Down in Louisiana, Missouri, they had a big thrill ...a monster was a roaming 'round on Stub [sp?] Hill . . ."

>>  The legend of Mo Mo originates in Louisiana, Missouri, a small river town located about 90 miles north of St. Louis. In the early 1970s, journalists, TV reporters, investigators, cryptid enthusiasts and more would descend upon Louisiana after reports broke of a giant beast, lurking in the forest. The first account happened in the summer of 1971, the second just a year later. Who or what was stalking the community, and why Louisiana?  

>>  Nobody has ever offered a good explanation of why this creature was sighted in Pike County, specifically in Louisiana. And, I think it's because there's just not enough known about these beasts. I think they're real. Scientists every year are discovering new species. Every year, there's some sort of creature, usually from the ocean, because we haven't explored that to any great depth ...at least to the depths of the ocean. So, I think it's very plausible that there could be a creature out there.

>>  Brent Engel is the president of the board of the Louisiana Historical Museum, and the local Mo Mo expert. I recently sat down with him to learn the history of this creature, and how it put a small Missouri town in the national spotlight.

>>  In July 1971, two women from St. Louis were on their way back from a trip, when they stopped at a scenic area just northwest of Louisiana, Missouri. They were having a picnic.

[12:01.]  

Everything was going really well, until they looked over to the side of the woods, and they saw this hairy, ugly, tall, and they smelled the creature. Of course, they were scared to death, they ran back and jumped into their car, locked the doors, and realized "uh oh, we left the keys on the table with our food."  So, they honked the horn to distract the beast, and then one of them ran back to the table, got the keys, they got the heck out of there. But, Mo Mo ate their food. So, do not go into the foods around Louisiana, Missouri, with peanut butter sandwiches.

>>  As frightening as the first report was, it was the second report in July of 1972 that put the public in a frenzy, and put Louisiana on the paranormal map.

>>  A 15-year old girl was cleaning the bathroom sink, and looked out the window when she heard her two younger brothers screaming, and saw this big, ugly, hairy creature standing at the side of the woods with a dead dog in its hand. They lived along Star Hill, which is still a very used place in Louisiana, a great lookout. It kind of escalated from there. The girl called her father, and things started to pick up. Media attention became very prevalent. We had everybody from the New York Times and the Washington Post to television stations from around the nation coming to find out what the heck was running through the woods of Louisiana, Missouri.

>>  Cryptozoologists, UFO explorers, and all kinds of people, curious about cryptids, traveled far and wide to see what 15-year old Doris Harrison and her brothers saw coming out of the woods. Though no physical evidence was ever found, Mo Mo continued to make headlines in the local Louisiana press journal.

[14:02.]  

[Music ♪.]  

>>  Here we go, July '72. Here we are ...[unclear]

>>  Whoa!  

>>  Strange sounds on [unclear.]  Yeah.

>>  [Reading.]  "Something is going on in the area of Marzolf Hill. What it is, no one seems to know for sure ...some people say it's a prank, it's pranksters making noises to scare people. Some think it might be a hog escaped from a truck accident late last May. Some say it may have been a wild cat. Other people say it may have been a bear, Edgar Harrison ..." That's Doris'...

>>  That's Doris' father.

>>  Father. "Said yesterday his daughter, aged 15 was in the bathroom of their house, when his 8 year old son who was playing in the backyard began to holler and scream that something was in the yard. His daughter looked out the bathroom window and she saw about 50 feet from the house, a black object about 7 feet tall. The boy told his father a similar story. The object was tall, black and shaggy."  Wow!  [Gasp.]  "The monster becomes famous ...search party finds not a trace. Will the story die?"  The lead sentence ...what a lead sentence!  "Or, will it continue to expand?  The story is growing larger and wilder until everyone in Louisiana feels ridiculous. Reported over channel 7 TV that a woman, no name given, had definitely seen a black, long-haired thing crossing the highway into Louisiana. The woman who had called in the story told the station that the police said it was probably a bear. From the description, it sounds like the guy who's going with my daughter!"  [Laughing.]  

>>  Yeah, that was one of the better quotes that you had come out of this. People were taking it seriously in some respects, but in others they weren't. You know, at the time, long-haired hippies were the thing.

[16:00.]  

So, this guy said that great quote about "well, sounds like the guy who's dating my daughter!"  

>>  That's so true though. Because, that was the style back then, right?  

>>  Yep.

>>  Oh ...and even "Woolly Bully" sung by Sam the Sham, dedicated to Louisiana's monster. [Reading.]  Wow!  

>>  Here's a "man on the street."  

>>  Oh, so these are some interviews with locals to see they have to say.

>>  Look, picture of him smoking a cigarette ...that's 1972 right there. You almost expect the Marlboro man to run into town.

>>  Truly. [Reading.]  "I believe that as well as I do anything else, Mike Lee said, on whether he thought the Missouri monster existed."  

"I don't believe they should be harmed though. Besides, if someone does hurt them, you can't tell what harm they'll do back."  This lady ...Mrs. Beverly Walker. [Reading.]  "I want to believe that it's there. Too many people have seen it for me to think it's not real. I just don't believe that all the many people who have seen it would be making it up."  I mean, she has a good point!  "I just don't think there's anything to it, says Mrs. Milton Dylander."  [sp?]  "Of course, everyone has a right to his own opinion, but to me it's just a lot of talk. I don't think they've found one thing or have any proof of anything."  Well, she's also got a point there. [Laughing.]  They've never found any proof, despite how many people descended on the town to find evidence.

>>  Yeah, it's amazing. It's so typical a comment from a Missourian. You've got to show me. That's why we're the "show me state."  "You got to show me!"  

>>  That's what I said earlier. We need that proof. We are the "show me state."  

>>  Okay.... "monster puts Louisiana on the map."  [Reading.]  

>>  "It is the story that won't die."  [Reading.]  

>>  [Laughing.]  

>>  Doris Harrison's childhood home no longer stands on Marzolf Hill, but Brent did take me close to where it once stood, to see those same woods where Doris once saw the notorious Mo Mo.

[18:00.]  

[Walking sounds in the woods.]  

>>  You walk 10 feet back in these woods, and you can't see from the lane who's out there. It's just amazing. It just proves that this creature could have existed ...he could be watching us right now!  We don't know.

>>  I hope he is!  

>>  Wouldn't that be cool!  [Laughing.]  You're young and fast, I'm old and slow. I don't think ...I think you have a better chance.

>>  It's okay, Brent. I've been lifting weights, I can put you over my shoulder.

[Both laughing.]  

So, their house was in this area, where we are now?  

>>  Yeah, it's no longer there, but it was at the bottom of the hill.

>>  So, these were the same woods that Mo Mo came out of?  

>>  Yes, this is the woods that Mo Mo came out of, and this is the woods that the searchers all struggled to find Mo Mo in.

>>  I wonder what type of evidence they were looking for, for signs. Footprints ...

>>  They were looking for footprints, they were looking for dead deer that had been eaten ...they were looking for other animals ...the only thing that was really found was a couple of dog graves. But, there's no telling how long they'd been here.

>>  You had said earlier, really those were the two big reports, the one ...the first one in 1971, and the second one with Doris Harrison and her two younger brothers in 1972, in this same area. However, you did say there is a local guy here who owns some property, who still says . . .?  

>>  Yeah.

>>  Is his property close to this area, I'm curious?  

>>  It's in Bowling Green, closer to Bowling Green ...just south of Bowling Green. He claims that there are Mo Mos living there.

>>  I'm wondering, is it similar, dense woods as these?  

>>  Yes. Not quite as thick as these, but you can see for yourself, if you walk back 10 feet, I wouldn't be able to see you.

>>  No, truly, you wouldn't. Well, especially in July too, when both of those reports happened. You know?  

[20:00.]  

>>  All this brush and thickness was here, of course.  

>>  Yeah. It's eerie, it's eerie being up here.

>>  Of course. We could be watched right now!  We don't know that!  

>>  No, we wouldn't.

>>  Probably by deer, or probably by squirrels and other critters. Who knows?  There might be a Mo Mo here.

[Music ♪.]  

>>  Today, what do you think the residents of this area think of Mo Mo?  Is it a general consensus of "that's old legend, that's just a story" or ...do they actually believe?  

>>  For everybody who says it was a hoax, there's at least one person who believes. And, I think that that just validates public opinion. I mean, look at where we are in this country now. We're divided politically, there's all kinds of acrimony about this, that and the other ...well, there's a lot of disagreement about Mo Mo. "Yeah, he was a fake."  "Oh no, he was real!  I saw him, I can prove it."  The woman who saw the creature in 1972 has said specifically, she doesn't care what anybody thinks. She knows what she saw, and she's standing by her story, and she'll take that to her grave.

>>  What is your opinion, why we're so fascinated with these types of stories?  These monsters, you know?  Vampires, Sasquatch, Bigfoot ...what do you think it is that whenever you mention that, people just light up?  

>>  I think the fascination is due in part to the mystery around it. We haven't solved it yet. We don't know for sure. That, just in humankind, we want to know the answers. We want to find out what's happening. When we're told we can't, or we don't, we go out and explore. And, we try to make sense of it all. That's what has happened in the Mo Mo case, because we don't know, and we want to know. So, there are people who say "oh, no it's not real, I'm not going to believe that."  

[22:03.]  

Well, what if they discover a Mo Mo body or something?  What do you do then?  "Eh, it didn't happen."  Well, you were wrong. It's just that fascination about something we don't know about. It's still a mystery. We haven't solved it yet. Until we do, we're going to be interested.

[Music ♪.]  

Whether or not Mo Mo is real, the Mo Mo mania certainly was. Louisiana businesses capitalized on the craze with Mo Mo-themed sales. The creature inspired books, TV shows, a movie, even music. Musician Bill Whyte released "Mo Mo The Missouri Monster" in 1972.

[Music ♪.]  

>>  [Lyrics.]  
"Let me tell you 'bout Mo Mo
The Missouri monster 
Some say, some say, some sayin' that he wasn't there 
Some said it was a monster, some said it was a bear 
Most of us could tell, by the horrible smell, that Mo Mo had just been there."  

>>  So, what do you believe?  Is the legend of Mo Mo just that, a legend?  A tall tale?  Or ...could it be more?  Something strange or scary in the outdoors?  A feeling you're being watched?  A dark figure stalking behind the trees?  Whether fact or fiction, truth or legend, the story of Mo Mo the Missouri monster still delights and intrigues us to this day.

[Music ♪.]  

[24:00.]  

A big, wonderful, monstrous thank you to Brent Engel, and the Louisiana Historical Museum. To musician Bill Whyte, for letting us feature his "Mo Mo The Monster" song on this episode ...to MDC Wildlife Management Coordinator Alan Leary, and of course to our wonderful NatureBoost producer, Peg Craft. I'm Jill Pritchard with the Missouri Department of Conservation, encouraging you to get your daily dose of the outdoors.

[Outro music: Bill Whyte, "Mo Mo the Missouri Monster."  ♪]  

[End of Podcast.]