An Article in the Gazette Democrat (Union County Illinois) indicated that two hikers spotted a black bear in union county. They were apparently hiking in the Kaolin Pits area looking for an old cemetery. They indicated they smelled something musky and initially thought it was a skunk and continued on . When they saw the animal they mistook it for a dog initially. They walked to within 30 feet of the animal before they realized what it was.

With all of the sightings in South East Missouri I knew it would just be a matter of time before they found their way across the river. just didn't think it would be this soon.

That was me and my cousin that seen the bear.When your fourty years old and youve never seen a bear out side of the zoo its hard four your brain to believe what your eyes are telling it its seeing. I really thought it was a dog but why is it so tall, I told myself.
We were hiking looking for the old cemetary at kaolin pits, thats in between Anna and Cobden on Kaolin rd.. We found the cemetary about a half mile up the trail.The trail goes up the old Iron Mountain Ridge, after checking out old headstones we continued on for about another half mile. We smelled a strong odor before we seen it, I thought it was a skunk my cousin said no I dont think so. When we seen it up ahead in the trail we wernt sure what it was at first. I put my arm out to stop my cousin from walking any farther and we kept trying to figure out what it was. It was standing so still, my cousin said is that a cut off tree that someone did a cool bear carving on and started to walk towards it and i stopped her and said no something aint right.. I said no I think its a big dog, but it still didnt make sense to me, it was so still. at that time all we could make out was the black image with two small ears. I looked down to find a big ass stick and here it come . It charged us, my cousin took off running saying run its a bear, I started hollering as loud as I could and clapping my hands together which is pretty loud early in the morning in the woods. When my cousin seen I wasnt running she stopped and slowly walked towards me. It got pretty (I'm an idiot for swearing)(I'm an idiot for swearing)(I'm an idiot for swearing)(I'm an idiot for swearing) close to us about 15 feet before it stopped and ran back to where it was originally turned sideways in the trail looked at us and took off into the woods. My cousin was still hollering at me to run. We were so scared that as we were running we made a video on our phone saying what happened, for our family just in case.we knew that bears can track you. We ran all the way to the car and didnt feel safe till we shut the doors.
We wanted to warn people for there safety, Kaolin pits is a popular fishing,swimming and hiking area in southern Illinois. I called the local newspaper and forest ranger to post a sign at Kaolin Pits "BEAR IN AREA" but everyone I talked to seemed to be in disbelief. Nothing was posted, an article was posted in the local paper that we were thankful for.

Hi ckilman5. Thanks for posting your experience. I've never seen any bears in Illinois, but as Rasputin said, they've been seeing them in southeast Missouri for quite a while so it was only a matter of time till they showed up in southern Illinois. It seems like a lot of wildlife that had been wiped out in this area is making a comeback.

We've got a few other people on here who like to check out old headstones in old cemeteries. Maybe you'll end up exchanging notes with them.

we've periocally heard bear reports from some of the old timers along the bluffs..never to have seen one myself yet..but it does seem possible that they are making their way here.
Did you save the cell phone vid/pics to share? We'd love to see them if you still have them:)

you sure it wasn't bigfoot!!!!! there has been supposed sightings of the hairy beast around carlyle. I will agree with you that they do look a lot like a dog at first when you see them in the wild, i never saw one in illinois, but once on vacation in tennessee we came across a sow with her cub, pretty cool but made me a little nervous. My grandma on the other hand swears up and down that they had one in their back yard about 10 years ago in freeburg, it supposedly got out from somewhere though.

Trail Cam time.....

Remember to do something special also when you pick the cam up. Like, let the cam take a photo of you infront of it while you hold a sign with the words - SILO on it.

WOW ! COOL! I like watching bears. I grew up around em though, I don't think I woulda ran though. Especially for a black bear. Too bad you didn't get a pic or video before hand!!! Then they would believe you. I believe ya though. There is all kinds of weird stuff out there.

I can remember reading av article around 1996-1997 in the paducah sun about IL thinking about bring the black bear back to the shawnee national forest. There was such a negative response from the population (non out doorsman). That was the last time I ever heard anything about it. It may be happening on it's own. They have them in E. KY, and TN, and sightings in E. MO, It just seams likely they could have moved into S. IL.

Trail Cam time.....

Remember to do something special also when you pick the cam up. Like, let the cam take a photo of you infront of it while you hold a sign with the words - SILO on it.

You always want proof. Can't you ever just let somebody prove something without "proof" jeeze.

You always want proof. Can't you ever just let somebody prove something without "proof" jeeze.


Your funny.....:D

Interesting, I believe you. Good thing you didn't run though!

Man thats awesome!

Not undoubted.... the last "Tommy the Bear" that was hosted at camp Ondesonk was captured in Marion Co. Tearing up trash, and later it was caught.

Back in college I used to deliver for UPS Saturdays and remember the black bear at Camp Ondesonk in the pen. Never have seen them here in Illinois nor in Missouri but I did kick one up in Northeast Arkansas years ago slipping through flooded timber trying to sneak up on snowgeese. The black bear was by itself and laying on the dry ground in the timber, it jumped and ran when I was about 75 yards from it and I about filled my pants as the bear ran away from me.

The other bear I saw was again in Arkansas while bow hunting and well at 15 yards it was all I could do to aim that arrow and deliver it. Big difference from the Arkansas bears from the ones I saw in Maine hunting back in 1991 solely in size.

Bears are beautiful animals and I would love it if we had some of them living in our area, they are not vicious beasts some would say they are. Then again I would love to have elk roaming again as well.

I'd be more comfortable around a black bear than a cougar, that's for sure! Either way it's really neat to be hearing reports of new big game species in silo!

hello all in silo land , i can't believe nobody has had anything negative to say about bears showing up in illinois. do we need bears in illinois? most of the storys i hear from other states with bears are not positive ones, like people getting their scalp torn to pieces as they're being dragged out of their tents, and people getting the doors ripped off their cars because they left some burger wrappers inside,granted these storys are mainly from states out west were the black bears get fairly large, but is being able to observe a bear in your home state really worth all the hassles that may come with it, the thought of walking up on a bear in the dark on the way in from deer hunting does not appeal to me one bit, especially during bow season when they won't allow you to legally carry a firearm while hunting, this will fire some people up , but here goes, are they legal to shoot like the pigs in shawnee, i for one, would love to hear someone shot the thing or trapped it and hauled it back across the river, just my two cents worth see ya

My feelings are the same about the bears and the difficulties encountered with them as they are when folks get in fizz over a cougar and some other species - it's not them - it's us...
We are the ones that have encroached on their territory and created the problems. Can bears be dangerous? Of course they can, as can a cougar or any other large predator further up the food chain than us - does that mean they need to be eradicated - my opinion is no - it means we need to be aware and make an effort to live with them.
Do black bears near humans create issues yes they do- but again it's our failure to realize we are living/visiting their territory.
I really don't expect to see enough of population in Southern Illinois in my lifetime to be problematic.

Neat story . Any wild animal could be problematic given the right circumstances.

The whole bear thing is pretty cool. Missouri has well over 300 bears that exist in the state with a breeding population (I have seen photos of several different ones from close friends). In fact they are doing DNA analysis to see exactly how many they have. They will probably have a bear season in about 5 years. Oklahoma also just had their first bear season and killed 19 bears and Arkansas has a bunch of bears, although I am not sure what their harvest totals are. I know Wisconsin also has a season. I think IL is limited in habitat but maybe someday we will have enough of the critters for a season. How cool would that be, to actually harvest a bear in IL.

I think the fact that the bear charged then ran shows that they are really not that dangerous. Stay away from the cubs and there aren't any worries.

I can see it now, people writing in to the BND complaining about bears getting their cats that they left running loose like they were a few years ago when coyotes were getting their cats. I haven't formed a definite opinion on this yet. I've camped in areas where there are bears (northern Michigan and Tennessee). You don't keep food in your tent, but then I don't recommend that now because of raccoons.

A few years back, my dad found a bear, here in Jeff. Co. He was animal warden at the time, and got a call about a "large chow dog" out on some country road. When he got there, sure enough it wasn't a dog, but a bear. He called the sheriff and they called in other officials.

This might be about the same bear: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1893&dat=19950603&id=CjYjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=a9gEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3252,4927662

Not sure.

A few years back, my dad found a bear, here in Jeff. Co. He was animal warden at the time, and got a call about a "large chow dog" out on some country road. When he got there, sure enough it wasn't a dog, but a bear. He called the sheriff and they called in other officials.

This might be about the same bear: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1893&dat=19950603&id=CjYjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=a9gEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3252,4927662

Not sure.

Where did you find the newspaper archive?



I use to live in Wolf Lake as a kid. When I was around 6 or 7 I remember alot of people saying that there were big foot tracks near the stream that was close to our house. My dad went down and took a look, came back and said they were bear tracks. That was the early 70s.

It was near the t in the road of clear creek leve road/state forest road.

Where did you find the newspaper archive?



I use to live in Wolf Lake as a kid. When I was around 6 or 7 I remember alot of people saying that there were big foot tracks near the stream that was close to our house. My dad went down and took a look, came back and said they were bear tracks. That was the early 70s.

It was near the t in the road of clear creek leve road/state forest road.


I just did a google search, and i found that. :p

ive got familiy members that say they seen black/honey bears in there driveway years and years ago here in so Il i can remember them talking about it when iwas just a little boy

I think I vaguely remember that?...

I think it would be awesome to watch a bear from my deer stand. I have heard of the honey bears around shawnee when I was younger never seen one though

Yeah, I heard that too. I came close one time when I found some tracks in a fresh snow. I thought that they were human tracks at first but they were somewhat more rounded and had claw marks on the end?

Ckilman5, your story reminds me of when a friend and I were chased by wild dogs. I am glad your story has a safe ending too!