FIELD FILE · MOMOHOMINIDREGIONAL LEGEND

Momo (the Missouri Monster)

Also known as Mo-Mo, Mo Mo, The Missouri Monster

Louisiana, Missouri (Pike County)FIRST REPORTED: 1972WILDMEN & HOMINIDS

A foul-smelling, seven-foot hairy beast reportedly seen clutching a dead dog in Louisiana, Missouri, in July 1972 – sparking posses and a festival.

Momo – short for “Missouri Monster” – is the name given to a hairy, man-shaped creature reported around the small Mississippi River town of Louisiana, Missouri, in the summer of 1972. For a few frantic weeks the small town found itself in newspapers across the country, as armed residents combed the wooded bluffs and reporters arrived looking for a Midwestern Bigfoot.

The story starts on July 11, 1972, at the Harrison family home on the edge of town, below wooded Marzolf Hill. Fifteen-year-old Doris Harrison said that while her younger brothers played in the yard she saw, through a window, a creature about seven feet tall with dark hair and a powerful stench, standing at the edge of the woods with what looked like a dead dog tucked under its arm. Her father, Edgar Harrison, who worked for the town’s Board of Public Works, came home to a terrified family; they stayed with relatives for several days afterward.

Within days more reports followed: strange smells, growls and screams in the woods, and a sighting by Richard Murray, a lifelong resident who was fire chief and a member of the city council, who said an upright, hairy figure crossed his headlights along a creek. A Missouri Department of Conservation agent led a search of the hill and found only disturbed dog graves and scattered bones. At the peak of the excitement a posse of about twenty – and, by some accounts, far more – armed men climbed the hill, but nothing was ever caught.

The nickname “Mo-Mo” appeared about two weeks after the first sighting, and the town leaned in: merchants held a Mo Mo Sidewalk Sale the first weekend of August 1972, which grew into a Mo Mo Days celebration. Six Flags St. Louis later named a ride after the creature, and in 2019 the independent studio Small Town Monsters released MOMO: The Missouri Monster, part documentary and part tongue-in-cheek 1970s monster movie.

Not everyone in Louisiana believes the monster was ever real. A retired local schoolteacher says she was told the names of three boys who staged the prank, and the state conservation department notes there is no scientific evidence for the creature. Still, Momo has become a beloved oddity of Pike County history – a case study in how one frightened family’s report can turn a quiet river town into the center of a monster panic.

Type: Hominid
Status: Regional legend
First reported: 1972
Best-known location: Louisiana, Missouri (Pike County)
Also called: Mo-Mo, Mo Mo, The Missouri Monster
Reported in: Missouri

What witnesses describe

Described as 7 feet (2.1 m) or more tall – some 1972 reports said 9 to 12 feet – walking upright, covered in long dark hair that hid its face, with a large, pumpkin-shaped head, glowing orange eyes in some accounts and an overpowering odor. One witness described a low roar rising to a shrill whistle.

Where and when it’s seen

Wooded bluffs, ravines and creek bottoms along the Mississippi River around Louisiana, Missouri, especially Marzolf Hill (now called Star Hill). Reports clustered in July 1972, mostly in the evening and at night.

Notable sightings

July 11, 1972The Harrison sighting Louisiana, Missouri
Doris Harrison, 15, reported a seven-foot, dark-haired creature at the edge of the woods behind her home, holding a dead dog under one arm, while her two young brothers were playing outside. The shaken family briefly moved in with relatives.
July 1972Reports spread Louisiana, Missouri
As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other papers picked up the story, more residents came forward with tales of foul smells, screams and growls. Fire chief and councilman Richard Murray reported an upright, hairy figure in his headlights along a creek.
July 31, 1972“Missouri Monster Reports Linger” Kansas City, Missouri
The Kansas City Times reported that sightings were continuing, with some witnesses estimating the creature’s height at 9 to 12 feet. By then a posse of armed volunteers had searched the hills without result.
August 1972Mo Mo Sidewalk Sale Louisiana, Missouri
Local merchants turned the scare into a promotion with a Mo Mo Sidewalk Sale on the first weekend of August – the start of the town’s Mo Mo Days tradition.
2019<em>MOMO: The Missouri Monster</em> Louisiana, Missouri
Filmmaker Seth Breedlove’s Small Town Monsters released a feature that mixed interviews about the 1972 events with a pastiche of 1970s B-movies, renewing interest in the case nearly fifty years on.

What could explain it?

Hoax: a retired local teacher says she was told the names of three boys who staged the scare, though she has never revealed them.
Misidentified animals: black bears, large dogs and other wildlife move through the river bluffs, and a Missouri Department of Conservation spokesman has suggested large black bears are sometimes mistaken for such creatures.
Social contagion: after the first widely publicized report, ordinary noises, smells and shadows were interpreted as monster activity, a familiar pattern in ‘flap’ years.
Lack of evidence: searches by conservation officers and armed posses found no creature, hair or credible remains; the Missouri Department of Conservation says there is no scientific evidence of Bigfoot or Momo.

Legend, culture and tourism

Momo inspired a 1972 sidewalk sale and the on-and-off Mo Mo Days festival in Louisiana, a ride at Six Flags St. Louis (1973–1994), the 2019 Small Town Monsters feature MOMO: The Missouri Monster and a steady stream of books, podcasts and magazine features. A local volunteer sometimes appears at community events in a shaggy Mo Mo costume.

Places to visit

Star Hill (formerly Marzolf Hill)Louisiana, Missouri

The wooded hill on the edge of town where the 1972 sightings and searches were centered; view it from public streets and respect private property.

Louisiana Area Historical MuseumLouisiana, Missouri

Local history museum whose volunteers keep the Mo Mo story alive alongside the town’s river heritage.

Watch

ARCHIVE.ORG11:45

Momo The Documentary (The Missouri Monster)

Ronald Lichlyter

Independent short film about the 1972 Louisiana, Missouri, scare, described by its maker as a documentary based on actual events; licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.