Highway 72 stretches like a ribbon of asphalt across 25 miles of hard earth between Salem and Rolla. For years it’s been Missouri’s gateway to Ozarks splendor, but alert travelers may find it’s also a portal to some of the state’s most frequent sightings of paranormal phenomenon. So says Dr. Emmett Reary, Salem chiropractor and MOFON investigator, who shared a selection of reports he’s received over the years during an Aug. 14 public meeting at Salem’s Pizza Inn.
“UFO sightings are all over the map around here, but I have personally seen a number of them on Highway 72, and many have been reported to me in that area,” Dr. Reary told a packed-house audience. “I have also received many reports of Bigfoot activity along the highway.”
More than 30 people gathered to hear Dr. Reary’s presentation, with a few standing in the back of Pizza Inn’s community room due to every seat being taken. Another dozen or so visitors cycled in to listen but had to leave due to lack of space.
Dr. Reary said he found himself the region’s paranormal investigator after asking the public to send him reports of local mountain lion sightings, but instead received stories of Bigfoot and UFOs. MUFON (short for Mutual UFO Network) is an American-based nonprofit that investigates cases of alleged UFO sightings and is one of the oldest, largest UFO-investigative organizations in the United States.
“In a month, I would say I investigate four or five UFO reports in Missouri for MUFON, but locally I receive far, far more,” Dr. Reary said. “It seems like Bigfoot sightings come in clusters around here. In Phelps County, there are many around Lane Spring and along Highway 72. There is also a concentration in eastern Dent County. In fact, I received a sighting report just this morning from a gentleman at Indian Trail State Forest.”
Dr. Reary said Bigfoot sightings on Highway 72 all share similar characteristics.
“The stories I hear are usually the same. What’s typical is something crosses the highway in front of a vehicle, often at night, and it’ll be on two legs and massively built. It’ll also appear to be bent or hunched over,” he said. “One guy told me he was driving across one of the creek bridges on 72 toward Salem, and he looked up, and Bigfoot was there on the bridge. He said he drove right by it and could have reached out the window and touched him. His wife later told me the experience really changed his world. He certainly didn’t get a lot of sleep that night.”
As for UFOs, Dr. Reary said some local sightings have gained international attention.
“I took this photograph in Rolla where the old Zeno’s used to be located,” Reary said pointing to a display of pictures he’d set up. “What you see in this image is not what we saw in the sky at the time. What we saw was a dark-colored disc object coming toward us from across the interstate. But when we looked at this picture afterward it showed more of a J-shaped anomaly. That image spread across the UFO community online, and later Jaques Vallée, an iconic UFO writer and astrophysicist, called me from France. He said ‘I understand you have a picture of something that didn’t look like what you saw in the sky.’ I said yes, and he told me he’s talking to a lady now, and the same thing happened to her, too. I was absolutely stunned he called me.”
Dr. Reary also told the crowd he’s received reports of UFOs landing in local fields. He shared one such example from rural Dent County.
“Back last fall we had a landing, or what I believe was a landing, so I went out and checked it out myself,” he said. “The night it occurred was really windy, and the guy that owned the property where it happened said it was so violent it woke him up. When he walked outside the next morning all his lawn furniture was knocked over and there was a circle in his yard. I measured it to be a perfect circle which was 16 feet, nine inches in diameter. The grass along its outside perimeter was all desiccated and dried out completely. To this day it still is dried out. I was going to check if snow would stay on it, but we just didn’t seem to get any last winter.”
In some local cases, Dr. Reary said UFOs and Bigfoot appear in conjunction with one another.
“Bigfoot sighting and UFOs often happen together, sometimes there’s even been reports of a Bigfoot coming out of a UFO,” he said. “Me, I don’t know, but it’s funny because the way it used to be is if they got a report of a Bigfoot with a UFO, they’d just throw that in the trash can. Same with the UFO people, they would just ignore it if a Bigfoot was spotted with a UFO. We’re learning now to not do that, but it takes time to change. There are always more questions than answers.”
Dr. Reary said he can’t conclusively answer many questions about Bigfoot but has come to some conclusions. He says he thinks the Bigfoot species buries its dead, build wood structures in forests, have primitive speech and are quite intelligent. As for advice, Dr. Reary warns to never open fire on a Bigfoot.
“I was talking to a police officer I know from Colorado, and he told me they had a case out there where a man had his arms pulled off,” he said. “The victim had a rifle, but its barrel had been bent. His body had also been shoved into the hollow of a tree and his pulled off arms were stuck on limbs. The officer thought maybe this guy shot a Bigfoot, or shot at a Bigfoot, and it was retribution.”
As for UFOs, Dr. Reary’s message to skeptics is to keep an open mind and eyes well-focused next time driving at night on Highway 72. He concluded the Aug. 14 meeting by saying, “Some people tell me they’ve never seen anything like a UFO, and what I tell them is, how often do you look for them?”
