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Momo is the name of a local legend, similar to the Bigfoot, which is reported to live in Missouri. The name Momo is short for 'Missouri Monster' and it is reported to have a large, pumpkin-shaped head, with a furry body, and hair covering the eyes, which resembles a shag carpet. First reported in 1971, near Louisiana, Missouri by Joan Mills and Mary Ryan, Momo was first reported up and down the Mississippi River with later sightings documented further west by travel of water ways. It is supposedly a large, 7 ft (2.1 m) tall, hairy, black, manlike creature that emits a terrible odor. Some suggest it was a rogue American Indian. Following sightings in 1972 beginning at 3:30 pm July 11, first reported by Terry, Wiley, and Doris Harrison, and lasting for about two weeks, tracks were found and submitted to Lawrence Curtis, director of the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden. He deemed the tracks to be that of an unknown primate species
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Located along a stretch of Missouri's Great River Road in Pike County is the small Mississippi River town of Louisiana. This quiet, unassuming community was vaulted into the national spotlight in July 1972 when reports emerged about a hairy monster and three-toed footprints that had been seen around town. The press humorously dubbed the strange and foul-smelling creature "Momo" for "Missouri Monster" but to the local residents, the frightening encounters were anything but amusing.
The "Missouri Monster Scare" began on July 11, 1972. The first encounter with the creature occurred on the outskirts of Louisiana, Missouri, at the base of Marzolf Hill. An eight year-old boy named Terry Harrison and his brother, Walley, 5, were playing with their dog in the woods at the edge of their yard. Suddenly, an older sister, Doris,15, who was inside of the house, heard them screaming. She ran to look out of the bathroom window and saw something standing by a tree. It was "six or seven feet tall, black and hairy," she said. "It stood like a man but it didn't look like one to me." She began crying and ran into the other room to call her mother on the telephone.
Both Doris and Terry got a good look at the monster and agreed that its face could not be seen because of the mass of hair that covered its body. The creature seemed to have no neck and it was flecked with blood, likely from the dead dog that it was carrying under its arm. The smell of the creature was said to have been horrendous and it may have been this odor that made the Harrison's dog violently sick a short time after the incident. The dog's eyes grew red and it vomited for hours afterward.
