Not Mo-Mo – Missouri’s Other Bigfoot Known as the Beaman Monster

If you grew up in Missouri, you no doubt heard stories about Missouri's version of Bigfoot known as Mo-Mo. That's not the only large cryptid that is rumored to walk the woods of the Show Me State however. There's another Missouri Bigfoot type of creature known as the Beaman Monster and it's a different animal altogether - literally.

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I came across this very recent share on YouTube telling the story of how the Beaman Monster came to be. This one is based out of the Sedalia area and named after the town of Beaman, Missouri. According to Wikipedia, the Beaman Monster began when a 12-foot gorilla escaped from a circus train. I'll let this YouTube guy share the rest.

The legend says that people and cattle have been mutilated in that part of Missouri. It's hard to verify those incidents over the years. However, I was able to find a website that lists circus train wrecks. The site called Circus and Side Shows does list a Missouri circus train wreck, but it was in 1887 in the St. Louis area.

There is another more likely circus train wreck that could be tied to this legend. It's the 1892 wreck of a Ringling Brothers train between Beaman and Centralia, Missouri. A circus history website does show some details of that train wreck which was said to happen on May 17, 1892. It says that many horses and people sadly died in that accident, but there is no mention of escaped animals. Could it be that this is the origination of the Beaman Monster legend?

You would think if a gorilla did somehow escape an accident like that, it would have been sought after or at least documented unless the circus thought the animal perished in the wreck. Based on accounts, it was difficult to identify people and animals killed that day, so perhaps there's some amount of truth to this long-passed-down Missouri legend.