Shawnee Bigfoot Statue — Attraction in Elizabethtown

Sassy the Bigfoot: Where Cryptid Royalty Meets Hillbilly Heaven... If you’ve never made a spiritual pilgrimage to Herod, Illinois, buckle up. Because tucked between a curve in the road and a patch of aggressive sumac is the single greatest statue in the continental U.S.: Sassy the Bigfoot. Standing 7 feet tall, carved from the finest indestructible fiberglass known to off-grid mankind, she’s the crown jewel of the Shawnee Hills—the Himalayas of the Great Plains, if you believe in elevating mediocrity to divine status (and I do).

Now, let’s get real about these hills. Are they mountains? No. Are they even big enough to require downshifting on a two-wheel drive? Also no. But boy do they try. These hills have heart. They’ve got ambition. They rise from the southern Illinois cornflat with all the dramatic flair of a couch potato finally standing up. And somehow, against all odds, they manage to be hilly as hell. You’ll find yourself panting halfway through a hike not because of altitude—but because of humidity, gnats, and the existential awe of wondering how hills this small can make your calves burn like they’re climbing Everest.

And here, among these mighty molehills, stands Sassy. Queen of the cryptids. Muse of misfits. A silent sentinel just begging for a selfie. She’s everything Mount Rushmore wishes it could be: mysterious, mythological, and accessible via gravel road.

Her domain is full of locals with character. Real-deal rednecks, the kind who know how to skin a buck, run a still, and fix a transmission with duct tape and a prayer. They’ll give you directions using only trees and memories. One might show you a blurry iPhone photo of “the real Bigfoot” he saw in 2003 and swear on his cousin’s Dodge Ram that it wasn’t just Randy in a ghillie suit again.

And yes, it’s true—Johnny Cougar (a.k.a. John Mellencamp before he got self-conscious about it) once passed through here. Some say he played a secret acoustic set to three guys and a possum near the Garden of the Gods. Others say he just stopped for gas. But either way, it happened. And you can feel it in the breeze.

So forget the Rockies. Forget the Smokies. Come to the Shawnee Hills, where the elevation barely clears your roofline but the spirit? Sky-high. Come for the hills that try their best. Stay for the Bigfoot who doesn’t have to.

Sassy awaits.

📍 Herod, Illinois — where the rednecks are real, the cryptids are camera-ready, and the hills are just big enough...

Fun stop before our Garden of the Gods hike! Even the cross walks had big foot footprints painted in them! Maybe a 10 min stop but definitely good for the fun photo ops and laughs! Statue is kiddie corner to the garden of the...

Not gonna lie, I didn't believe this statue had its own location on Google Maps, but here I am! It's a funny little attraction on the side of the road. There's a convenient place to park so you can get out and take a selfie...