by Clint Lacy and Joshua Heston.
Original art by Curtis Copeland.
“There are no black panthers in Missouri. It is a myth like Bigfoot.” — Michael Flaten
Years ago at my grandmother’s house, I discovered an old high school yearbook. Thumbing through the pages, I found my uncle’s senior photo with the usual details of titles, predictions and nicknames.
“Panther,” said the entry. Uncle Phil’s nickname was Panther.
“Your uncle once saw a black panther on your great-grandfather’s farm but nobody believed him,” explained my father when I asked him.
Uncle Phil’s panther sighting took place in Stoddard County, Missouri, in the 1960s. Back then his biggest skeptics were his peers. A brief internet search on the topic of black panther sightings in Missouri will turn up the occasional news story, blog post or photo of the elusive cat.
With today’s new technology, citizens are no longer dependent on the “gate keepers” of old media. Convincing one’s peers of a black panther sighting isn’t nearly as difficult as it was when Uncle Phil was in high school.
Today, if a resident spots a black panther, his biggest critic will be the Missouri Department of Conservation. Officially the MDC has this to say about black panthers in Missouri:
“Black panthers” are not native to North America, but they do exist as melanistic (black color) phases of the leopard (Panthera pardus) found in Africa and Asia and the jaguar (Panthera onca) of Mexico and Central and South America. Throughout its range, no melanistic (black) mountain lion has ever been documented by science….In 1996 MDC established a Mountain Lion Response Team (MLRT) with specially trained staff to investigate reports and evidence of mountain lions.
“The MLRT has investigated hundreds of mountain lion reports. Animals reported as mountain lions include house cats, bobcats, red foxes, coyotes, black and yellow Labrador retrievers, great Danes and white-tailed deer. Almost all reported tracks have been those of bobcats or large dogs.” (1)
The subject of black panthers in Missouri surfaced again on February 8, 2017.
“Here about a month ago my son and I were checking cows… and we saw something black down on the pond and I said ‘[L]ook at that it looks bigger then a cat[.]’ We got fairly close but we still weren’t really sure. It looked bigger then a cat. Then, probably about a week ago I saw it a long ways off in the distance and I was in the tractor and when it saw me it just squatted down and tried to hide. I didn’t go towards [me] it I just stayed where [it] was.” — Dennis Pierson (rural Maryville, Missouri), SJ Post, St. Joseph.
Later, Pierson “saw the animal come out of a ditch about a quarter mile away.” He was “sitting in his pickup and was able to snap a few photos,” saying, “It was probably 30 inches long or maybe longer and it probably stood up a foot or so.” (2)
The SJ Post took Mr. Pierson’s photo to the Missouri Department of Conservation. The MDC’s response was a familiar one:
Joe Jerek of the Missouri Department of Conservation said “comparing the animal to the size of the nearby fence post and logs… it’s likely just a large house cat.” (3)
My father now owns the farm where my Uncle Phil reported seeing a black panther in the 1960s. Over the past 20 years, my father, mother, and their neighbors have all spotted the large black cat that isn’t supposed to exist.
Family friend Bradley Rhodes of Advance, Missouri, reported he recently saw a female black panther near my parents’ farm. “She was carrying her cubs,” he says.
I took to the Facebook group Love my Ozarks in search of others who might have spotted black panthers in Missouri. The response was impressive.
“When I was a kid in the mid-‘70s my dad ran a set of cattle pens. People around was calling the sheriff’s office to report a woman’s screams. Dad and I heard it one night. We were bringing a load of cattle in late one night. There was the biggest, blackest cat you ever saw go across the road. We didn’t say anything until we unloaded our cattle. [Dad] looked at me and asked if I seen what he did. That was in Ozark County, Missouri.” (4) — Faron Price Gainesville, Missouri
“At least three people at three different times in the last 10 years have seen one around the old Frisco train yard.” — Joseph Franke, Springfield, Missouri.
“My husband saw one when he was in his tree stand deer hunting a few years ago. It was walking along our creek. A few months ago, our neighbor asked us if we had seen a black cat around. I said ‘A great big one?’ ‘Yeah.’ I guess another neighbor saw it crossing the road.” —Brandy Moore Lovell, Lowry City, Missouri
“I seen one in the early ‘90s crossing a field in South Camden County. My grandparents both talked of them especially my Grandmother [who] had to ride a horse sometimes after dark to take food to an old uncle down the road. She talked about hearing them scream.” — “Aunt B“ Miller, Richland, Missouri.
“I did when I was a child. My sister, her friend and I were out walking on the back part of my parents’ property in southern Hollister. All I know is we all ran as fast as we could and it did not follow. It was big, black and [had] long tail.” — Brandy Warren Thomas, Hollister, Missouri. (5)
“Yeah, it was in the field and I stared for awhile because it was so black but I couldn’t be sure what it was. Finally it walked down into a ditch. That’s how I knew it was a cat. No mistake.It was so far away that I could still see it was a cat. A house cat would have been too small to see the features so it was a lot bigger than a house cat. Very cool to see. It was January 19 [2017] at 11:28 lol. I just looked up my text to Davy. The cows were all looking at it mooing. [That] is why I spotted it.” — Tammy McCleary Stotts, Bollinger County, Missouri (6)
Despite claims by the MDC, many Missouri residents have seen black panthers. None of the residents — mostly farmers, individuals accustomed to wild and domestic animals — remotely felt they had spotted a house cat. Most report seeing the large black cats near drainage ditches, creeks, and around cattle or other livestock. Several have stated the big cats sound like a woman screaming.
There was at least one skeptic who responded to my inquiry on the Facebook forum. “There are no black panthers in Missouri. It is a myth like Bigfoot.” — Michael Flaten, Montevallo, Missouri (7)
Jo Schaper, responding to my inquiry, offered this helpful information, “In the old Ozarks they were called painters, or pant-ers. Read some old newspaper reports.” (8)
A search of Missouri newspaper archives turned up an article from The Farmington Times, December 19, 1919 edition entitled Anyone Lost One Panther?
“If rumors reaching this city the past week are true, then there may be an opportunity for the old-time big game hunters to again put into use their knowledge of wood-craft and the stalking of big game, the bare thought of which is calculated to give the present day hunter a case of buck [fever].”
“Such rumors are to the effect that a panther has been seen in the wilds a few miles south of Doe Run, where in those fastnesses, practically unmarred by the hand of man, it is enjoying life and liberty as though in the primeval forests…two sons of J. C. Arnoldi had recently seen a panther crossing a road, while several other people claim to have heard the cry, or scream, peculiar to the panther, and which sounds too humanly agonizing as to be in itself terrifying to the uninitiated.” (9)
The article from the 1900s certainly contains some similarities to the stories shared by modern day witnesses who have spotted the big black cats (particularly the bone-chilling screams).
The December 25, 1904, edition of the St. Louis Republic carries a story of a zinc miner in Marshall, Arkansas, who killed a panther with a stick of dynamite.
“Luke Hartman, a zinc miner, who lives about 12 miles from here along the Buffalo River, had a hair-raising adventure with a panther a few days ago. He had been to this place to buy dynamite to use for blasting on his claim, and when about a mile-and-a-half from home on the return trip he saw in the road ahead of him what appeared to be two gray cats playing in the dust. Wondering how the cats came to be in that neighborhood, he followed them through the underbrush and was terror-stricken to find himself confronting a big she-panther. The panther placed herself In front of her kittens and lashed the ground angrily with her tail. Hartman had no weapons, and realizing his danger, he ran back to the road, but the panther followed with long jumps. He turned down the road toward his house, fleeing for dear life…” (10)
The story goes on to state that Hartman was able to save himself by lighting a stick of dynamite after climbing a tree.
The Marshall Republican newspaper carried a story in its Friday March 29, 1912 edition entitled, Lively Yarns of Early Saline. Perhaps unsurprisingly, stories of panthers were included.
“No wild animal was more feared than the panther. Its cry was something like that of a woman in distress. Panthers — or “painters” as the pioneers called them — would seldom attack a human unless first wounded or suffering from hunger.” (11)
In microcosm, the question of an indigenous black panther in the wilds of rural Missouri quickly becomes cultural, not biological, and highlights division lines within national strata.
Colin Woodward’s American Nations: A History of Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America explains the conflict between “Yankeedom” (which includes the Upper Midwest) and “Greater Appalachia” (which spreads from West Virginia across the Ozarks Plateau).
“Yankees have the greatest faith in the potential of government to improve people’s lives…. For more than four centuries, Yankees have sought to build a more perfect society… through social engineering.”
Greater Appalachians, however, came from “rough, bellicose settlers from the war-ravaged borderlands of Northern Ireland, northern England, and the Scottish lowlands…. [with a] warrior ethic and a deep commitment to individual liberty and personal sovereignty.” They are “intensely suspicious of aristocrats and social reformers.” (12)
Today, state-managed conservation departments increasingly reflect Woodward’s sense of “Yankeedom,” carefully telling farmers that they and their kin simply aren’t smart enough to tell the difference between a house cat and a 64-to-220-pound apex predator wandering through their back pastures.
In an age of high communication, this cultural gap appears only to be widening with a near-guarantee of ideological conflict.
Source Citations
1: Mountain Lion Facts, Missouri Department of Conservation website:
2: Caught on Camera in Northwest Missouri, Nadia Thacker, SJ Post newspaper,
http://www.stjosephpost.com/2017/02/08/caught-on-camera-in-northwest-missouri/
3: Ibid.
4: Private Facebook correspondence with Faron Price on 2/17/17
5: Comments from an inquiry about black panthers on the Facebook group Love my Ozarks,
6: Private Facebook conversation with Tammy McCleary Stotts of Bollinger County, Missouri.
7: Comments from an inquiry about black panthers on the Facebook group Love my Ozarks,
8: Ibid.
9: Has Anyone Lost One Panther?, Farmington (Missouri) Times, December 19, 1919
10: Zinc Miner Slays Huge Panther With Dynamite, St. Louis Republic newspaper, December 25, 1904.
11: Lively Yarns of Early Saline, The Marshall Republican, March 29, 1912
12: American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard, Viking Penguin 2011
In the mid to late ’80’s we lived on a forty acre farm. Jim and I had been out late one evening for a jeep ride. Upon returning home we were still setting in the jeep when we heard the most hair raising sound, like a woman screaming in terror or pain. My husband (avid hunter, farmer, logger) looked at me and said, “that is a black panther” there are not susposed to be any around here. The next day her took a walk in the direction that we thought the sound came from but found/sighted nothing, We have heard a lot of coyotes, fox, dogs, birds sounds on the farm but never nothing like this. Say what they want I will always believe it was a black panther we heard. We also have sighting of bobcats, those I have seen with my own eyes. Thanks for the article. We live in Gentry Co. Mo which is in the NW part of the state. About 45 miles from Maryville (mentioned in the article)
I just found this article today, 3/8/2017. Last week, while sitting at my kitchen table and looking south through my window in rural Cape Girardeau County, I plainly saw a large black cat about 250 yards away on a hillside in a pasture. I told my wife about it, and she also saw it. I grabbed my binoculars, and saw that the creature was clearly not a housecat, and was much larger. It passed by the base of a large tree, and it was easy to see that in comparison, a housecat would’ve been dwarfed by it. Finding this article was really fortuitous! It makes me realize that I wasn’t hallucinating!
When I was a child in Bollinger county, Mo we saw them frequently. We rented a house just near the Perry/Bollinger county line- in the cut of the valley-we had roughly 50 acres to play on- There was a pair that paced in behind our backyard garden in the early “misty” mornings in the early springs. After I witnessed this “casing” of our home, I no longer played in the woods and fields there alone. MDC denied it then, (that was in the mid 1980’s) they also denied the possibility of a black bear in our area and we saw one of those too- and that was later proven! Another time My best friend’s horse suffered lacerations as those from a large cat in the western part of Bollinger County (while this could have been a cougar, {which also isn’t supposed to be in MO}I suspect the panther was a more likely culprit) Another family I grew up with had a two story house with the upstairs windows that were recessed enough to see the roof, my father helped build their house and we were good friends with them -they told us they woke several mornings to the large black cat staring in the window. The MDC ( while I am not usually against conservation depts. as I now live in East TN and TWRA is pretty cool! ) is full of it! They introduced wolves into the Missouri wildlife in the 80’s but did not acknowledge that until the late 90’s when someone gave irrefutable proof they existed and the MDC had no choice but to share that it was in their plan, they re-introduced timber rattlers and other random wildlife there without caring to share with us- basically if they can disprove your suspicions that’s what they want to do- they are not interested in the truth and it will not be “fact” until someone can present irrefutable proof of a living thriving population of big black cats. I don’t really believe in Bigfoot or any other cryptids, but just knowing that these Big Black elusive animals have existed in MO for decades going un-“proven” sure does make me think twice about whether or not a Big Foot could live in the Missour wilds….
I enjoyed this site. It’s an awesome read.
I kept hearing something in my backyard I had 2 metal burn barrels for the trash and 1 for cans.. I knew it was something big to be able to knock them over and leave a trail to the woods about 3-4 yards away I was surrounded by woods. So I got a sensor light and around 4am I heard a wild scream and it did not sound like a woman.. I ran out on the deck and the yard light was already on, and just along the tree line I seen the biggest most beautiful gold eyes shinning in the light, like big Gold medallions, I couldn’t help but stare at those eyes and it stared back at me for 5mins. Or more it was so black all I could see was it’s eye’s.. 2 days later I could hear my Red nosed pitbull barking in a deep like growl like he was about to attack something I ran out side the sun was just starting to come up and by then my dog was crying and limping really bad the upper part of his leg was ripped wide open and very deep.. I ran towards my dog I heard that wild scream only this time it was really close, I turned towards the sound and it was most definitely a huge black panther, it was hunkered down ready to pounce and it’s nose was on one side of the gravel road and it’s tail was still in the ditch on the other side of the road I started banging on the side of the house when it jumped over the truck bed it’s tail was floating it was about 4feet long and as big around as a coffee mug at least maybe bigger it’s coat was shiny and beautiful just like it’s eye’s
My grandmother saw them and heard them as a child in Reynold’s county! They scream like a woman.
Yes the black panther does exist in Missouri. It is not a mtn lion that has black hair for whatever reason. It is not a large house cat..if so the one that we saw in Iron county, needs to go on a serious diet. Also have seen 3 in my lifetime..all in Missouri. It nearly drives me nuts that just because you have not seen or heard one does not mean that they do not exist here. I am a believer and will argue my case with anyone. My grandmother would not have made us kids get in the house because she saw a big house cat coming our way. We used to call them panters.lol I could go on about this, would love to hear about experiences that others have had. I will carry a camera every where I go from now on. I am charlies wife.
I have no doubt that what i saw were two big black cats in Belton Mo i was living at twin oaks apartments and one night taking my dog out to the bathroom it was lightly snowing as i was walking down sidewalk to the open grassy area almost to the end of sidewalk my dog starts going off and about 20 to 30 feet away their are two sets of big bright yellow eyes about chest high looking at me and that’s all i was able to see, i stood their trying to figure out what was staring at me then in a flash they both took off towards the tree line and they were super fast with long strides as they approach the apartment building closest to the tree line someone had a porch light on and when they ran by that light i caught a glimpse of two large black cats with really long tails they were both at least 200+ pounds, this was in 2015 and to this day im still in awe because this was in the middle of the city, I’ve lived in Freeman Mo most of my life that is country life style and close to conservation land, it is more likely to here stories of big cats but very seldom and never have i heard stories of big black cats, now that i look back im lucky that my dog was going off warning & protecting me from the two cats, the big yellow eyes chest high will always have me in awe, for sure their are huge black cats in Missouri