THE BEAST OF BOGGY CREEK: The True Story of the Fouke Monster (21 page)

Amazed and excited, Walls and Humbert attempted to get permission from some of the local landowners so they could continue their search, but they were turned down in all cases. “We went driving down some dirt trails, but no one would let us on their property,” Walls said. “They seemed more concerned about keeping outsiders away than about any monster.”

The men were convinced that they had witnessed something truly strange and unidentified. “I don’t know what it was, to tell you the truth,” Humbert concluded. “But it chilled my bones.”

The Walls and Humbert sighting was not unique. The article goes on to quote Sheriff H.L. Phillips, who said his office had received at least one sighting per month during 1990.

Two years later, one of the most remarkable eyewitnesses sightings of the Fouke Monster occurred. In this case, the creature was not seen by just one, or even two people, but six people at once.

The incident took place on a cold, foggy night in October of 1992. At around 11:00 p.m. five young men were driving near Fouke on a lonely stretch of FM 134. Just after they passed County Road 8, near the McKinney Bayou, they noticed the bright headlights of a semi-truck coming toward them. As the truck got closer, they suddenly caught a glimpse of someone, or some
thing
, as it came out of the shadows and walked across the road in full view of both vehicles. The figure formed a dark silhouette in the headlights, but they could still see it was some kind of large hairy animal walking upright on two legs. The creature had come from the thick woods that lined one side of the road and was headed toward an open field that lay on the opposite side. Startled, both drivers hit the brakes.

Their first impression was that it must surely be a bear, but as they continued to watch the creature stroll across the road a mere 50 yards away, they could tell it was not. It was more man-like, but larger than a man, standing an estimated seven feet tall and walking on two legs the entire time. It never paused or looked at the men; it just kept moving. Facial features and other smaller details were hard to see because of the silhouette effect, but they were certain the creature was not an ordinary animal.

“It was definitely taller and thicker than a man, and bushy like it had a thick coat of hair,” Rusty Anderson told me during an interview. He was one of the five men in the car that night, two of whom I was fortunate to speak with. “It was one of those things that made the hair stand up on the back of your neck,” he added, as he recapped the events of that night.

After taking a few long strides, the figure left the road and entered a field where it moved beyond the reach of the headlights. At that point, the truck driver hurriedly got out of his vehicle, as did the five young men. They tried to get another glimpse of the strange creature, but it had already disappeared into the night.

1992: A strange creature is seen by six witnesses near McKinney Bayou just south of Fouke.

The men spoke with the trucker, all of whom were astounded by what they had just seen. “I remember that I felt in awe,” the other witness told me. (He was driving the car that night, but wishes to remain anonymous.) He and the other four passengers, including Rusty Anderson, lived in the general area, so they had certainly heard stories of the Fouke Monster many times and felt that perhaps they had just witnessed the animal for themselves. The truck driver, however, had never heard the legend. He was absolutely amazed by the back-story.

The incident was so surreal they discussed the possibility of having been hoaxed. But in the end, the witnesses did not feel this was the case. They were certain it was a real animal. “The reason I believe it’s true, and not just someone pulling a stunt, is the fact that there are no houses out there,” the witness stated. “The field it went into is at least four or five miles square. We were in the middle of nowhere, and there are few cars that travel that road.”

After a last look into the field, the parties returned to their vehicles and went their separate ways. The driver of the car, who eventually discussed the sighting with a friend of mine in 2004, was leery about telling anyone at first.

“All of us talked about what we saw to our families. I still think they don’t believe us. We never reported anything at first, because we didn’t want people thinking that we were trying to get attention or something.”

Considering the number of witnesses in this case, it seems unlikely that they had all been hallucinating. The two witnesses I spoke to seemed credible and I did not feel they were exaggerating or making up the story. Of course that doesn’t rule out trickery, but if they had been fooled by a clever hoax, then the hoaxer was indeed a brave person. Anyone who lives near Fouke knows full well that the area is stocked with hunters and woodsmen. The possibility of getting shot makes hoaxing a
very
risky affair.

When asked if they thought to go back later and look for evidence, such as tracks, the witnesses admitted that unfortunately that did not occur to them at the time. As such, the sighting remains a true mystery, yet one that stands out because of the number of people involved in the case.

But it was not the only time the creature found itself caught in headlights. According to Dorothy Briggs, who worked at the local convenience store in Fouke, two gentlemen came in one night well after midnight, sometime in the early 1990s. They had been traveling on Highway 71 in route to Shreveport, when they spotted something very strange crossing the road near Fouke. The two men, one of whom was Roosevelt Shine from Memphis, claimed to have no prior knowledge of the Fouke Monster, which made the sighting that much more incredible.

As the two men drove south along Highway 71, they saw what they described as “some kind of ape-man” walk out of the woods and onto the road in front of them. Mr. Shine slowed the vehicle until they rolled to stop about one hundred feet from the creature, which had paused on the shoulder of the road, eyeing the approaching headlights. As they sat there in growing disbelief, they could see that the creature was definitely walking on two legs, covered with dark hair, and standing approximately seven feet tall. It seemed adept in its movements, so it was fairly clear that it was some sort of bipedal animal and not merely a bear that had taken to walking upright.

Moments later, another car approached from the opposite direction and came to a stop as the occupants also noticed the strange creature frozen like a deer in the headlights. The couple in the car were from Fouke and well aware of its namesake monster, but they never believed they would see such a thing. The creature continued to stand at the side of the road, wary of the growing audience, when incredibly, a semi-truck came up alongside the Fouke couple and stopped to see what was happening. The witnesses now totaled five adults.

A few moments later, the creature darted back towards the woods, running fast on two legs. Immediately, all five people got out of their parked vehicles and began to discuss what had just taken place. To everyone’s amazement, they all saw what was very clearly a creature fitting the description of the Fouke Monster. After some conversation, they decided to report the incident to the local authorities, which they did. Afterwards, Mr. Shine and his companion made their way to the convenience store in Fouke where they told their story to the clerk, who eventually put them in touch with Smokey Crabtree.

So here again we have a case in which the creature was seen in plain view by multiple witnesses. Just as in the October 1992 case, something comprised of flesh and blood, walking on two legs, came out of the woods and approached the road. All these people are not likely to mistake a bear, deer, panther, or any other animal for a bipedal ape-like entity. So if misidentification is ruled out, then it only leaves two options: either it was a hoax perpetrated by some individual who did not care about the risk of getting shot or run over… or it was a bona fide mystery animal.

6. Bones and Shadows

A Glimpse Behind the Curtain

I haven’t been lucky enough to witness an ape-like creature cross the road, but I’ve seen some strange things in my life. I spent two decades touring as a rock musician, playing all across the United States, Canada, and numerous European countries. I’ve been in nightclubs made out of old World War II bunkers, visited dungeons in England, strolled through spooky graveyards in Austria, and performed in the hallowed rock halls of CBGB’s club in New York. I’ve mingled with all kinds of unique people along the way… musicians, movie stars, monster hunters, fire breathers, sword swallowers, contortionists and even a human lizard man. I’ve visited the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine; been to the Museum of the Weird in Austin, Texas; and come across a good many Bigfoot researchers who have shown me some very curious items that defy simple explanation. But nothing compares to the time I was introduced to a huge decaying skeleton locked away in an old building on the outskirts of Fouke, Arkansas.

It was a warm day in April. My wife and I had made our way to Texarkana, where we were guests at a meeting of Bigfoot researchers being held at a local outdoors shop. I was excited because Smokey Crabtree was scheduled to speak. I had met Smokey six months earlier at a related event, where I purchased one of his books and spoke to him briefly, but I had never seen him speak about the Fouke Monster.

Smokey spoke for nearly an hour, carefully going through the details of his son Lynn’s encounter and entertaining the group with stories about growing up in Mercer Bayou. After the meeting, we were invited to accompany Smokey and some others to an undisclosed location where we could see some interesting relics having to do with the alleged monster. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity.

Following by car, we eventually arrived at the designated location and parked. After the group gathered around, Smokey led us to a nearby building where he fiddled with a lock and latch until finally its heavy door slid open. We followed him into the dimly lit interior as he led us toward the far end, navigating through a haphazard collection of what appeared to be old tools, discarded furniture, and other items being stored there. With our eyes still adjusting to the low light after coming out of full sun, we practically had to hold on to each other’s shirttails to avoid tripping. It was like a group moving through one of those haunted house attractions at Halloween.

Eventually we came to a large, free-standing wooden panel that was located near the back wall. The panel bore a crudely painted message that read: “8-foot skeleton.” It looked like something you might see at an old traveling sideshow.

By now I had my suspicions as to what we were about to see and I could feel a twinge of true excitement sparking in my brain. The whole scenario reminded me of a scene from the old 1972 made-for-television movie,
Gargoyles
. In the movie, a writer and his daughter are summoned to a dusty roadside attraction called Uncle Willie’s Desert Museum to investigate a strange artifact, which the owner claims to have found in the surrounding hills. At first, old Uncle Willie seems like a charlatan, but eventually he takes the pair out to a shed where he’s kept the artifact. After making them promise not to take photos, he throws back a black curtain to reveal a bizarre looking skeleton that is roughly human size, yet possesses a horned skull, sharp beak, and large wings. That cinematic moment has stuck with me since I first saw the movie as a kid, so it seemed extremely surreal that years later I would find myself living a very similar scene. To further the irony,
Gargoyles
was released in 1972, the same year as
The Legend of Boggy Creek
. The parallels were rather eerie.

Smokey slid the wooden panel out of the way, revealing a large display case behind it. The case appeared to be roughly eight feet wide, four feet deep, and two feet high. It was made of clear acrylic glass resting on top of a wooden support structure, which was like a table on wheels. Smokey undid the front latch and propped open the glass lid so we could get a better look inside.

The first thing that hit me was the smell—the stench of organic decay made worse by the closed confines of the acrylic glass case and dead air of the musty building. When the lid was raised, all the pent up odor crawled out and hung like an invisible fog in the immediate area. It was pretty much the worst thing I have ever smelled.

But as I gazed into the case, I quickly forgot about the horrible smell. Inside lay the skeletal remains of something that had once been a very large animal… of some type. It was devoid of skin but covered with a layer of dried sinew, tendons, and muscle which still clung to the bones. It was something between a skinless corpse and a skeleton, mostly brown and yellow in color and completely intact except for the skull.