THE BEAST OF BOGGY CREEK: The True Story of the Fouke Monster (34 page)

14 Wayne Scoggins is not related to the previously mentioned Raymond, Orville, or Jerry Wayne Scoggins of Fouke. This is just a rather confusing coincidence.

15 Perhaps not so coincidentally, there have been reports of monkey howls coming from the Ouachita Mountain region of Arkansas and Oklahoma. These mountains are considered to be a hotspot for Bigfoot sightings.

16 The commercial can be viewed at www.foukemonster.net

Appendix:
Stranger Than Fiction

Reel to Real

For those who like to separate fact from fiction, I have included a breakdown of scenes in Charles Pierce’s
The Legend of Boggy Creek
, mapping them to the equivalent “true” reports by individuals. Being that it’s a movie, people tend to think that many of the scenes were just made up, but this is not the case. Of course, some scenes are embellished for dramatic purposes—it is entertainment, after all—but nearly everything was based on real life reports.

This list is broken down by the
minute:second
where the scene starts in the movie:

2:34 SCENE: Young boy is running across a field on his way to Fouke to report that his mother had seen a “big hairy monster.”
= Based on an incident which occurred in the 1960s in which a mother sent her seven-year-old boy on a two-and-a-half-mile run to the town of Fouke, where he informed the landlord that they had seen a large hairy creature approach their home.

9:35 SCENE: Willie Smith shoots at the monster from his porch.
= Based on Mr. Smith’s own report in which he claims to have shot at the monster in 1955.

10:02 SCENE: John P. Hixon, owner of the Apache Ranch, describes how he and his son saw the monster running on two legs across their field. The monster appeared to be wounded.
= Unknown source. No records of an Apache Ranch can be found.

10:30 SCENE: John W. Oates describes how his two prize hogs were killed and dragged into the woods. He suspects the monster.
= Based on Mr. Oates’ own account in which two of his hogs were killed and subsequently carried off into the woods in 1971. According to Oates, he laid both dead hogs—one weighing 80 pounds and the other 70 pounds—at the edge of his land one evening. The next morning he discovered that both had been picked up and carried off (not dragged). He could still see the imprint of the hog’s hair in the soft dirt of a gopher mound where they had lain. The movie theorized that it could have been the work of the monster, but the “monster” was never suspected in real life. Oates lived approximately 5 miles from Boggy Creek.

13:35 SCENE: Fred Crabtree encounters the monster while hunting in the woods.
= Based on Fred’s own report in which he claimed to have seen the monster sometime in the 1960s.

15:00 SCENE: James Crabtree encounters the monster near a creek while hunting in the woods.
= Based on James’ own report in which he claimed to have seen the monster along a creek bank in 1955. He believes it may have been washing itself in the creek just before he startled it.

16:55 SCENE: Mary Beth Searcy, her sister, and her mother see the creature from their window one night in the 1960s. Their cat is found dead the following morning.
= Based on the Searcy’s own report in which they claim the monster stalked around the house one evening after dark. The death of the cat, however, was added to the film for dramatic effect.

23:37 SCENE: Teenage deer-hunter hears dogs barking and runs out to investigate, taking his shotgun. He encounters the monster, fires twice, and runs for the house, dropping his gun in the process.
= Based on a claim made by fourteen-year-old Kenneth Dyas that he had seen the monster in 1965 while deer hunting. Frightened, he shot at the creature and ran for the house. One month prior to Dyas’ sighting, fourteen-year-old Lynn Crabtree also had a similar encounter. Lynn fired three times before running. A subsequent investigation did not locate any blood, so it is uncertain whether the monster was wounded or not.

26:16 SCENE: A search party—including men on foot and horseback, as well as bloodhounds—is formed to look for the monster.
= Following Lynn Crabtree’s horrifying encounter in 1965, men started showing up at Smokey Crabtree’s house offering assistance to hunt down the creature. Nearly 20 locals, armed with guns, horses and tracking dogs, scouted the area but were unable to find any solid evidence. In 1971, concerned by the new rash of incidents, Miller County Sheriff Leslie Greer organized a new search party to seek out the monster in and around Boggy Creek. Nothing conclusive was ever found.

28:29 SCENE: One member of the search party, a man on horseback, encounters the monster while in the woods alone. Startled, his horse throws him from the saddle.
= Based on the report made by Jimmy Kornett, who participated in the original hunt on the Crabtree property (in response to Lynn Crabtree’s sighting). While riding his horse through the bottoms, Kornett claimed that a “creature” passed nearby, causing his horse to throw him. He could not say whether the animal he saw was a bear or something else.

38:00 SCENE: Herb Jones, a man who has lived by himself in the Sulphur River Bottoms for more than 20 years, expresses his disbelief in the monster.
= Herb Jones was a real man who lived in a place known as Little Mound on the Mercer Bayou.

41:05 SCENE: A couple driving along Highway 71 at night see the monster run across the road.
= Based on the report made by Mr. and Mrs. D.C. Woods Jr., and Mrs. R.H. Sedgass in May of 1971, in which they saw the monster run across the highway while returning from Shreveport one night.

41:18 SCENE: Monster scares chickens and cows.
= Many Fouke area locals suspected the monster was responsible for killing some of their livestock. However, no actual reports of chicken coop raids can be found.

42:08 SCENE: O.H. Kennedy discovers a series of strange, three-toed footprints one morning in Willie Smith’s soybean field located near Boggy Creek. Local officials and wildlife experts are called in to investigate.
= This incident actually occurred in June of 1971. Mr. Yother Kennedy discovered a series of mysterious footprints in a soybean field, which he leased from Willie Smith. The tracks originated in the woods at one corner of the field and traveled about 150 yards before disappearing into the trees on the other side. Experts could not determine what kind of animal (if it was animal) had made the tracks.

47:00 SCENE: Bessie Smith and her children encounter the monster at the edge of their property near the woods.
= Based on an alleged sighting by Bessie Smith. No written records of this account can be found in the newspapers, so it is uncertain how accurately this scene is portrayed. But either way, local sources confirm that Ms. Smith did report a sighting.

49:16 SCENE: Charlie Walraven sees the monster run across the road while driving at night.
= Based on a claim made by Charlie Walraven in which he saw a creature run across County Road 9 south of Fouke.

50:09 SCENE: Nancy and some friends see the creature from their window.
= Based on an incident that occurred in 1971 in which three girls—Chris Rowton, Sherrie Johnson, and Christine Worrell—were alone one night in a trailer home. The trailer was located on the east side of Highway 71 near Boggy Creek and Willie Smith’s bean field. They heard noises all night as something stalked around on the porch. They never saw anything, but the following day they found “large greasy tracks” left by some unknown animal.

54:50 SCENE: The monster stalks around Howard Walraven’s trailer home and is suspected of killing his dog.
= Based on a claims and conjecture made by Howard Walraven.

55:57 SCENE: The Ford incident.
= Based on the incidents which occurred in late April/early May of 1971 at a rent house where the Fords were living at the time. The subsequent newspaper reports by Jim Powell of the
Texarkana Gazette
inspired Charles B. Pierce to make the movie and essentially ignited the Fouke Monster craze of the 1970s.

Chronicle of Sightings Near Fouke

This list includes reported sightings of hairy bipedal man-ape creatures within 50 miles of Fouke, Arkansas. This is not a comprehensive list of all sightings that have occurred in Arkansas or the surrounding states, but only those which could possibly be attributed to an unknown cryptid that may (or may
have
) inhabited areas near Boggy Creek. (Sources are included unless the story was reported to or verified by the author directly.)

1908
Near Fouke, Arkansas – Woman is reported to have seen a creature fitting the description of the “Fouke Monster” when she was 10 years old.

1916
Summer / Near Wright-Patman Lake in Texas (Knight’s Bluff) / 19 miles from Fouke – While driving at night (from town to home) in a mule-drawn wagon, family sees a tall, hairy figure emerge from the woods and stand in full moonlight. It was described as “taller than a man and covered with long dark hair.” The creature walked slowly toward them on two legs, all the while shrieking and motioning angrily. When the father fired at it with his rifle, the creature ran back into the woods. About Paranormal (http://paranormal.about.com) and reported privately to TBRC (www.texasbigfoot.org).

1932
Near Fouke, Arkansas (Jonesville) – Man sees a hairy, man-like animal from his porch. It quickly moved out toward the fence on the property and disappeared into the woods.

1946
Near Fouke, Arkansas – Woman sees a strange animal in the field by her house. According to the local sheriff, she said “it looked kind of like a man, and walked like a man, but she didn’t think it was a man.”
Texarkana Gazette
.

1947
Winter / Mooringsport, Louisiana (Caddo Lake) / 40 miles from Fouke – Two boys see a hairy, manlike creature peer into the window of their house one night. The creature was very tall, since the window was nearly eight feet from the ground because the house sat on tall piers. TBRC.

1955
Near Fouke, Arkansas (Mercer Bayou) – Experienced hunter/trapper sees a large gorilla-like creature while fishing in a river. It appeared to be washing its hands before it walked off on two legs into the trees.

1955
Near Fouke, Arkansas (Jonesville) – Two adult residents see a hairy, man-like creature cross the road one evening while driving near their home. They noted that it “walked like a man, but was too hairy to be a man.”

1955
Fouke, Arkansas – Man sees a large, hairy ape-like creature near his house on Boggy Creek. He shot at it 15 times with a rifle, but apparently missed.
Victoria Advocate
.

1960s
Summer / North of Hughes Springs, Texas / 46 miles from Fouke – Two sisters see an animal with “lots of hair that looked somewhat like an ape but was walking tall and upright” through their bedroom window one night. TBRC.

1964
Near Fouke, Arkansas (Jonesville) – Teenage girl sees a tall, hairy, two-legged creature lurking in the yard of her rural home one evening.

1965
Near Fouke, Arkansas (Mercer Bayou) – Hunter sees a seven-foot tall, hairy man-like animal in the woods. As he approached, the creature disappeared into the thick underbrush.

1965
Near Fouke, Arkansas (Jonesville) – Teenage boy encounters a hairy man or ape-like beast near a lake on his family’s property. It was described as seven-foot tall with “reddish-brown hair about four inches long all over its body. It stood upright like a man, but had extra-long arms.” As the thing approached, he fired at it with his shotgun three times and then fled.
Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us
(Hancock House Publishing, 1971).

1965
Near Fouke, Arkansas (Jonesville) – Another teenage boy sees the alleged monster in the woods while deer hunting. He fired his gun at the creature before running away.

1965
Near Fouke, Arkansas (Jonesville) – Woman deer hunting sees a dark, hairy ape-like figure running on two legs along a pipeline.

1965
August / Between Prospect and Lodi, Texas / 38 miles from Fouke – Boy sees a “large hairy man or beast” while walking on a rural road one afternoon. The creature reportedly chased the boy for a short distance before disappearing again into the woods.
Marshall News Messenger
.

1966
Near Fouke, Arkansas – School bus driver sees the alleged monster cross the road early one morning.
Smokey and the Fouke Monster
(Day’s Creek Production Corporation, 1974).

1966
Various occurrences / Near Fouke, Arkansas (Jonesville) – Smokey Crabtree reports that the alleged monster, on several occasions, approached his house at night, was heard screaming, or would disturb the dogs (although it never harmed any animals).
Smokey and the Fouke Monster
.