THE BEAST OF BOGGY CREEK: The True Story of the Fouke Monster (4 page)

When the population of Arkansas reached 60,000 in 1836, it was granted official statehood. The state’s main contribution to the Union was farming, attesting to the rich, fertile lands found within its borders. As such, more and more settlers were drawn to Arkansas in search of opportunity. In conjunction with the growing commerce and population, newspapers began to spring up, documenting local happenings. In searching these documents, several early incidents of “wild man” sightings can be found.

The first incident was reported by both the
Arkansas Gazette
and
Memphis Enquirer
on May 9, 1851. In this account, two hunters near Greene County were startled when they came upon a very large, hair-covered animal as it was trying to catch a calf from a herd of cattle. When the creature noticed the men, it stopped its pursuit of the calf and just stood there eyeing them. Then suddenly, it turned and ran. They described it as “… an animal bearing the unmistakable likeness of humanity. He was of gigantic stature, the body being covered with hair and the head with long locks that fairly enveloped the neck and shoulders.”

Upon investigation, the men reportedly found human-like tracks that measured 13 inches long. This is quite remarkable since the length correlates with the size of modern-day Bigfoot tracks. The reporter at the time theorized that the beast was in reality a human survivor of an earthquake that occurred in northeast Arkansas on December 16, 1811. But, of course, this hardly explains the gigantic height and the amount of hair covering the body. It sounds more like a modern report of a Sasquatch than a “wild man,” but either way the theory does illustrate the tendency to classify these “monsters” as wild men during this time period.

Apparently, this was not the only time a “wild man” was seen in the area. The article goes on to state: “This singular creature has long been known traditionally in St. Francis Green and Poinsett counties. Arkansas sportsmen and hunters having described him so long as seventeen years since.”

The second report dates to 1856 and describes a hairy “wild man” attacking a man in Sevier County north of Texarkana, Arkansas. The incident was first reported by the
Caddo Gazette
and was retold in the May 8 edition of the
Hornellsville Tribune
. This incident is often cited in popular books on the subject of Bigfoot and is considered to be more circumstantial evidence that Bigfoot-like creatures were living in the area as far back as newspapers began to report such sightings. In this account, a party of men were actually in pursuit of the wild man, which they described as “ … a stout, athletic man, about six feet four inches in height, completely covered with hair of a brownish cast about four to six inches long. He was well muscled, and ran up the bank with the fleetness of a deer.”

The party was apparently trying to take the creature alive, so one of the men approached it on horseback. But the wild man did not find this to his liking: “… as the wild man saw the rider he rushed towards him, and in an instant dragged the hunter to the ground and tore him in a most dreadful manner, scratching out one of his eyes… and biting large pieces out of his shoulder and various parts of his body.”

This incident is somewhat unique in that the creature acted violently. This is not the norm for the majority of Sasquatch encounters, but ironically, it does apply to the Fouke Monster, which has reportedly threatened humans at times. However, most Bigfoot sources fail to mention what occurred next, which would suggest that this may have been more of a wild
man
than a monster: “The monster then tore off the saddle and bridle from the horse and destroyed them, and holding the horse by the mane, broke a short piece of sapling, and mounting the animal, started at full speed across the plains.”

The ability to commandeer a steed does not bode well as proof of an unidentified ape, although the line that states this was “an attempt to capture the famous wild man, who has been so often encountered on the borders of Arkansas and Northern Louisiana” does certainly cite a history of weirdness in the vicinity of Fouke.

Another interesting wild man incident can be traced back to 1865. In this fantastical account, a seven-foot “wild man” was captured in the Ouachita Mountains area near Saline County, Arkansas. Unfortunately the original source of the tale is unclear since the story was not widely publicized until it appeared in the 1941 book
Ozark Country
written by Otto Ernest Rayburn. Rayburn was a popular writer, magazine publisher, and collector of Arkansas/Ozark folklore who was commissioned by publishers to write the book as part of a series called American Folkways. The series, which includes a total of 28 books, was aimed at preserving the America’s historical folkways such as Arkansas’ Ozarks.

1856: A hairy “wild man” attacks a man on horseback near the Arkansas/Louisiana border.

“According to Rayburn,” write Janet and Colin Bord in the
Bigfoot Casebook: Updated
, “the Giant of the Hills was often seen in the Arkansas Ouachita Mountains. This 7-foot
wild man
was covered with thick hair and lived in caves or by the Saline River. Everyone was afraid of him, although he does not appear to have harmed anyone. The decision was made to capture him, and the story tells that the men actually succeeded in this. They lassoed him in his cave and took him away to Benton jail. They also dressed him in clothes, which he tore off before escaping from the small wooden building. He was recaptured, but there the story suddenly ends.”

Presumably this was word-of-mouth folklore known to Otto Rayburn at the time, or told to him during his research, but beyond that it is impossible to determine how well known the story was around Arkansas… or how truthful it is. As with many old-time folktales, the story may have been embellished or relevant parts of the story may have been lost so that what remains may be open to many interpretations. Since a final climatic ending is missing, it can probably be assumed that Rayburn did not completely fabricate the story and was only recording it as-is for posterity’s sake. It would seem that if the story was in any way embellished by Rayburn, he would have certainly tacked on an appropriate ending about the beast’s second escape and eventual return to the hills, or perhaps created a King Kong-esque twist in which he kidnaps a local woman and ascends to the top of the general store only to be shot down by the townsfolk. But sans such an ending, it would appear that the author merely called it as he heard it, adding credibility that this is a genuine tale. Whether the wild man in question is actually a Sasquatch-like creature, we may never know.

Manimal Conjecture

The mysterious “wild man” sightings are important to consider within the man-ape monster phenomenon for several reasons. First, they may suggest that humans are merely prone to seeing hairy creatures running amok in the woods. This could be due to an age-old instinctual fear of any large, hairy beast that might do us harm (just as we have a built-in fear of snakes), or perhaps they are reverberations of our own primitive self still ringing in our collective consciousness. Because there are sightings of man-apes throughout history, and in all parts of the world, it could be argued that it is something ingrained in our collective psyche. The fact that reports have always existed, while no definitive proof exists, underscores the theory that these beasts exist only in our minds.

Or perhaps the tales were made up and perpetuated to keep children out of dangerous areas. Those instances that exist only in folklore may suggest more of a fairy tale or warning type message. An article published in 2002 by the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism does a nice job of summarizing the origins of the state’s most famous monsters and goes on to discuss possible reasons for their long history. The state boasts several alleged creatures, many of which fit into the ape-like category.

The article offers a possible explanation for the sightings:

The fact that Arkansas was sparsely settled in the early 19th century helped create many of the original legends. Isolated and with virtually no social activities, families entertained themselves with folktales they had heard or ones they fabricated on the spot. Also, in an effort to keep children from dangerous bluffs, streams and caves, parents often invented frightening stories about those dangerous places.

An example is at Sharp County’s Cave City, where a cavern with an underground river is located. As the area was settled after the Civil War, the walk-in cave became a favorite rendezvous for youngsters until a story made the rounds that a “Mr. Jones” had entered the underground stream in a boat and never returned. This may have deterred some youthful explorers, but the cave remained a gathering place, even after the entrance was covered with steel bars in the 1930s.

Alternately, the wild man incidents could be attributed to ignorance of anomalies such as hypertrichosis, the medical condition that causes hair to grow all over the human body (a la wolf boys or girls of the freak show circuit). This is especially relevant to sightings of this kind that date back many years before such scientific explanations were widely known. Under these circumstances, it would have been natural to assume that these hair-covered humans were indeed
wild men
or
werewolves
of some sort; even more so, since any person suffering from such an aliment at the time was most likely shunned by society and forced to live in the woods. Thus, it is quite possible that these “wild men” were man-beasts of our own making.

It is also possible that some wild men were actually just that… feral humans… as was the case in 1875 when one was discovered near the town of Fourche in Central Arkansas. According to frightened witnesses, a “half wild animal” had been prowling around local farmhouses, stealing food, and forcing women to cook for “him” while the men were away at work. The culprit was eventually apprehended, and as it turns out, was actually a wild
man
. He had been employed by the Iron Mountain Railroad, but after suffering a mental breakdown he wandered off the job and took up residence in the woods for two years. A reporter at the time described the man as being the “wildest, greasiest, ugliest-looking, half-clad specimen of humanity it was ever our lot to behold.” The man was subsequently tried by the local court after a judge declared him fit for trial. He was found guilty of vagrancy and sentenced to 60 days in a Little Rock jail.

However, occasional mistakes in identity or the existence of folktales do not successfully rule out the possibility that something far more mysterious is responsible for the sightings. The reality may, in fact, be more straightforward—or perhaps more frightening—in that the historical reports of wild men are the equivalent of modern day Sasquatch reports. Yes, just possibly, hairy man-ape creatures existed in the American backwoods long before we ever coined names such as Bigfoot, Fouke Monster, or any of the dozens of indigenous names that have been applied to them. In those days the moniker of “wild man” was as fitting as any and that’s what was reported or told to neighbors in an effort to describe the beast.

But following the reports of the 1800s, the descriptions would move away from terms such as “wild man” and take on a decidedly more “ape-like” tone. Perhaps the public’s growing familiarity with more worldly animals would help in their efforts to describe the hairy, shadowy creatures they began to find as they settled the area.

Since these formative years, Arkansas has gone on to contribute a great deal to American culture. The state has contributed to folk, country, and bluegrass music. It has given rise to champions of civil rights and been the humble birthplace of legendary entertainers such as Johnny Cash and Billy Bob Thornton. It has even given us a U.S. president. So it is not surprising that among all the honors and scars, the state has also managed to contribute a lasting entry to the canon of cryptozoology creatures with a certain Deep South flair. Just as Jersey has its Devil, Missouri has its Momo, Florida has its Skunk Ape, and so on, the Fouke Monster is a true creature of his environment. Crawling up from the swamps of the Sulphur River and traveling the meandering paths of Boggy Creek on hot sweltering nights, the monster reeks of Southern swagger, occasionally letting out a bellow from the dark corner of the forested backwoods. There’s no well-groomed, well-fed California Bigfoot here. No, the beast of Fouke is lithe, lean, and covered in long matted fur. And he’s got a knack for frightening the locals. Yes, the world would eventually find out what the quiet residents of the area had suspected all along: that they were sharing the land with a strange and unknown animal.