Arkansas

1Fouke Monster On the record

Ape-like · Boggy Creek, Fouke, Miller County · first reported 1946; famous from May 1971 · also called Boggy Creek Monster

The Boggy Creek creature, which reached through the Fords' window in May 1971 and inspired the 1972 film The Legend of Boggy Creek, has its own dossier. Miller County still leads Arkansas with 9 BFRO reports.

Full story: Fouke Monster →

• 1946On the record Before the famous 1971 case, a sighting was reported to Miller County Sheriff Leslie Greer in 1946, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. It shows the creature was already part of local talk a quarter century before the movie made it famous. Source: encyclopediaofarkansas.net

Visiting: The Monster Mart in Fouke sells souvenirs; the Fouke Monster Festival raises money for local schools.

2White River Monster On the record

Water monster · White River near Newport, Jackson County · first reported July 1915 · also called Whitey

Arkansas's river monster, Whitey, has been reported in the White River near Newport since 1915. That year a witness described a grey animal as wide as a car and three cars long. In the first week of January 1937, plantation owner Bramlett Bateman reported something with elephant-like skin, four or five feet wide and twelve feet long, with a face like a catfish. The summer of 1971 brought reports of an animal the size of a boxcar, with a bony horn on its forehead, and three-toed tracks fourteen inches long on Towhead Island. In 1973 the state legislature created a White River Monster Refuge where harming it is illegal. Suggested explanations include an elephant seal, a stray manatee and a giant alligator gar.

• January 1937On the record Bramlett Bateman, who owned riverfront land near Newport, said he saw a huge grey animal surface in the river, with skin like an elephant and a face like a catfish. It is the best-known of the early reports and is often cited as the moment Whitey became famous across the state. Source: en.wikipedia.org
• 1973On the record State Senator Robert Harvey sponsored a law creating the White River Monster Refuge between Old Grand Glaize and Rosie. Within it, it is illegal to harm the creature. The law remains a favorite piece of Arkansas trivia and is still cited whenever Whitey comes up. Source: en.wikipedia.org

3Gowrow Told story

Beast · Calf Creek Township near Blanco, Searcy County · first reported January 31, 1897 (in print)

The gowrow made its debut in the Arkansas Gazette on January 31, 1897. The story said Little Rock businessman William Miller had tracked a monster near Blanco in Searcy County that was killing livestock and pets. His posse supposedly followed it to a cave full of animal bones and human remains. The beast was described as twenty feet long, with two tusks, webbed and clawed feet, short horns along its back and a tail ending in a blade. Miller said he shipped the body to the Smithsonian, but it never arrived. The Gazette's own editor later called it a great fake. Folklorist Vance Randolph recorded more gowrow tales, including eggs as big as beer kegs and a showman's staged escape.

4Wild Man of the Woods On the record

Humanoid · Crowley's Ridge; Greene, St. Francis and Poinsett counties · first reported 1846 (possibly 1834) · also called Arkansas Wild Man, Greene County Wild Man

Long before Fouke, eastern Arkansas had a wild man in the newspapers. In March 1846 the Baltimore Sun reported a giant track in the region, twenty-two inches long with toes as long as a man's fingers. In 1851 papers carried a report from Greene County. Two hunters saw a giant, hair-covered figure chasing a herd of cattle, with long locks over its neck and shoulders, leaping twelve to fourteen feet at a stride. That year Colonel David C. Cross and a Dr. Sullivan of Memphis organized a search, which some call America's first Bigfoot hunt. An 1856 report described a seven-foot wild man who tore at a hunter. The items were reprinted in papers across the country, far from Arkansas.

• 1851On the record Two hunters in Greene County reported a huge, hairy, man-like figure chasing cattle and covering twelve to fourteen feet in a leap. The account ran in papers far from Arkansas, including the Vermont Watchman, and led to an organized search from Memphis. Source: exploresouthernhistory.com
• Winter 1856On the record A report from the Sunflower Prairie area described a hair-covered man about six feet four inches tall who attacked a hunter on horseback, injured his eye and escaped. It appeared in the Ashland Union in Ohio, among other papers, and a later chase reportedly pushed into the Ouachita Mountains. Source: countryroadsmagazine.com

5Ozark Howler Told story

Beast · Ozarks of northern Arkansas; Springdale and Benton County reports · first reported Late 1990s (internet)

The Ozark Howler is described as a dark, shaggy, bear-sized animal, cat-like in some accounts and sometimes horned, with a terrible howl. It is supposed to roam the Ozarks of northern Arkansas and southern Missouri. Some writers tie it to an animal Daniel Boone is said to have killed. Several writers trace the modern legend to the late 1990s and an online prank. In October 2014 a 911 caller in Springdale reported nearly hitting a bear-sized grey animal that ran fast across Pump Station Road. In December 2015 Arkansas television station 40/29 News received photos said to show the Howler. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission called the photos a hoax and said it had no official reports.

• December 2015Proven hoax Arkansas station 40/29 News received photographs said to show the Ozark Howler. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said the images were a hoax and that it had no official sighting reports on file. The images were never authenticated. Source: en.wikipedia.org
• October 2014On the record At 9:45 p.m. a motorist on Pump Station Road in Springdale called emergency services after nearly hitting an unknown bear-sized, grey, fast-running animal. The call was later linked to the Howler legend, though no animal was found or identified afterward by wildlife officers. Source: en.wikipedia.org

6Snawfus Told story

Beast · Arkansas Ozarks · first reported Recorded by Vance Randolph (20th century)

The snawfus is one of the gentler and stranger beasts of Ozark folklore, recorded by folklorist Vance Randolph. It is a deer, larger than normal and often white, with living trees or flowering branches growing from its head instead of antlers. It breathes out spirals of blue smoke, which some say is the source of the blue haze over the Ozark hills in fall and winter. It can leap into treetops and even fly. One tale says an orchardist caught it and grafted Arkansas Black apple branches to its skull. Another says a hunter loaded his rifle with plum pits and hit an albino deer, and plum trees sprouted. Some Ozark people took any white deer as an omen of death.

7Heber Springs Water Panther Told story

Beast · Greers Ferry Lake, Heber Springs, Cleburne County · first reported 2007 (in print)

Greers Ferry Lake supposedly has a water panther, described as a cross between a Sasquatch and a puma. Author W.C. Jameson wrote in a 2007 book that it once lived in the Little Red River bottoms. He said sightings moved to the lake after the dam was finished in the early 1960s, starting around 1966. The idea borrows from much older Native American water-panther traditions of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley. In 2011 University of Central Arkansas professor Mark Spitzer went looking. Dock owners and the local historical society had never heard of it, and he found nothing in 1970s newspapers. He concluded, bluntly, that he was chasing nonsense. The legend appears to start with the book.

8Gurdon Light Told story

Lights · Railroad tracks near Gurdon, Clark County · first reported 1930s

Along the railroad tracks outside Gurdon, about 85 miles south of Little Rock, people report a light that bobs above the line at night. Sightings date to the 1930s. Local belief ties it to a killing. In December 1931 Missouri-Pacific foreman William McClain was beaten to death by worker Louis McBride after a dispute over work hours during the Depression. The light is said to be McClain's lantern. Another version blames a beheaded railroad worker hunting for his head. Suggested causes include headlights from Interstate 30, though sightings predate the highway, along with swamp gas and electricity from quartz under the ground. Unsolved Mysteries filmed there in 1994.

• December 16, 1994On the record NBC's Unsolved Mysteries aired a segment filmed at Gurdon that October, covering both the light and the 1931 killing. The broadcast turned a local Halloween pastime into a national story and drew many more visitors to the tracks, especially around Halloween. Source: encyclopediaofarkansas.net

Visiting: Viewing is from public roads near the tracks; walking railroad lines can be dangerous and may be trespassing.

9Crossett Light Told story

Lights · Abandoned railroad bed outside Crossett, Ashley County · first reported Early 1900s

Outside Crossett in southeast Arkansas, a light is said to float along an old railroad bed. Witnesses say it hovers two or three feet off the ground, then rises into the treetops or swings side to side. Colors run from yellow and orange to blue and green. The odd detail repeated most often is that it backs away as you walk toward it and reappears the same distance off. Reports go back to the early 1900s. The usual legend is a railroad worker who lost his head in an accident and walks the tracks with a lantern looking for it. Swamp gas and headlights have been proposed, though reports seem to predate many cars in the area.

10Dover Lights Told story

Lights · Dirt road north of Dover along Big Piney Creek, Pope County · first reported Late 1800s (claimed)

North of Dover, a lonely dirt road above Big Piney Creek is known for the Dover Lights. Visitors report glowing points in the canyon that change color and sometimes seem to answer flashlight signals. Stories about them are many. One says miners died when a hillside mine collapsed, and the lights are their lanterns. Another speaks of Spanish gold seekers. A third names it a Native American burial site. The strangest involves a doctor paid in silver bullets, who stole an old couple's silver and died in his sleep, followed by floating lights. A paranormal TV crew filmed there in April 2009. A 2009 Texarkana Gazette story quoted a man who called the lights a hoax.