The Boggy Creek Monster

by Patrick Massey.

With Halloween just several days away, we thought there was no better time to take a look at some of the haunted and just plain creepy parts of our corner of the state. Earlier this week we looked at Sevier County’s very own haunted locale, Avon Cemetery, and the ghastly tale of the Gurdon Light. 

Today, we’re going to look a little further south, at the swamps of Southern Arkansas where for decades something, so it’s been said, has been lurking, hiding and only occasionally making its presence known. 

The swamps of Southern Arkansas are a notoriously wild and almost impenetrable expanse. It’s a land seemingly almost forgotten to time itself. And there, around the town of Fouke and the surrounding wilderness, something mysterious and terrifying is said to live.

I speak, of course, of the Fouke Monster. The story of the Fouke monster spans five decades with initial sightings in the early 1970s. The creature is most commonly associated with the bigfoot or Sasquatch of American folklore. A hairy, bipedal seven-foot tall ape-like creature said to have, oddly, three-toes, the Fouke monster has had many run-ins with residents of southern Miller County – if you believe the stories. 

The monster came to some fame after it reportedly attacked a man and in his family at their home. Sightings increased from there, with the creature blamed for multiple deaths of large animals in the area. One farmer claimed to see the Fouke Monster run off with a pair of 200 lbs hogs tucked under its arms. 

Soon after, a series of cheesy docudrama films were made and helped carry the legend of the Fouke Monster to audiences across the nation. I’ve seen the first two movies and they’re full of… um, heart. Nonetheless, the Legend of the Boggy Creek monster was the 10^th highest grossing film of 1972. Americans, after all, do love a good Bigfoot tale. Here’s a clip from the movie detailing one of the first reported encounters with the Fouke Monster.

Although most encounters with the Fouke Monster have been peaceful, those who claim to have seen it don’t recommend visiting the surrounding woods alone. Nonetheless, that hasn’t stopped the creature from becoming Fouke’s most famous residents. An annual festival is held to celebrate the creature and its legacy in southern Arkansas. The Fouke Monster Mart is a great place to see some history on the monster and maybe even talk to a local or two who claim to have seen it. 

And in case you’re wondering, sightings of the Fouke Monster and related kin have been reported aren’t just centered in Miller County. Obviously, the creature doesn’t care much for county lines. Sightings have been reported right here in Sevier County, mostly in the bottoms of Pond Creek. A few folks around the Little River and Rolling Fork rivers have helped make the legend more local with their own sightings of the monster. That includes one recent story regaled to me. A few hunters checking their deer feeder near the Rolling Fork River at the beginning of last year’s archery season found the feeder smashed to bits and dragged hundreds of feet from its location. They’re adamant it wasn’t hogs but something much bigger, much scarier and, likely, much hairier. I’ll leave it up to you to decide. But one thing’s certain – talk to someone who’s claimed to have seen the monster and you’ll feel a chill down your spine. And you might just be left wondering if there’s a lot more mystery in them woods than what we know – or even want to believe. 

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