Technology
Creature double-feature: Legendary monsters lurk Fouke and the White River
In this episode of Friday Fruits, hosts Kiar Brafford and Remington Miller delve into the legend of the Falk Monster, Arkansas's very own Bigfoot. They explore the creature's history, notabl...
Creature double-feature: Legendary monsters lurk Fouke and the White River
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Interactive Transcript
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Hi, my name is Kiar Brafford and I am the Engagement Coordinator here at the Arkansas
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Democratic Gazette. Hi, I'm Remington Miller and I'm a reporter at the Arkansas Democratic
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Gazette. And this is Friday Friuts. A podcast where we are going to sit down here every Friday
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in October and talk about local legends, ghost stories and folklore and what we're starting
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here with today. Yes, so every week we're going to sit there and I'm going to bring you a story
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that hopefully we've never heard before and today we get to start with something super interesting.
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A creature feature. Also known as cryptosuology. Now of course I know what cryptosuology is but
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that's a five letter word. But as Remington tell us what cryptosuology is. Of course for the people at
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home. According to Marion Webster, so like the online dictionary, it is the study and search for
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animals but like legendary ones. So I need you to think not like lion tiger. I need you to think
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yeti, chupacopro, Loch Ness monster. All the fun stuff. Right. The fun kind of like cryptids.
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And usually the study involves some sort of effort to prove these creatures actually exist. And
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that's kind of like the driving force behind cryptosuology. Honestly, dreamgrap. And it comes up a
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lot when you're talking about paranormal creatures and that leads me to the story I have for you today.
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Yes, please. Remmy tell me a story. Absolutely. So I'm going to start with like a local legend that I've
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heard about since I was a kid, the fact monster. Have you heard of it? Vagely. Today you're going to
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know so much about it. It's going to be your new favorite legend. Okay, I love it. Educate me.
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So in the briefest sense, the Falk Monster or the Beast of Bucky Creek, same entity is Arkansas's
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Bigfoot, a southern sassquatch. Southern sassquatch. Oh, I like that. Southern sassquatch. So he like
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hunts. And the prowls. He's been seen around the town of Falk, which is in southwestern Arkansas
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and Miller County. And it's like two hours from Little Rock and like 20 minutes from Texarkana.
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That's like the closest major city. And Falk has like a population in 2020, I think of Rory and
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like 800. Okay, so kind of small. I need you to come back with me all the way to May 1971.
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1971. So you tell me there's Bigfoot and there's Disco all the same year. Yeah, it's a multifaceted
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year. There was a lot going on. All right. All right. There was this newspaper article published
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about the Falk Monster. It was written by journalist Jim Powell and published in the Texarkana
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Gazette. So it covers the story of this 25 year old man, Bobby Ford, who lived in Texarkana.
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He reported seeing this monster and he had this encounter with his wife Elizabeth, his brother
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Don and sister-in-law Patricia. So four people are like living in this house. Okay. And like
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every good horror story, they had just moved to this house and found. Okay. Right. So this monster
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is described as being about seven foot tall and three feet wide across the chest. So it's big.
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Uh, he said so this being Bobby Ford said that he thought it was a bear at first, but the creature
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was running upright and fast. That's a freaky bear. Even if it was a bear, I think the running on
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two legs at me would probably still send me running. Yeah. I mean, fair. And Elizabeth Ford also
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saw the Falk Monster. She said that she'd been sleeping in the front room of the house when she saw
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a curtain moving and a hand sticking in through the window. She told the Texarkana,
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uh, Texarkana Gazette. At first, I thought it was a bear's paw, but it didn't look like that.
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It had heavy hair all over and it had claws. I could see its eyes. They looked like coals of fire,
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real red. It didn't make any noise except you could hear its breathing.
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I think I would think creature at first. I'd probably think creeper.
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Right. I mean, but like red eyes, super hairy like hand. I've seen that person before.
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Well, at one point, Bobby and a few other people, I'm assuming like his brother Don,
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they shoot at the Falk Monster, trying to get it to leave them alone, hoping like to kill it.
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To my understanding, the monster visited their house like several times.
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Okay, then that's valid, I guess.
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And at one point, they called the Constable. And the Constable came to check things out and he
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ended up just giving them another weapon and a brighter light. I might be too incentral Arkansas,
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but we got constables. At least in 1971, we did. Okay. So after he drops off this light,
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Bobby is still out looking and trying to protect his home, his family. He ends up hearing the
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women in the house screaming and he goes to check on them and he ends up getting attacked by the
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Falk Monster. How's that? So according to the Texter Kenne Gazette article, Ford said I was walking
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the rungs of a ladder to get up to the porch when the thing grabbed me. I felt a hairy arm come
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over my shoulder and the next thing I knew we were on the ground. The only thing I could think about
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was to get out of there. I have notes. What did he was walking up the rungs of a ladder to get to
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the porch? Are they living in a tree house? I wish I could find a photo of the house.
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He was supposed to be doing his account, but he's over here spitting poetry. Okay.
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And so he just ran away? Well, so like he fills his arm come over his shoulder,
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they fall to the ground and I'm guessing that Falk disoriented both of them enough that he jumps
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up. He ends up running through the front door and he was taken to St. Michael Hospital where he was
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treated for scratches and mild shock. And it was released. Like a cartoon. There was a Bobby Ford
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shape hole in that door. Wait, what happened to the women? He didn't care. It's like at everything
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for yourself kind of situation. I guess. After all that action, what was found at the Ford House
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was several strange tracks that appeared to be left by something with three toes and several
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scratch marks on the front porch that appeared to have been made by something with three claws.
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The Constable Ernest Well-Raven. So the same guy who brought them the light. He told the
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Phil community near Falk, reported seeing a Harry monster in the area.
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And the article ends with a quote from Bobby Ford. I've had it here. I'm going back to Ashtown.
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You know, valid. And I'm not sure I've heard of a more valid reason for wanting to move.
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That's smart. That's how you don't end up in a horror movie. Exactly. You seem to break you
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thing. You're like, I'm out. So like regardless of whether or not like you believe in monsters or
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bigfoot or anything like that, this 1971 incident was serious enough that involved the Constable
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so law enforcement. And it made the local paper. So something definitely happened.
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And this was like the incident that made the Falk monster famous. So looking like I was looking
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on the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. And a follow up story written by Powell is actually where the
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creature got the name, the Falk monster, which like it's pretty on the nose. How they decided that.
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I wonder. So while the encounter with the Ford family got a lot of attention,
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reported sightings of the Falk monster date back as far as 1946.
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When a resident reported to the Miller County Sheriff Leslie Greer that she had seen the strange
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creature near her home. The Ford incident was again like this big deal that in 1972. So like only a
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year after this incident happened. It was made into a movie. Okay. The Legend of Bucky Creek.
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Which shared the story to an even larger audience. It was directed by Charles B. Pears. He also wrote
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directed and produced like I think bootleggers and the town that dreaded sundown or some of his
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other like pretty popular films. And when he married his wife and settled down and had children
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in Texas, our canna, he started an advertising business and apparently was acting. The Encyclopedia
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of Arkansas said that in 1971 the Falk monsters reportedly seen in the Boggy Creek area.
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An accused of attacking dogs and livestock. Right. So while still working in advertising,
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Pears created the semi-documentary film originally titled Tracking the Falk Monster.
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That was later renamed into the Legend of Bucky Creek. It is estimated that the cost of Pears to
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make this film was only about $165,000. The movie was filmed in Falk and to my understanding based
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on what I've read. It's like a pseudo documentary thriller about the creature, about the town,
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and it stars some of the eyewitnesses and residents of Falk. And it grossed about $22 million
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in ticket sales mostly from driving theaters. How did I miss it? We didn't do a screening.
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The Arkansas.com. Yeah. And you know, it's even crazier because Daniel Merrick, who if you don't
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know that's a director of the 1999 hit movie, The Blair Witch Project, it was filmed in the same
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semi-documentary style and he cited Pears' Boggy Creek as an influence.
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Okay. Okay. Screening. Love it. I want to say it. Right. And so in 1985, Pears also wrote,
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produced and directed and starred in Boggy Creek 2 and The Legend continues. It said to be more
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of like a generic horror film but still centered on the Falk Monster. And from a few of the things
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I saw online, it is not as popular or loved as The Legend of Boggy Creek. A sequel never
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is. And I've not watched either movie but that sounds like something spooky we could do this month.
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But if movies aren't your thing, I've got more options. There are a couple of books about the
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Falk Monster that talk about like his sightings near Falk. There's his author, Leo Blackburn.
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He wrote The Boggy Creek Casebook which covers Falk Monster encounters from 1908 to present
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as well as Beyond Boggy Creek in search of the Southern Sasquatch and he also wrote the
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Beast of Boggy Creek, the true story of the Falk Monster. He even co-produced and narrated a
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2016 documentary called Boggy Creek Monster which explores the history of the Falk Monster
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and the famed like 1972 horror movie like the first one the Beast of Boggy Creek. So
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this is the cryptosuology career. So there are more recent things that you could like read or watch
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learn more about the Falk Monster but if that isn't recent enough for you. At the end of this month
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on the 25th and 26th Blackburn is actually set to be a guest speaker at the Arkansas Paranormal
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Expo and he is set to be talking about the Falk Monster. Might go check it out. So you know end
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I've also done a little bit of research. If you're looking for spooky things to do and maybe
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you're busy during the Expo there is also a monster mart in Falk. They really are playing the
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show. They're ham and this. Well hold on the stores website. They have a museum dedicated to the
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legendary Boggy Creek Monster. Okay we're on brand, we're on theme. They also sell souvenirs and
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other things you might need. Love it. And I also do believe like Falk might even have its own
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Falk Monster Festival. This year it was like in April. I love this for them. I love a good theme.
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So not only does this like a big enough like lore for them to kind of go through and like not
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only just like get into papers in 1971. They've like kept with it. In fact so much so that I
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actually have a story that was submitted to us about Falk. Oh like a reader story? Yes. Okay
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cool. Tell me. So this story comes from Hunter Raimi who is a resident of Little Rock Arkansas.
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And Raimi says, I'm from Falk. All my life I have heard legends of this creature
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fearing to venture too deep into the woods and in my earlier years or earlier years as my family
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lived deep in the country outside of Falk. The Falk Monster is just the talk of the town. There
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are other things out there. Falk is not a safe place especially at night. You never know what you'll
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see on a foggy night drive back from Texarkana or driving through the oil fills and dirt roads
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just to get a late night snack. Sometimes your eyes will leave you unsure of what you've seen
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and you will continually ponder it. What do you mean? What do you mean? There's really things out
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there. Can you imagine like coming back from getting like a late night dinner and you see the Falk
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Monster? No. I don't want to. I'm like picky now from you like it like hits your like headlights
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a little bit. No. I don't want to. Yeah I mean it does kind of feel like you might. You gotta say
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like bobby Ford. Like your breakfast is whole. Just running through home. Yeah no um it sounds absolutely
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horrifying and I was so surprised that Arkansas had its own like big foot. Yeah that's really
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so that's that's one of my story right there. That's a Falk Monster. Yeah cool. Well we'll
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see if my story also compares to that legend. So I'm gonna tell you a story now. I'm so ready okay.
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Okay have you ever heard of the White River Monster? No I haven't actually. Well um I'm gonna
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tell you about him. So the White River Monster is one of Arkansas's premier mysteries.
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Kind of kind of boosting himself up okay? I know I know. So it all started well since 1915
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there have been sightings of the White River Monster along the White River in well nearby New
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Poor Jackson County that area. So it has appeared several times and has now become local legend. So
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sightings of Whitey. Okay. Whitey. Is that the monster? That is what they deemed the creatures name
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to be Whitey. They were creative. Okay I'm getting the location monster, Falk Monster, White
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River Monster and they pulled they said White River Monster. That's too long. We need Whitey.
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Okay so sightings of Whitey began in 1915 but were sporadic until 1937. So in 1937 on July 1st
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Bramlet Bateman was the owner of a plantation near the river where he saw the monster.
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He reported it as having gray skin and being as wide as a car and as long as three cars. Oh yeah
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it is it's big. That's yeah. It big. Is that is this like a water? Um some reports are saying that
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it's in the water. Some have reported tracks along the bank so it's like. Okay I always thinking this
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was like kind of like a sasco. I was still in Sasquatch mode. So this is like. No it's like river
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monster. Okay. River monster. Thank you for that. So yeah early accounts describe it as a large
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aquatic creature with gray skin somewhere between 12 and 30 feet in length. Oh my god that's a
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pretty like variety. But there's a lot of discrepancies on its size. I'm sure there's a lot of
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discrepancies on the Falk Monster's size. Don't you bring Whitey's like discrepancies
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we just credit over to the Falk Monster. So yeah like I said um Bramlin Bateman in 1937
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first publicized the his encounter with the White River Monster. He claimed that he saw
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something in the water that had the skin of an elephant four or five feet wide by 12 feet long
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with the face of a catfish. So wow I'm like struggling to picture that exactly in my head. Okay.
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I'm sure we'll have a picture but like yeah it's a little weird to think about.
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It's one of those like mythical things. Okay but anyway so he's in the White River Monster.
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Yeah. The local newspaper picked up the story and it wasn't long before a frenzy picked up
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with people trying to see this White River Monster themselves. Yeah for sure.
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Lots of visitors came hoping to catch the White River Monster too. The thing that could be 12 to
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30 feet. Yeah yeah yeah people were trying to catch it. What's what?
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Nets really big nets. Like yeah they had a thing. They had belief in those nets. Nets and
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divers were going in searching for it trying to find this cat. Fine Whitey but what if you had
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been a diver at that time and you had found Whitey. What if you had yeah. Found something that was 12 feet
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long. You're starting at the bottom. What if like you're at 30 feet long. Yes like the possibility.
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But sadly Whitey was never captured. That sounds like maybe a good thing. And then they kind of stopped
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trying to capture it at one point because of a lack of money and materials mostly. And then also
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starting well 1971 was apparently a big year. Cryptozoology even. For Cryptozoology. But in 1971
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the sightings because they kind of like were again sporadic after 1937. Whitey's elusive. Yeah
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mysterious. But in 1971 the sightings started again when someone reported seeing a great creature
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with a horn sticking out of it. Like I said the accounts on what the things look like. Not the same.
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And other witnesses describe it having a spiny back that's 20 feet long. Later they added that
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they saw a trail of toes. Like I mentioned before. Like having like like prints in the like the white
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for aria like on the bank. Why do you get more horrifying than what you've described it.
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People also reported crushed vegetation and broken trees. I don't know what Whitey is up to.
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But they were assumed to be Whitey's tracks out of all things. All right. I guess I don't have a
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better explanation. Yeah I guess the sightings and the popularity of Whitey got to the point where
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in 1937 or 1973 the Arkansas General Assembly passed state resolution 23. There is a law now.
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There is a law in Arkansas about the White River monster. What? Yes. Actual legislation. What does it say?
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Well basically sponsored by Senator Bob Harvey created the White River monster refuge along the
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White River. So Whitey is a refugee here in Arkansas. Why why was the session? I'm not really that sure.
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Does it so with the refugee does that mean it's like what does that mean for Whitey? Basically what
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that means is by the legislation that was passed declared that the White River was a refuge for
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the creature banning anyone from and I'm quoting here molesting killing trampling or harming
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the Arkansas proclaimed cousin to the Scotland's Loch Ness monster. I don't know why I thought it
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was to protect people from these suns. No. It's to protect. They wanted to protect Whitey. Yeah no
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no no. No it's Whitey here that they are concerned about. That's insane. The Fag Monster was being
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hunted but we needed to save Whitey. It's a cousin to the Loch Ness monster. Very remy.
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All the way in Arkansas. I want to see the maps. Show me the Carfax.
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Oh my god. Show me the White River monster facts right now. Okay.
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There are some theories about what Whitey could what people were actually seeing basically.
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Okay. So let me go back up here to my notes. So basically Professor Roy Mackel of University of
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Chicago who has PhD in biology but is also known to be a cryptozoologist. No. The double feature.
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I love that for though. He thinks he believes that the creature was actually an elephant seal.
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Okay. Yeah. I don't really know too much about those but that so our elephant seals
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popular in Arkansas. No. Oh. But I mean basically he theorizes that it could be a mistaken for
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like basically a creature that is outside. It's like kind of domain. Right. Okay. And then people
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got freaked out by this thing that they don't typically see and start calling it a monster. I
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like exotic animals and stuff and then kind of like dump them. It's like maybe maybe that's how
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the whole thing is still got here. That's the only way I could think of something like that
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because people I mean I guess you could say people saw some things. Yeah.
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Other theories about Whitey go from fantastical to scientific about it being the surviving member
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of extinct species. They're suggesting that it could be a large alligator gar.
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Like the fish? Yeah. Like the fish. I'm not sure how. I don't know. I wouldn't need to see
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that alligator gar. Big. The alligator gar could have gotten in 1937. But I'm gonna do a Google
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a photo of that. Maybe I don't know what they look like. No friend. That is definitely no. I mean
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it don't wrong. Is it a big fish? Yeah. Yes. Do I think that looks like a lock-in-a-smonster
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seal creature that could maybe have legs or a horn and is also super big? No. I don't think
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I don't think even in the dark at the night on the bank of the river when I mistake that.
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Well other people think it might be a Florida manatee. Which also? A Florida manatee.
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Apparently there was a in the 1970s and even in 2006. Oh okay. A theory that it was a
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Memphis manatee because there was a sighting in the Mississippi Gulf area of a manatee and it
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was being coined as the Memphis manatee. Okay. It just found its way there. Apparently just
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swimming up river could have found its way there. That's just all theories that people had for what
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people could be seeing. Some people say it was a manatee because manatees do crawl apparently on
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shores. I don't know what he crawling kind of scared me a little bit. I think that in my head I was
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like I'm safe. I would just not go in the river. You know I don't need to be around water
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anymore. That's fine. I don't need it. But those are only just like a few theories but I do have like
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a little bit of pop culture for you since you you came at me with a movie pop culture.
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Oh lots of movies, movies, movies, yeah. Books. I only have the one. Okay. But I hope this like
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you know kind of makes you chuck a little bit but you'll never believe where the white
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Vermont stirr pops up. Please tell me. Harry Potter. No he doesn't. Yes. No he doesn't. Where in
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Harry Potter is the white river monster? So it's not actually in like the books but whitey is like
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in like the Pottermore universe. Okay. Okay. Okay. The website. I got you. Yeah. The website. So
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basically he's mentioned or at least the creature. Not like whitey by name but the creature.
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An American one maker who worked in early early 20th century used the spine of a white river
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monster. Oh my god. What? He got white. Yeah. He got whitey. Um what? Apparently in this like
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universe there's a lot of white river monsters because he uses the spine as like the core for all
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of his wants. Yes. Um this initially apparently raised concerns over fishing and hunting the
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white river monster. This is who the legislation was for. And first I was like this is so dumb
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who needs like sorry but like I did not see an exact reason. Who needs this withers. Yeah like
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now I'm like you got to protect whitey. Yeah. So he apparently that was concerned over like
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over fishing and over hunting whitey um in this lore. This act should have been a punishable offense.
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So get this man. But since he was the only one who knew knew how to lure the creature
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ultimately it didn't really have that much ecological impact. So they just kind of left him to do
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that in in this Harry Potter world. That's so horrible. And it was fine like that until his death
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afterwards you know there were no more white river monsters. Spine made magical wants.
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Do we know with the Arkansas General Assembly was at the time? I don't know. They're like
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this got me an idea. Yeah that's oh my god. So yeah that's my pop culture for you about the
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white river monsters that it was hunted for magical ones in the wizarding world of Harry Potter.
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Yeah that at first yeah that's so exciting. And of course it was American. Of course I noticed that
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I was like how do we know what's the same? Yeah so not only so it's credible. It's believable.
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I don't know about credible. Oh my goodness that's that's insane. I did not I did not know it popped
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up there. Yeah so I love these stories that we just shared today. I can't believe today we covered
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the beast of Bucky Creek from Falk and then got to go all the way to northeast to Newport.
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What we heard about like some pop culture moments, two scary stories and also even like
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from fellow Arkansas that submitted their stories to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
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I love sitting down here with you and talking through these stories, Remy. And we will be back here
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next week and every week every Friday and October. So make sure you check us out and check out
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ArkansasOnline.com for more content just like this.