The Struggle to Be Known

Bigfoot, the Fouke Monster, Sasquatch … these creatures were running wild in South Arkansas when I was a kid. (At least in my vivid imagination.)

I was about 10 years old when the movie, “The Legend of Boggy Creek,” came to a theater near me. I was much too afraid to go see the movie myself, but I heard all about it from my brother who may have made up a large part of what he told me. But it was terrifying nonetheless.

The feature film told the story of a hairy stinky monster that terrorized a family in Fouke which was located about 10 miles south of Texarkana in Southern Arkansas. As a result of this movie, every kid I knew was talking about the monster that year.

There were hundreds of sightings of the creature that decade, not only in Arkansas but across the nation. And though they have different names, there are countless legends about Bigfoot-type animals all across North America. Some of these legends even come to us from the Native American people.

During the 70s many noted that Bigfoot was often seen near creeks or swamps. So it was believed that the animal lived and migrated along the bayous in the Southern part of our state. Since the best known, longest and maybe deepest bayou in the world just happened to run smack through my backyard, I was certainly on the lookout.

Whenever any kids came over to play, including cousins who would sometimes come and stay with us for weeks at a time, I would eventually start telling them about Bigfoot and how he probably comes through our backyard as he looks for food. I couldn’t help myself, most likely because I was so terrified. I rambled endlessly about him. I was also always looking for signs, like footprints or fur that he may have shed.

One of the stories I read about Bigfoot, explained that before most sightings of the creature a strong odor of sour tuna fish was thick in the air. So at least once a day, while hard at play, I’d stop and ask, “does anybody smell tuna fish?” This would inevitably ignite a frenzied dash through the woods back toward the safety of the house.

One teacher in school that year required us to stand in front of the class each week and present a current event which usually consisted of students bringing in clippings from various newspapers and reading them to the class. Most of my clippings came from the National Enquirer which ran what seemed like thousands of stories that year about Bigfoot.

It was interesting that this teacher didn’t disqualify my clippings since they came from a tabloid-style publication. As we would now say, “fake news.” I suspect she believed, as did I, that my clippings served to lighten the mood on current events day. That they did!

I was merely interested in topics that lived off the beaten track. I devoured the stories. One favorite concerned a lady missionary who was attacked by a gorilla while walking through the jungle. I read the entire article to the class first and then revealed the title, “I Gave Birth to a Monkey.” That was also a class favorite. Another was a story about a young photographer who died and somehow managed to take his camera with him into the afterlife, before miraculously being shocked back to life by emergency room physicians. The title of this article? “First Photo from Hell.”

You have to admit, this was some good stuff for a 10-year-old. The class loved it. Well, except for the bullies.

Earlier this year “The Legend of Boggy Creek” received a 4k restoration. The restoration was due to the efforts of director Charles B. Pierce’s daughter who now holds all the rights to the film, according to Newsweek. The much-needed restoration was overseen by the George Eastman Museum. Check out the trailer on YouTube. I tried to post it here, but the copyright prevented me.

The newly-restored film premiered in June of this year at the Perot Theatre in Texarkana. Which, local historians will remember, is the twin to the Saenger Theatre in Pine Bluff. The name of the Texarkana theatre was changed after Ross Perot bankrolled its restoration.

And one final Bigfoot tidbit. Earlier this year, the FBI unsealed its files on Bigfoot. (Yes! The FBI had Bigfoot files which they had been keeping secret for over 40 years.) Bigfoot devotees had long claimed that fur samples had been taken by government officials from a Bigfoot sighting and sent to a lab for testing to determine exactly what type of animal Bigfoot was.

Low and behold the very same test results were included in the unsealed files. See the actual document below. The results proved what many had already been thinking.

“The hairs were determined to be from a member of the deer family.”