#fouke

Oh yeah, tons of friends...

Back during the 2013 Halloween Countdown, I mentioned the Boggy Creek Monster, or Fouke Monster, sightings of which center primarily around the Boggy Creek area on the borders between Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The creature was made famous beyond the region thanks to the 1972 docudrama The Legend of Boggy Creek (which was an annual viewing tradition in my Oklahoma family) and the films it inspired, such as Return to Boggy Creek (1977) and Boggy Creek II: The Legend Continues (1984).

A couple of recent documentaries have looked into the phenomenon: Southern Fried Bigfoot (2007) and Boggy Creek Monster: The Truth Behind the Legend (2016).

This year, two of my daring Halloween Countdown undercover operatives* made a bold journey to Fouke, Arkansas, saw the monster-related sights firsthand, and sent photos of their journey.

The locals, such as the friendly folk you might meet at the Monster Mart, are happy to talk about the area’s reputation. Public art celebrates the creature.

This is “Bigfoot Country”!

My operatives had no sightings or close encounters, but they did send me some sweet Fouke Monster swag from their adventure.

I’ll leave you with lyrics from one of the more iconic ingredients of The Legend of Boggy Creek, “The Legend of Boggy Creek” theme (also known as “Lonely Cry”) with lyrics and music by Earl E. Smith, originally sung by Chuck Bryant.

Here the Sulphur River flows,

Rising when the storm cloud blows.

And this is where the creature goes,

Safe within a world he knows.

  Perhaps he dimly wonders, “Why,

There is no other such as I,

To touch, to love, before I die,

To listen to my lonely cry.”

Listen to the original version or listen to cover versions by Pedro Boyd or by The Accidental Trio.