Arkansas is a US state located in the South-Central US and it is bordered with the US states of Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi. Arkansas capital and largest city is Little Rock. The other big cities in the state are Jonesboro and Pine Bluff.
Arkansas territory is made up of forested mountains including the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains and in the South of the state there are densely forested areas and in the East are the lowlands. The state normally experiences hot humid summers and dry mild-cool winters. The state is one of those located in the Tornado Alley region and so can have a number of destructive tornadoes from year-to-year.
Arkansas has a diversified economy and the major retailer Walmart is also headquartered in the state. Other major companies based in the state are Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt, Dillard’s, Murphy USA as well as Windstream. Agriculture also plays a big part in the economy with the state being the nation’s largest rice, broiler and turkey producer. Other important sectors are lumber production, mining and tourism.
But now it is time to see what Arkansas has to offer in the realm of the unexplained and the mysterious.
Arkansas does have a few possible cryptids under its belt that can potentially be ran across in its many wilderness areas. The Ozark Mountain’s that are partially in the state are said to have one of these potential cryptids living within it, named quite simply the Ozark Howler because it likes to make a lot of noise and freak people out that are nearby. But what exactly is it?
Well that depends on who you ask as there are various conflicting descriptions of what it looks like and what it could possibly be if anything. One common description is it is a large cat-like creature and of which has often been said to have horns on its head and intimidating glowing red eyes. It is also often described as having a large body, perhaps bear sized, thick legs and a shaggy coat of black hair.
The noise it makes is described as a combination of a howl of a wolf, bugle of an Elk and the laugh of a Hyena. It sounds pretty scary and it is more so if you consider that it could be some kind of supernatural creature rather than just an undiscovered obscure animal, of which some believe it may be some kind of undiscovered big cat. One of its potential supernatural aspects is it showing up as an omen of death that is forthcoming.
Although the Ozark Howler is most popular in Arkansas, some say it can also be witnessed in the surrounding states of Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma.
Some possible explanations for the Ozark Howler are that it is some kind of misidentified animal such as a bear or that the Ozark Howler begun as a hoax, with possibility that it was started off by a University of Arkansas student who had emailed a number of cryptozoologists, sending them on a goose chase, although others say that the Ozark Howler has predated this.
Whatever is up with it the Ozark Howler is a big part of the state’s folklore now and it is common for it to be involved in a scary campfire story while out camping in the Arkansas wilderness with friends and family. Nothing like a good story to get your sense on edge while feeling incredibly vulnerable out in the middle of nowhere.
Water serpent next, most states have one as I’ve said a number of times and Arkansas is no different. There one is named the White-Water Monster, which reminds me of the time I went white-water rafting when I was back in school. Anyway, the monster is named after the White River which is a 722-mile long river that flows through Missouri and Arkansas, with the part in Arkansas said to be where the monster frequents.
The first recorded report is from December 1912 when some timber workers claimed that they spotted something in the river, describing it looking like some kind of giant turtle, possibly as heavy as 300lbs judging by its visible size. Naturally as humans do a hunting party was apparently formed to capture it instead of just leaving it in peace, but we can only assume they didn’t catch it as there is no evidence they did and reported sightings have since continued.
Plantation owner Bramlett Bateman reported seeing a creature in the river in 1937, who described it as a grey-skinned creature that was about 5-feet in width, 12-feet in length and that its face looked like a catfish.
Various reports from the 1970s onwards have gave varying descriptions, such as it having horns on its forehead, possibly as heavy as 1,000lbs and a spiny back. Some have claimed that the creature also has the ability to leave the river temporarily to go on shore, where it may leave behind large three-toed footprints.
If you want to go and have a chance at seeing Whitey (his nickname), one of the best apparent places is the area of the river between Newport and Possum Grape, just don’t think about harming the creature if you do come across it as the area is a refuge for this apparent sea serpent via a 1973 legislative bill that was signed into law, was the bill preemptive or a waste of time? Who knows? Maybe they know more than we do.
One explanation for the creature is that it could be a giant snapping turtle. They can live for a very long time so it is a possibility I guess and of course they are also able to come up on to land. At the same time though the size in relative to the rivers average depth and size doesn’t really add-up, unless of course the creature’s size has been exaggerated in the sighting re-telling’s, which is easily possible either on purpose for added dramatics to make it more interesting or even by accident as the brain can perceive strange things in disproportionate ways and also can remember things falsely, as studies have proven.
Next up is something called the Gowrow. Another popular folkloric creature from the state. It appears to have originated from a newspaper report in 1897 in the Arkansas Gazette. An illustration in the newspaper shows the creature looking like some kind of lizard-like creature with scales, large spikes along its spine, large flat webbed feet with big claws, a piggish head with whiskers and large tusks and a long tail with a blade-like point on the end. It sounds like quite the fearsome creature to come across.
And that is what the article in the paper alleges. The supposed encounter involves a man called William Miller from Little Rock. The man was travelling through the Ozark forest and then went through a small town called Blanco. Residents in the area had been complaining of their livestock and even pets being found dead from an unknown creature.
Apparently wanting to be a hero, naturally, Miller formed a group to track down whatever the creature was. Eventually the group heard a creepy screech in the distance sounding like “gowrow” which became the creatures name, after this they soon encountered the terrifying creature, that was apparently at least 20ft in length. So, the story goes they apparently did kill it and Miller claims to have sent the creatures body to the Smithsonian, which never arrived, to no one’s surprise, I guess.
Nonetheless it makes a great folkloric story to tell and spread. But is it real? I’m going to say probably not in this case, it is likely a hoax. But as said I still think it had a positive outcome in the sense of enriching the state’s folklore.
You think the state has finished with its tales of cryptids yet? Nope! It even has its own hairy bipedal bigfoot-like cryptid known as the Fouke Monster, named after where it had one of its most popular sightings in 1971.
But let’s first backpedal to its first alleged sighting, which was between 1953-55 when a 14-year-old boy claimed to have witnessed the creature, saying it had reddish brown fur and that it sniffed the air and was not fazed when a shotgun was fired. Many skeptics believe it could have just been a misidentified Black Bear.
The encounter with it that really blew up though was the 1971 encounter. It happened in the town of Fouke when a resident called Bobby Ford claimed he had been attacked by some kind of hairy hominid, which he said was possibly as tall as 7ft with red eyes and that it was able to move quickly. The man said the creature had scarily attacked him in his home and that he was then treated in hospital for minor injuries and was in a state of shock.
Other residents and eyewitness backed up Ford saying they had also seen an unexplained beast in the area and also heard unexplained noises and that it was near and around the Ford property. An investigation discovered unusual tracks and even claw marks on the porch, but outside of that not much else could be found.
The encounter inspired the creation of the movie The Legend of Boggy Creek, with several other movies following the original.
The incident itself has been widely labelled a hoax due to a number of inconsistencies, such as the tracks that were found being three-toed, with all known primates and hominids having five toes, the region having no previous history of primate activity in pre-ancient times as well as the creatures behavior making it seem partially nocturnal which is also untrue for known primates that are the opposite.
Phew! That’s a lot of cryptids for one state. But now we shall move on to a haunting in Arkansas to round this off.
Arkansas most well-known haunted place is probably the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, first built in 1886 as a health spa, then was a women’s college before becoming a hotel. The place has been featured on numerous paranormal shows including two that I have watched frequently, Ghost Adventures and Paranormal Witness. I remember a part of the history that was explained on Ghost Adventures before their investigation that a scam doctor who turned the hotel into a hospital in 1937 with the claim, he could cure cancer.
This person was called Norman Baker, someone with no medical training and who is responsible for many patients dying under his care and “treatments” at the hotel. One of his apparent treatments was to drill a hole in the skulls of patients. His surgeries were often if not always performed in unsatisfactory conditions and without the correct methods to reduce pain and suffering. One thing for sure is that his actions led to the early and much more painful death of many of his patients while taking their and their family’s money. Many believe the restless spirits of these patients still remain today.
For whatever reason Norman would also collect specimens from his former patients and keep them in glass jars which he for whatever reason buried around the hotel, much of which has been found in digs on the sight, as well as various pieces of medical equipment he used. I would not be at all surprised if this has certainly attracted the ghostly phenomena that the hotel now has.
Activity at the hotel is said to be tense at times, with reports of hands coming out of mirrors, disconnected rattling of residual gurneys, doors opening and closing by themselves, poltergeist activity in the kitchen, disembodied cries of pain among more.
There are said to be a few other ghosts as well and not just the former patients of the botched and ill-gotten cancer “hospital”. Room 218 is apparently haunted by an Irish carpenter who fell to his death during construction work. Another ghost of a woman is supposed to haunt the place, who is said to have been pushed out of a window to her death there when the building was a women’s college.
If you are willing to put up with this messed up, tragic and quite terrifying place you can book a ghost tour there and even dare to stay overnight in one of the hotel’s rooms.
Well that shall be it for Arkansas. I am actually quite surprised but what it had to offer in the realms of the strange. Next up we shall be checking out the strange happenings and events of Louisiana.
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