The search goes on
‘Finding Bigfoot’ experts review evidence, collect stories from locals
FOUKE, Ark.—The creature called bigfoot, aka the Fouke Monster, is a species, said the executive producer of the Animal Planet television show “Finding Bigfoot.”
The sightings and footprints are part of the evolution and identification process of the alleged beast known as the Fouke Monster in Southwest Arkansas, Northeast Texas and Northwest Louisiana.
“There is a species, and the creatures have been seen,” said Chad Hammel, executive producer of “Finding Bigfoot.” “The creatures have similar physical and behavioral traits. They’ve been around for a long time. In some areas, the identification goes back into the 1800s,” Hammel said.
“In the South, the forest hasn’t been cut down as much as the farmland in the North and provides wildlife a place to live,” he said.
Bigfoot get water from rivers, creeks, streams and lakes, and the creatures follow the waterways along the Red River into Bowie County, Texas; McCurtain County, Okla.; and Miller County
“If there’s one thing I learned while writing this book, it’s that the legend of the Fouke Monster is still very much alive around campfires, on television, in books and on the Internet.”
Lyle Blackburn, author
and Little River County, Ark., said Cliff Barackman, a bigfoot expert with the television show.
The television crew has researched the bigfoot phenomenon and discovered reports in the United States going back to the 1800s.
“We found stories in newspa-
pers dating back more than 100 years. That was before Internet and carrying messages instantly. We learned about the Australian ‘night walker.’ The night walker is halfway around the world with glowing red eyes,” Hammel said.
The regional bigfoot were also identified in the early 1900s with glowing red eyes.
“It’s not just one bigfoot who has grown old. It’s generations of the animals,” Hammel said.
The television crew wants to document bigfoot through audio and video recordings.
The group listened and filmed stories about sightings and incidences in the region. The stories were shot during a town hall meeting Jan. 17 at the Silvermoon on Broad in downtown Texarkana.
During the meeting, Dierks, Ark., High School agricultural teacher Shannon Bailey talked about the Jan. 12, 2012, discovery near a creek by one of his students, Aaron Eisenhower.
Aaron traps fur-bearing animals—specifically raccoons— to earn money, Bailey said.
He uses sardines as bait. He was at the last trap near a creek by a tree stump when he discovered a track partially covered by leaves.
The wire securing the had been pulled and cut the stump.
“When he was pulling the leaves away, he realized how big the track was,” Bailey said.
He only discovered the track and did not see a bigfoot.
Aaron contacted Bailey and sent him a photo of the track on his cellphone.
Bailey was dubious at first, but after seeing the track, decided to help with making a plaster cast and drove to the site near Dierks Lake.
“I thought this might be a high school prank or joke. I looked at the depth and realized this was not fake,” he said.
The track measured 17 inches in length and 4 1/2 inches at the heel. The footprint had no arch. It was flat, Bailey said.
“News spread fast, and we took a man, who is a big man, to the site where the track was found. We wanted to compare his footprint to the one Aaron found. The man is about (six feet six inches tall) and weighs about 400 pounds. He wears a size 18 shoe, and it measured 14 inches,” Bailey said.
“He didn’t make an indention into the dirt,” Bailey said.
He gave the information to a bigfoot field research organization.
Bailey also showed the plaster cast to the “Finding Bigfoot” television crew for review.
The crew estimated the thing leaving the footprint would be about 8 feet tall and weigh about 720 pounds
“They said it would have to be that size to make an impression in the soil,” Bailey said.
Hammel praises the research of Lyle Blackburn who wrote the book “The Beast of Boggy Creek, The True Story of the Fouke Monster.”
Blackburn, a member of Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy, has heard snickers when he is asked, “Do you believe in Bigfoot?”
It is a question that provokes the author.
“Belief implies some sort of faith. Either the animal exists or it doesn’t. There’s no faith to it,” Blackburn said.
“If there’s one thing I learned while writing this book, it’s that the legend of the Fouke Monster is still very much alive around campfires, on television, in books and on the Internet. And since sightings are still being reported— some even more incredible than those that launched ‘The Legend of Boggy Creek’ to fame back in the 1970s—there is no doubt that the phenomenon will survive for as long as we have a desire for mystery or until the monster and its ilk are brought forth from the depths of their swampy home,” Blackburn said.
The legend has also been successfully merchandised. An Internet search brings up various T-shirts based on “The Legend of Boggy Creek” or the Fouke Monster.
The chronicle of the Fouke Monster sightings in Blackburn’s book listed 72 incidences within 100 miles of Fouke. The first sighting was in 1908 near Fouke. The next sighting listed was in 1916 at Knight’s Bluff, about 19 miles from Fouke.
No sightings were mentioned in the 1920s, but every decade since, sightings have been reported.
Driving anywhere at anytime in the region—but especially in the dark—watch the ditches and look at the wood line.
A species of animal may be seen walking upright. trap into