Episode 43: The Fouke Monster, A Tale of Terror, Tidbits and Tasty Treats
Dec 04, 2023Episode 43
Marty Smarticus
Imagine stumbling upon a cryptid creature, lurking in the wild woods of Arkansas. Would you be terrified or thrilled? This episode of Smarticus Tells History brings you face to face with the eerie legend of the Fouqe Monster. A creature that has both fascinated and frightened locals for over a century. We dive into the theories and tales surrounding this gorilla-like monster, discussing everything from its first sighting in 1908, to the 1973 movie that brought it into national focus. Strap in as we dissect whether it could be a misidentified bear, or perhaps an undiscovered primate species?
Nothing adds more flavor to a legendary tale than a dash of humor and a touch of local cuisine. As we unravel the Fouke Monster, we offer a light-hearted segment, featuring a hilarious meme about this cryptid creature. And while you're laughing out loud, we take you on a culinary journey to Arkansas, with a delicious serving of spicy pulled pork sandwiches. This episode not only teases your mind but also your palate! We also feature thrilling stories and sightings from our listeners, making this episode a collective journey into the unknown. So tune in, enjoy, and remember, your curiosity could be the key to solving the mystery of the Fouqe Monster!
Recipe: Sweet and Spicy Slow Cooker Pulled Pork. https://houseofnasheats.com/sweet-spicy-slow-cooker-pulled-pork/ Links:
Imagine stumbling upon a cryptid creature, lurking in the wild woods of Arkansas. Would you be terrified or thrilled? This episode of Smarticus Tells History brings you face to face with the eerie legend of the Fouqe Monster. A creature that has both fascinated and frightened locals for over a century. We dive into the theories and tales surrounding this gorilla-like monster, discussing everything from its first sighting in 1908, to the 1973 movie that brought it into national focus. Strap in as we dissect whether it could be a misidentified bear, or perhaps an undiscovered primate species?
Nothing adds more flavor to a legendary tale than a dash of humor and a touch of local cuisine. As we unravel the Fouke Monster, we offer a light-hearted segment, featuring a hilarious meme about this cryptid creature. And while you're laughing out loud, we take you on a culinary journey to Arkansas, with a delicious serving of spicy pulled pork sandwiches. This episode not only teases your mind but also your palate! We also feature thrilling stories and sightings from our listeners, making this episode a collective journey into the unknown. So tune in, enjoy, and remember, your curiosity could be the key to solving the mystery of the Fouqe Monster!
Recipe: Sweet and Spicy Slow Cooker Pulled Pork. https://houseofnasheats.com/sweet-spicy-slow-cooker-pulled-pork/ Links:
History. Alright, enough with the Echo and Fanfare. You're here for history, right, and not that boring crack you learned in high school. This stuff's actually interesting, like things you've never heard about the Civil War, cleopatra, automobiles, monopoly, the Black Plague and more Fascinating stories, interesting topics and some downright weird facts from the past. It's a new twist on some stories you may know and an interesting look at some things you may have never heard. So grab a beer, kick back and enjoy. Here's your host, smarticus.
Speaker 3:
Hello and welcome to another episode of Smarticus Tales History. I am your host, smarticus, accompanied by my co-host Phoenix.
Speaker 1:
Hiya.
Speaker 3:
And today we're going to talk about a legendary creature that has been seen in the deep woods of Arkansas for over a century. I'm talking about the Fouqe Monster. We're going to do food first and Looks amazing.
Speaker 2:
I don't know how yours looks.
Speaker 3:
It looks really good. So I didn't put mine on buns, I put mine, yeah, I put mine on sourdough bread, nice.
Speaker 2:
That'll be just as good.
Speaker 3:
And I toasted it beforehand, right on. So I toasted it with butter and I mean the butter obviously doesn't taste good. So this is I didn't even pull it up here, it's just pulled pork, because we're in a relatively general area- but, it's an.
Speaker 2:
Arkansas staple.
Speaker 3:
It's, yeah, it is called.
Speaker 2:
Pulled pork.
Speaker 3:
Just spicy. Yeah, sweet and spicy slow cooker pulled pork. You can cook it in the crock pot or the oven. We both did the crock pot, I believe. Yes, and it's got a very. I mean the recipe was super simple. I mean it's just pulled pork. I mean it's kind of hard to mess that up, but you can put your own dry rubbs on it. Whatever, I used the dry rub that was given in the recipe.
Speaker 2:
And I used one that was sent from Montana.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so the one that's in the recipe was just a generic brown sugar, ground cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, salt, ground pepper. I mean, you could honestly get one of those all season things and probably just put it in there and it would be a very similar result With sugar in it. Yep, that's what I did. I used that, the recipe that it called out. Oh yeah, there's paprika in it too, and it has. You know, it says optional cayenne pepper, but with a dry rub. I mean, you can, you know, do whatever, do it up however you want. Really.
Speaker 2:
And this one. This recipe called for you to brine it.
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Which I've never done before, not for that, or I've never done pork.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, usually it's chicken, you brine, but I did that too. The brine that it called out was, you know, cold water. Eight cups of cold water, brown sugar, again salt, two bay leaves, and then also add in that dry mix that I described a second ago. Or, if you have, I mean sure you could use.
Speaker 2:
You know, I mean it's a brine, yeah you can mix and match with the brines however you like.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, do whatever you want. This is what we did, though short, quick and simple it's. The episode takes place in Arkansas.
Speaker 2:
With a big furry monster.
Speaker 1:
Hmm.
Speaker 3:
That is good. You're right. And yeah, it's a pulled pork sandwich. That's all it is.
Speaker 2:
The recipe recommended eating it with a cold slot. Cold slot, not cold slot. Oh my gosh, a cold slot. I'm not a huge fan of cold slot, so I did not include that.
Speaker 3:
I don't like cold slot either, so I didn't put it in any of it.
Speaker 2:
And I love cabbage, but that's that stuff.
Speaker 3:
I've never, although I haven't tried it in a while and I've only tried like a handful, but every time that I've tried it it's I can't do it. Yeah, I don't know where it is.
Speaker 2:
But yeah, so barreling on into our episode, the uh, the Fowk Monster is a cryptid that has been reported to inhabit the swamps, forests and rural areas of southern Arkansas, particularly in the town of Fowk, which is not too far from the Texarkana border. By the way, in case anyone's wondering, it is said to be a large bipedal creature that stands over seven feet tall and has a muscular build. It is covered in long, shaggy hair and has a face that resembles that of a gorilla. Almost sounds kind of like my husband Cuter, though my husband's cuter. Anyways, he has large, glowing eyes that reflect light in the dark.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I would say Sasquatch.
Speaker 2:
That he's actually very much likened to Bigfoot and they consider him the southern states version of Bigfoot Because, you know, everyone knows, bigfoot sticks northern areas Apparently.
Speaker 3:
And every time you get a photo of him, it's just not quite in focus.
Speaker 2:
They have the same problem down there in Fowk Fowk. Sorry.
Speaker 3:
So all right. So the first recorded sighting of the Fowk monster occurred in 1908. Willie Smith reported that his sister, when she was 10 years old, saw a large creature walking around on two legs the south end of Mercer Bayou. However, it wasn't until 1973 that the folk monster gained national attention, after the release of a movie called the Legend of Boggy Creek, which dramatized the sightings of the creature in the area. Interestingly enough, it was filmed on location and had locals as well as actual witnesses in the film Crazy right.
Speaker 2:
I couldn't believe that Since then, there's been no less sightings and reports of the Fowk monster in the area, with many witnesses claiming to have seen the creature up close and personal. Some have even reported hearing its eerie howling cries echoing through the woods at night.
Speaker 3:
It reminds me of that meme that I saw. I had Bigfoot, or I was talking about Bigfoot, and this guy is camping out, you know wherever. He's sitting at his campfire or whatever, and he's got an ice chest next to him. He's drinking a beer and all of a sudden, bigfoot walks out, grabs a beer, opens it, drinks it, pounds it and it looks at the guy and the guy's like dude, no one's going to believe you. And then left, no one will ever believe you Nobody.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it was so funny. That's awesome. Yeah, but let's talk about the encounter that inspired the movie real quick. The event took place in 1971 outside of the house of a man named Bobby Ford. He described the creature as being over seven feet tall, three feet wide, covered in shaggy hair and having a face that resembled that of a gorilla, with a smashed nose and red eyes, which you mentioned earlier. Yes, he also claimed that the creature emitted a horrible odor that he could smell, which he smelled when the beast wrapped his arms around Ford's shoulder and tried to grab him up.
Speaker 2:
Shake him like a dog. Yeah, sorry, I watched monsters eat the other day. She picked me up and shook me like a dog. Yeah, but Ford told the Fouke Constable he fought to release himself and when his feet hit the ground he ran so hard and so fast that he didn't even open the front door of his house. He barreled right through it. When he went to the hospital, he was treated for minor scratches and shock. Ford went on to say that the creature had been around the house for several days, which was corroborated by several eyewitnesses, who included his brother, hunting companions and his wife.
Speaker 3:
His wife had a particularly traumatic experience when she was taking a nap in the living room with the windows open.
Speaker 2:
Not safe anywhere.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, not safe anywhere. She woke, no doubt feeling that eerie feeling that all humans are born with that activates when you're in danger. What she saw was a hairy arm with big claws reaching in through the window, where it was attached to something with glowing red eyes. Naturally, she started to scream.
Speaker 2:
This was what alerted Ford and his hunting companions to the trouble at home. With flashlights they spotted the great hairy creature outside of the house trying to get in. They fired multiple rounds, several of which they said hit because they saw it fall. However, there was still screaming from inside the house, so a Ford ran. When he arrived, he was attacked for the second time. The men shot at the creature again.
Speaker 3:
Blood was never found by the authorities, not near the house or in the woods surrounding the property. What they did find was a set of strange footprints and claw marks on the Ford's porch. Word, of course, quickly spread 18 miles to Texarkana, where the Texarkana Gazette and the Texarkana Daily News picked up the wild story and came out to investigate. What Jim Powell, the reporter, found was the Ford family packing in a hurry and moving out.
Speaker 2:
They were gone. I thought that was so crazy. Like I don't want to talk, I'm leaving.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, what the reporter Jim Powell found was the family packing in a hurry and moving out. They had only lived there one week, but they were absolutely done. Powell was the one who wrote the article that the Associated Press and United Press International circulated out to the rest of the nation with the words Fouke Monster on the top.
Speaker 2:
Of course, as said before, there were sightings of this big, hard to authenticate creature since the early 1800s, one of which was by James Lynn Crabtree back in 1965, as written by Lyle Blackburn from CryptoMundocom, one of the most influential and important sightings of the Fouke Monster occurred when Lynn was 14 years old. He allegedly encountered it one evening in 1965 while squirrel hunting near his home. The creature had apparently chased some horses into the waters of the Crabtree family lake when it noticed Lynn and began to advance. Lynn fired three times with a shotgun before running back to the house in a panic.
Speaker 3:
So a fun story.
Speaker 2:
Oh, I thought I wrote that I was like what?
Speaker 3:
No, no, my cousins are Crabtrees.
Speaker 2:
Really that could be related.
Speaker 3:
That was written in April 2011, when Crabtree died of natural causes. While the Fords, after their encounters, fled Fouke, the Crabtree family, james, who preferred to be called Lynn, was a pipeline welder for most of his life and continued to live on the Crabtree family property until he died, minus the time he spent in the hospital toward the end. Interestingly, it wasn't Lynn who spoke of his encounter, but his father, who everyone called Smokey. He wrote about it in his journals, while Lynn all but refused to speak on it. Whether from trauma or fear over the reticule, he was silent until his death.
Speaker 2:
I thought it was sad. I mean, you know that you had a crazy wild experience. You should talk about it just a little bit.
Speaker 3:
I mean, you're already on your deathbed. I mean right, what are they going to do?
Speaker 2:
Right. Despite the numerous sightings and reports of the Fouke Monster, there has been no concrete evidence to prove that the creature exists, aside from questionable cast molds of feet and blurry pictures, much like, you know, bigfoot, many of which have been placed into the Fouke Monster Mart, which is their local museum of all things, fouke Monster. However, there has been several theories put forward as to what the creature could be.
Speaker 3:
I bet you're pretty cool store.
Speaker 2:
Oh, the pictures online are awesome. If you get a chance, go look at them.
Speaker 3:
It's probably a lot like the Roswell stuff.
Speaker 2:
I think so yeah.
Speaker 3:
All right. One theory is that the Fouke Monster is simply a misidentified bear. According to this theory, witnesses may have encountered a large, dark colored bear that was standing on two legs, giving the appearance of a bipedal creature. However, this theory does not explain the glowing eyes or the foul odor that witnesses have reported, which has been likened to a wet dog and skunk. Well, I mean, it's a bear out in the wild.
Speaker 2:
It could have, you know, rolled around in something I thought the same thing, but they're very consistent it's a wet dog and skunk smell, not bear scat smell. I know I thought the same exact thing. Another theory is that the Fouke Monster is a type of undiscovered primate which still kind of I'm like really, but okay Similar to the legendary Bigfoot, as we discussed earlier. According to this theory, the creature could be a member of the hominid family, such as Gigantopithecus or a Sasquatch. However, there is no concrete evidence to support this theory either.
Speaker 3:
It's because it ain't real. Sorry, there's always a party pooper.
Speaker 2:
The demon. That's why he has the red, gloomy eyes.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, no.
Speaker 3:
It's man bear pee.
Speaker 2:
I said the same thing when I was writing it up.
Speaker 3:
Oh my gosh Alright. Some skeptics have even suggested that the sightings of the Falco Monster are simply the result of mass hysteria or hallucinations. However, this theory does not explain the consistency of the reports and the similarities and the descriptions of the creature. Well, I mean, it kind of does.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, but throughout the last century and some extra change, they never changed.
Speaker 3:
But I mean that could just be because they've heard the same story and they're just repeating it.
Speaker 2:
That is possible, but not if you consider how far back it goes. Some of those people, like the Ford family, had never heard of him and they physically encountered him.
Speaker 3:
Well, they said, they've never heard.
Speaker 2:
If you're going to be a party, pooper and rain on the parade.
Speaker 3:
I am. I'm going to be a party pooper, I'm going to rain all over the parade, all over it, all of it. There's no more parade. Get out of here, boo. No one wants you here.
Speaker 2:
That's right, take your Falco Monster and go.
Speaker 3:
And let's not forget that it was reported by the authorities that there were claw marks on the Ford's front porch. Physical evidence is always hard to argue with. I mean, you're still going to argue? Go ahead, you can make false claw marks.
Speaker 2:
You can, you can. Why would you do that and then run away the next day? I don't know. Oh my gosh, now I get where my husband likes to play the devil's advocate all the time.
Speaker 3:
Maybe because they were, you know, drinking some of that moonshine.
Speaker 2:
It is really popular out there.
Speaker 3:
And token the good stuff and they, maybe they were, maybe they're making their own, you know pooch and it's the hills.
Speaker 2:
They are definitely, definitely doing some stuff out there. I who knows. Well, regardless of what the Falco Monster may or may not be, it has become a part of the folklore and legend of the Southern United States. The creature has been the subject of countless books, articles, tongue in cheek, movies and documentaries, and has even inspired a whole subculture of cryptid enthusiasts and researchers.
Speaker 3:
One group of researchers who have been studying the Falco Monster is the Southern Bigfoot Alliance, a small team of investigators who specialize in researching Sasquatch and other cryptids in the Southern United States. The team has conducted several expeditions to the Falco area using a variety of methods to try and capture evidence of the creature's existence.
Speaker 2:
One method that the Southern Bigfoot Alliance has used is trail cameras, which are motion activated cameras that are set up in the woods to capture images of wildlife. The team has set up several trail cameras in the area where the Falco Monster has been reported. The team is hoping to capture an image of the creature. The team has also conducted several nighttime stakeouts in the area using thermal imaging cameras to try and detect the creature's body heat. If he's that flippin' big, they should be able to find something.
Speaker 3:
I mean, you would think.
Speaker 2:
However, despite their efforts, the team has yet to capture any concrete evidence of the Falco Monster.
Speaker 3:
A possible explanation for the lack of evidence could be that he's not real. The thick woods and swamps make it difficult to navigate and search for evidence, and the creature's nocturnal habits make it even more challenging to spot. Another possible explanation could be the creature's intelligence and pervasive evasiveness. If the Falco Monster is indeed a type of undiscovered primate, it is likely to have developed a heightened sense of awareness and survival instincts, making it difficult to capture or even observe.
Speaker 2:
Uh, personally, I lean toward the School of Thought that there are things in the world that need to be left the heck alone. Like Latinos Against Spooky Shit, says if you heard it, no, you didn't Shout out, honey, I am a huge fan. And people in Appalachia and deep forested areas around the world and around the world, I'll know. Whatever it is out there. If it knocks on your door, don't answer. And if you need to go outside at night, know the hell, you don't.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's just go to bed, take some medicine and go to bed.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. Despite the lack of concrete evidence, the legend of the Falk monster continues to thrive. The creature has become a part of the local folklore and has inspired countless stories, songs and even a festival in the town of Falk. The Falk monster festival is an annual event that celebrates the legend of the creature, featuring live music, food vendors and a variety of activities and events. Sounds fun has become. It does sound fun. The festival has become a popular attraction for locals and visitors alike, drawing people from all over the country to celebrate the legend of the Falk monster mmm.
Speaker 2:
One of the most interesting aspects of the Falk monster legend is the cultural significance that it holds for the people of the region, but it isn't unusual for such creatures with mysterious habits and elusive appearances. The legends of the Falk monster is just one example of the many cryptids and creatures that have captured the imaginations of people All over the world. From the Loch Ness monster to the Chupa Cabra, these creatures represent a deep-seated fascination with the unknown and the mysterious.
Speaker 3:
Who knows, maybe one day the Falk monster will finally reveal itself and we will be able to uncover the truth behind one of the most enduring legends of the American South. We want to thank you for joining us. This episode of smarticus tells history. We hope you enjoyed learning about the Falk monster and if you have any stories or sightings of your own, we would love to hear them. Until next time, stay curious and keep searching for the unknown.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for listening to smarticus tells history. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to rate and review, and make sure to subscribe and be sure to follow the show at facebookcom slash smarticus tells history or just click the link in the show description. Thanks again for listening. See you next time.