November 7, 2007

The Fouke Monster is Passionate about the Environment

Monster of a Message: Fouke Legend Resurfaces to Help Keep Arkansas Beautiful

You don’t have to be a “big star” to step up big for a beautiful Arkansas.

This was the message of a television spot recently released by the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission. During the commercial, a local celebrity makes a rare public appearance to speak out about litter in the state. The Fouke monster, of “The Legend of Boggy Creek” fame, plays the lead role in the tongue-in-cheek spot.

Though some might not be familiar with the character, he is the basis of one of the most famous legends in the state, something of a Southern Sasquatch.

The report of a “big-foot-type monster” terrorizing a rural home outside of Fouke spawned the documentary-style film by South Arkansas native Charles Pierce in the early 1970s. The film assured a place in folklore history for the Bigfoot look-a-like, which has allegedly been seen in and around Fouke since the 1940s. The low budget, campy movie earned cult status and the familiarity of this tale and the regular resurgence in the media of yeti, Bigfoot, and caveman-like characters keep the legend alive.

The Commission had a specific goal in mind when casting the legend as its lead.

“As always, we try to educate citizens to the negative consequences of littering,” said Robert Phelps, executive director of the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission. “We consider littering ‘monstrous acts’ committed by ordinary people and thought it would be interesting to present littering by ‘civilized’ people from the monster’s viewpoint. In this way he could speak for those who suffer from the abuse of roadside and wilderness littering but can’t speak for themselves.”

According to Phelps, one member of the agency who worked on the project had gone to college with a man from Fouke, who could have easily been confused with the monster. He added that the man was unavailable for the spot, so they opted to go with a commercial actor.

The spot has been running on a variety of stations including CNN, Discovery, Sci-Fi and ESPN. They are also broadcast on stations across the state.

The Fouke legend continued to spread beyond the original film via two sequels featuring the 7-foot-tall, ape-like creature that supposedly haunts the swampy Sulphur River bottoms of Miller County, south of Texarkana. The creature was allegedly last seen near the junction of the Sulphur and Red rivers. If you decide to head to the town, there is a gift shop near the Creek that stocks T-shirts and monster memorabilia. So even if you don’t end up spotting the legend for yourself, you don’t have to leave empty-handed.Zoie Clift, travel writer
Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism

Filed under Bigfoot, Bigfoot Report, Cryptozoology, Pop Culture, Sasquatch, Television, Videos