January 21, 2016

Fouke Monster Legend Smokey Crabtree Passes Away

Banner image courtesy Bigfoot in the CSRA

I received the sad news this past weekend that good friend and Fouke Monster legend Smokey Crabtree had passed away.

I’ve known Smokey for over 15 years, having first met him at the Ohio Bigfoot Conference in 2000.

Custom knife presented to Smokey by the Texas Bigfoot Research Center for his 87th birthday.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with Smokey.

He spoke at several of the first Texas Bigfoot Conferences in Jefferson that I organized. I attended several of the Fouke Monster celebrations with him in the past. We last spent a little time together at the last Boggy Creek Festival in October last year.

We usually would hold a Texas Bigfoot Research Center meeting in Texarkana/Fouke in April to celebrate Smokey’s birthday on April 22nd.

One year, after eating at his favorite restaurant The Ole Feed House, we had a camp out at Smith Park, bordered by the Sulphur River Wildlife Management Area.

That night at the park pavilion, using a generator, projector, screen and a laptop, we watched The Legend of Boggy Creek with Smokey in attendance. It took twice as long to watch the film because I kept pausing it to ask Smokey questions about behind the scenes info.

He later told me that it was a Hell of a thing to wait over 80 years to have the best birthday of his life.

On another occasion, Smokey took a group of us on a hike down to and around Boggy Creek. It was quite a day.

I miss my friend… Godspeed Smokey!

Loren Coleman’s obituary for Smokey Crabtree
Obituary with service info

Filed under Bigfoot, Bigfoot Report, Conferences, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Men in Cryptozoology, Movie Monsters, Obituaries, Sasquatch, Swamp Monsters