Unknown Wolf-like Creature in East Arkansas

I was talking with someone recently and they brought up the topic of werewolves and an experience they’d had years ago. This jostled my memory of 2 times in my life I saw something that fit the description.

I am 44 years old now. I’ve had two incidents in my life where I am absolutely confident I saw a large, hairy, wolf or wolf like creature. Once was in the 1970’s and I was rather young, maybe 7 or 8 at the most. The creature was looking at me in my bed on a night that was quite stormy BEFORE I saw it. I remember how big and broad it was, and how it stood on 2 legs as a human would. It was a dark night but I could see this thing easily as the departed storm was still close enough to flash lightning that lit up everything outside. The thing had a wolf face, yellowish eyes but not bright yellow, not fluorescent like either, more of a subdued yellow. It had pointy ears that seemed to keep moving threw the whole experience, like he was twitching them all the time for some reason. It never snarled, growled, howled, etc. but it just looked at me from the outside of a glass and wrought iron storm door. I was in bed, trying to settle down and go back to sleep after the storm, which rattled me as a kid. For some reason I felt like I had to look outside. I turned over and sat up, I was not 20 feet from this “thing” and separated only by the wrought iron door with its glass. I became terrified to the point I started yelling like mad. My grandmother and little sister were asleep in a bed even closer to the door, but at angle they could not sit up and see what I saw. I was literally scared out of my wits. I started screaming and quickly my grandmother woke up, turned on a lap, then came over to me quickly and of course she asked what was wrong. I was staring at the thing and I could only point toward it. I could not speak a word. When I pointed, it started stepping back away from the door as my grandmother looked to see what scared me. She never said she saw it, but I am confident she did. He voice changed and she woke up immediately. My sister woke up about this time and stayed in the bed, she was younger than me and she began crying because I was, she was scared because I was. I saw the thing turn and move away, not at a fast pace, just stepped away and faded into the dark.

All this commotion woke my grandfather who was flipping on lights as he came into the back room to see what was going on. My grandmother saw him enter the room as he turned on the main light. At this instant she told him to get his gun and go outside because something was out there and it had scared me badly. He did as she said because her voice was in a panic and he knew something was not right. He went into his room and got a gun, you could hear him going into his closet, then he went outside turning on all manner of lights as he went….inside and outdoors. He was outside about 10 minutes and we could see him easily. He came in and talked low and right in my grandmother’s ear. I did not hear what was said that night and I was still a scared wreck the rest of the night. He slept in the back room with the rest of us, rifle still at his side as he lay on a different bed by himself. He left many lights on in the house and all of them outside. I never could get him to tell me what he saw or found, but before my grandmother died in 2003, she told me when he went outside that night, he found muddy footprints on the concrete shaped like paw prints, but really big. My grandmother made me wait until I was in my 20’s when she told me and I remember what a chill it gave me even being a lot older. She also told me she saw it for a few seconds when I pointed out the door when she asked me what was wrong. She said it scared her so bad she did not ever talk about it again with her husband or anyone else. The year would have been 1977 to 1979 most likely. I know they did not have a dog at that time so it wasn’t pet dog tracks, and the paw prints were far too large to be a dog. Whatever is it was, it never came back. My grandparents lived in that house from 1960 to 1994 when my grandfather had a massive heart-attack and died in the bathroom. My grandmother died in 2001 at age 93. We never talked about that night again, just the one time in my 20’s when she could not sleep one night and I was in the kitchen. She would wake up and sit in the kitchen many nights, worrying about one of her grandchildren. I stayed with them often on weekends in my teens and early 20’s but I never slept in the bed that faced that door, and she made my grandfather’s construction crew put a heavy wood door over the wrought iron door so no one, or nothing, could see in the day after the event.

The second event was around 1988 or 1989 early one December morning, before sunrise, going deer hunting with 2 other guys. We were all in a pickup truck riding to a deer hunting location about an hour away. It was around 3:30 in the morning and dark out at that hour. We were going down a state highway that runs along I-40 here in east Arkansas. Probably going 45 or so and about to come to an area that turned so the driver was about to start slowing down to make a big turn. We were talking amongst ourselves, no radio on when a big animal that looked like werewolf darted out of a field in front of the truck. It was very close and I thought were going to hit it, but I clearly saw lots of teeth as the thing looked at us in the truck when it was crossing in front of the moving truck. It looked mad as Hell, it was on 2 feet striding like a man, but way to fast. Its fur was light gray and kind of a cream color, maybe even a buff white but dirty looking too. We all saw the thing for 3 or 4 seconds and everyone yelled out a few cuss words to basically mean “what was that” in real strong language. The driver slammed on the brakes, and all 3 of us jumped out to see or shoot the thing. We were loaded up with rifles since we were going deer hunting. We saw where it went in a field for a few feet but we could not see it anymore. You could hear it kind of huffing or puffing as it went further and further away. We heard it for maybe 5 seconds after jumping out of the truck and then it was quiet. I was wanting to fire a few shots and see if I hit anything or scared it into making noise, but one of the guys reminded me quickly that the interstate was close and a rifle bullet would reach a car out there easily. The truck was still running and the doors were wide open. We all felt OK with the firepower but we quickly got back in the truck, shut the doors and took off quickly. We never saw it again but we talked all day about what it was. No one thought to check for footprints later in the day.

The location of the first event is a very small area known as Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas, but it actually had a Hughes, AR mailing address. The old address -house, was demolished and cleared around 1998-2000, but the old address still shows on Google maps. It was 132 Bream Road, Hughes, AR. I think someone bought the lot and built a nice new house a few years ago, so the event did NOT happen at the modern location of today.

You might want emphasize the event happened back in the 1970’s when a different house stood on the land. Back when this occurred my grandparents land was about 2 acres with their house of maybe 1500 sq. feet, a large shop where my grandfather ran his construction company, and an empty lot area for things like boats, backhoe, dump truck, etc.

Click on the PICTURE/ SEE FROM STREET VIEW app on Google maps, when you enter the exact address, it shows how the area looked all along Bream Road. It says that’s not the exact address and it’s right. That camera shot is a bit further down from the exact location. The land shown is maybe 1/9th mile further to the west. It does an excellent job of showing the cypress trees and overall woody look to the area, apparently the same today as back in the mid to late 1970’s.

The 2nd event was about 2-3 miles from Blackfish Lake, Arkansas on the north side of Hwy 218 where it meets Bing’s Store Road that goes over Interstate 40. It was literally in the curve area, shown well on google maps.