Read THE BEAST OF BOGGY CREEK: The True Story of the Fouke Monster for Free Online Page B

the discussion, informing the press that he and his family had seen these type of tracks in the area many times in the past. He was also the first to theorize that the creature must live and roam in the vicinity of the creeks, which more or less spread out in a ring around Fouke. “Every time it has been seen around here, it has always been near one of the creeks,” he told reporters.
    Smith also cited numerous broken limbs in the area that he believed were indications of a tall animal walking through the trees. To strengthen the case, Smith’s niece-in-law [3], Bobbie, told of her own sighting, which had occurred just two weeks earlier. She said the creature stood approximately six feet tall as she watched it walk through the woods near the soybean field at about 7:30 p.m. one evening.
    Word of the track find spread quickly, and more of the locals came down to the field to see for themselves. Rick Roberts, whose father served as mayor from 1978-1991, was one such person. At the time he was a young man, familiar with the Sulphur River Bottoms and the surrounding area. He took a special interest in the phenomenon unfolding before him and would later own the local Monster Mart convenience store in Fouke. It was his mother, Jane Roberts, who was responsible for helping law officials make plaster casts of the footprints that day. Fouke officials had very little experience in casting at the time, so Robert’s mother, skilled with arts and crafts, assisted them. Like the others, Roberts didn’t know what to make of the tracks, but he was definitely impressed by the distance between them. In a series of personal interviews I had with Roberts, he told me: “If the tracks were a hoax, they would have been very hard to fake. It would not have been easy for a person to get that much distance between each one.”
    Journalist Jim Powell and radio personality Dave Hall represented the press that day. They had both been present at the Ford investigation, so naturally they were interested by the new evidence this case presented. But Powell was not as convinced as Walraven that the tracks were those of a real animal or even an unknown creature. “I noticed that it stepped over the plants,” he told me during our phone conversation. “I’ve never seen an animal that didn’t step on plants as it crossed a field. It just didn’t seem right.” This was puzzling. Those present agreed that whoever had made the tracks had been reluctant to step on any of the young bean plants.
     

    One of the tracks found in Willie Smith’s soybean field.
(Courtesy of the Texarkana Gazette)
     
    Regardless, there was no denying that something had made strange tracks in the soil, whether it was a strange animal or just a clever hoaxer. Since there was no solid evidence pointing either way, it was simply news and Powell reported it that way. The resulting story appeared in the June 15 edition of the Texarkana Gazette , taking up the better part of a page that featured a large photo of a single track and the headline: “Monster Tracks Found.”
    By now the Fouke Monster was big news, and his story was being followed by a good portion of readers in Texarkana and the surrounding areas. The lawmen were taking the reports seriously and were doing everything they could to solve the mystery. But so far, every trail went cold. The monster might have left tracks for all to see, but he himself would not be so easy to find.
     
    Media Mayhem
    It wasn’t long before other regional newspapers got wind of the strange discovery and ran stories in their own editions. Photos of the bizarre three-toed tracks, along with more revelations offered up by the landowner Willie Smith, spread to a wider audience. These new anecdotes had to do with encounters he and his family had with the monster years earlier, giving even more credence to the belief that something very strange was lurking in the spooky woods along Boggy Creek.
    In an article printed in the Victoria Advocate ,