Quirky ArArkansas - Curiosities and Roadside Attractions

ARKANSAS LEGENDS

Quirky Arkansas - Curiosities & Roadside Attractions

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Arkansas Fun Facts & Trivia

Boggy Creek Monster

Booger Hollow's Double Decker Outhouse

Hope - Watermelon Capital of the World

White River Monster

World's Largest Spinach Can

You Know You're In Arkansas When ....

Boggy Creek Monster

In the area of Fouke, Arkansas in Miller County, southeast of Texarkana, allegedly lives the Boggy Creek Monster. In these sparsely populated, forested hills of the Ozarks, the Boggy Creek Monster, also referred to as the Fouke Monster, has been a legend of the area since the 1840’s. This Bigfoot-like creature is said to be about seven feet tall, walks upright, has a smelly, animal like odor, and is covered with hair. The Arkansas version of Sasquatch or Bigfoot, this hairy beast has a reputation for killing chickens, livestock, and dogs in the area, though has never been known to harm humans.

In the late 1860’s the beast allegedly harassed two families living outside Fouke and the legend quickly spread. In 1973, the tale of the Boggy Creek Monster was made into an extremely poor low budget movie called The Legend of Boggy Creek.

In 1997, there were more than 40 sightings of the Boggy Creek creature and in 1998, reports said that the hairy beast was seen walking along a dry creek bed about 5 miles south of town.

Whether a legend or reality, the town of of Fouke once capitalized on the legend, with signs throughout the town and a gift shop near Boggy Creek that provided Monster souvenirs. This is not the case anymore. Perhaps the locals have grown tired of the tale and the "looky-lous" frequenting the area and their many questions. We really had to search for the creek, which we finally found south of town, marked only by a small plaque on the bridge.

The Fouke Monster was allegedly last seen near the junction of the Sulphur and Red Rivers.

Hope - Watermelon Capital of the World

Not only is Hope, Arkansas the birthplace of that "quirky” ex-president Clinton, it also has lots of other seeds to spit out of its mouth, including the world’s largest watermelon festival and a replica of the world’s largest watermelon. They used to even have a watermelon water tower, but it’s now painted white, some say to give the town a more "respectable” look in honor of Clinton. Darn!!! That would have been a great photo opportunity!

In any event, watermelons have long been a calling card for the City of Hope with its watermelon festival dating back to the 1920’s and continuing to draw as many as 50,000 people during its four day August event, to spit, dribble, crunch and slice their way through a whole bunch of the fabulous fruit.

Photo courtesy Hope Chamber of Commerce

The festival features not only lots of watermelon for your eating pleasure, but arts and crafts booths, more food -- including burgers, pork rinds fried catfish, and chicken-on-a- stick, to a wide variety musical talent. But the best part of the festival is the Watermelon Olympics where local teams are pitted against each other in such events as a seed-spitting contest, watermelon-eating contest, watermelon auction, and a contest to see who can grow the biggest, some easily tipping the scales at more than 200 pounds.

Located in the southwest corner of the state, Hope is 25 miles northeast of Texarkana.

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