The Arkansas Game and Fish and … Bigfoot Commission?

The Arkansas Game and Fish and … Bigfoot Commission?

The Arkansas Game and Fish and … Bigfoot Commission?

 

Sasquatch, the Fouke Monster, the Skunk Ape, Momo, Wood Booger: This strange creature that supposedly dwells in the forests of North America – ranging somewhere between a man and an ape – is without a doubt the most famous of American cryptids, rivaling the Loch Ness Monster in the popular imagination. With literally thousands of alleged sightings, many believe wholeheartedly that Bigfoot exists, while few scientists will say it is anything more than a hoax or a misidentification. Yet, the purpose of this article is not to try to convince one way or the other; not to try and fail at what others have attempted to do for decades. We will be asking a different set of questions, the most crucial of which is: Is Bigfoot an Arkansan?

 

Centuries before modern sightings of Bigfoot, numerous Native American tribes had traditional tales including large, hair-covered creatures, from petroglyphs in California depicting what some assert to be a family of Bigfoots, to an early Jesuit priest in Mississippi who told of stories about large hairy creatures that would scream in the woods and steal livestock. Similar examples are to be found from the Iroquois in the region of upstate New York and the Sts’ailes in British Columbia, far to the northwest, who called it the “Sasq’ets,” possibly the origin of the name Sasquatch. 

 

Bigfoot

The first supposed evidence of Bigfoot was found by David Thompson, a British explorer, in 1811. On one expedition, while trying to cross the Rockies in what is now Alberta, Canada, he came across a strange track. He wrote of it: “the [sic] Men and Indians would have it to be a young mammoth and I held it to be the track of a large, old grizzly bear; yet the shortness of the nails, the ball of the foot and its great size was not that of a [sic] Bear, otherwise that of a very large old Bear, his claws worn away, the Indians would not allow.” He mentioned the track multiple times in his writings, never quite able to believe that a normal bear could be of such a size. 

 

These tales and the print found by Thompson weren’t connected, however, until the story of Bigfoot as we know it really took off in 1958. Journalist Andrew Genzoli of the Humboldt Times in California made what he thought was an amusing story from a letter that had been sent in by some loggers who had seen strange, 16-inch footprints. He jokingly suggested that it may be some American relative of the Yeti, but was surprised to find that people were fascinated by the idea. The story quickly spread, and Bigfoot became a popular character for men’s adventure magazines and pulpy novels. The Bigfoot craze hit its peak in the 1970s, but the public fascination with the mysterious wild man has never died. 

 

While most alleged sightings occur in the Pacific Northwest, Arkansas has its own famous Sasquatch story, that of a creature called the Fouke Monster. In 1971, in the small town of Fouke — just outside Texarkana – one family claimed to have experienced a much closer encounter with a Bigfoot-like creature than a grainy photograph or strange screams in the night. While sleeping in her living room, Elizabeth Ford reported that a hairy, clawed arm came in through a window. She began to scream, which alerted her husband, Bobby Ford, and his brother, Don, who were hunting together. 

 

Bobby rushed back to the house, where the creature allegedly put his arm around his shoulder and grabbed him. Panicked, he broke free and ran into his home so fast that he barreled through the front door without opening it. Bobby and Don fired their guns at the creature, driving it away, but no blood was ever found. They reported to the local constable that they had been attacked by an ape-like monster with red eyes, around 7 feet tall and weighing from 300-500 pounds. An investigation found scratches on their porch and three-toed footprints in their yard.

 

Bigfoot

After the Ford incident, other sightings of strange creatures from previous decades were pointed to as further evidence of the Fouke Monster’s existence. There were several other sightings, and it was often reported that the monster had a terrible odor, like a cross between a skunk and a wet dog. It gained other names, like the Boggy Creek Monster or Swamp Stalker. The fame of this version of Bigfoot spread well beyond Arkansas, thanks to a 1972 film named “The Legend of Boggy Creek.” Produced by Charles B. Pierce, the film was funded by a local truck company and most of the work was done by college students. It is best described as a docudrama horror movie, and mixes staged interviews with reenactments of notable encounters and interviews with real people who claim to have seen the creature. Despite its shoestring budget of $160,000, the film brought in more than $20 million at the box office and became a cult classic. 

 

Whether Bigfoot exists, and whether the Fouke Monster is the same creature as the more generic Sasquatch, Arkansas has as good a claim to the legend as anywhere else in North America. Now, for the sake of thoroughness, let’s suppose that Bigfoot is real. Not only that, but imagine that Bigfoot is properly discovered and named as a new species. One question is hypothetically answered, creating countless more. First of all, what should Bigfoot be classified as? 

 

Despite the lack of hard evidence, there is already a scientific name for Bigfoot, assigned by Zoobank: Homo sapiens cognatus. Homo sapiens is the scientific name for humans, and cognatus is Latin for “related by blood.” In 2014, a veterinary laboratory called DNA Diagnostics announced that it had discovered not only proof of Bigfoot’s existence, but that Bigfoot is a direct human relative resulting from a cross between humans and primates thousands of years ago. 

 

Bigfoot

The head of the laboratory, Melba Ketchum, asserted that Bigfoot and its species should be recognized by the government as an indigenous people, given full constitutional rights and protected against those that might seek to hunt or trap them. The study was quickly dismissed due to lack of evidence, but the line of thought is amusing. Once a myth, the Sasquatch would suddenly become a man. He would have to serve jury duty and could even run for political office.

 

It seems much more reasonable to believe, however, that Bigfoot would be a wild animal rather than an intelligent creature on the level of a human. If this were the case, then it opens questions about Bigfoot’s legal and conservational status. Garrick Dugger, assistant chief of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Wildlife Management Division, helped explain what the AGFC’s role might be if Bigfoot were to be discovered. According to Amendment 35 of the Arkansas Constitution, the AGFC is responsible for “the control, management, restoration, conservation and regulation of birds, fish, game and wildlife resources of the State.” Any involvement by the AGFC would require Bigfoot to fall under one of those categories.

 

If nothing else, we can quite confidently say that he is neither a fish nor a bird. Yet, categorizing him beyond that is more difficult. Some sort of primate seems the most likely, but the Fouke Monster is said to have only three toes on each foot – and there are no other primates with just three toes. Luckily, that’s irrelevant to whether the Sasquatch would be considered game or wildlife. 

 

This is where the question of whether Bigfoot is an Arkansan becomes critical. Whatever form it may take, any animal only falls under the AGFC’s jurisdiction as wildlife if it is actually native to Arkansas. Imported exotic animals like big cats and monkeys are licensed by the AGFC, but it does not regulate or conserve them because they are not a part of Arkansas’s ecosystem. 

 

Though it may come as a surprise, feral hogs also do not fall under the jurisdiction of the AGFC. Because they are domesticated, non-native animals that have gone feral, they are not considered wildlife. As a result, they can be hunted at any time without restrictions on private land and can be killed by hunters on Wildlife Management Areas who are hunting other game animals with season-appropriate weapons. If Bigfoot were proven to not be native to Arkansas, and particularly if he were proven to be a threat to native species as feral hogs are, then similar rulings may apply.

 

To determine if Bigfoot and its species are native to Arkansas, the AGFC would have to survey the population of Sasquatches in the state and find if there is a viable breeding population. Since Bigfoot has been sighted all across North America, but only rarely, it could be argued that the population of these creatures is small and nomadic. If so, there may well not be a viable breeding population within Arkansas — just a few individuals that occasionally wander through the state. Even if that were the case, they still might be able to qualify if it could be proven that they were once native to Arkansas. Mountain lions or ivory-billed woodpeckers once lived in Arkansas, but any breeding populations have been extirpated or driven extinct. If they returned to Arkansas and began to breed, it would be the AGFC’s responsibility to protect them.

 

But the alleged existence of the Fouke Monster and its unique three-toed footprint suggest a local population with a unique mutation, perhaps isolated from the rest of the species for some time. And since the Fouke Monster is hardly the only regional variant on the Bigfoot legend, there may be numerous subspecies of Sasquatch recognized and protected separately across the country. In this case, the Fouke Monster would indeed fall under the AGFC’s jurisdiction as native wildlife. The AGFC’s mission statement is “to conserve and enhance Arkansas’s fish and wildlife and their habitats while promoting sustainable use, public understanding and support,” so that is what they would do for the Fouke Monster population.

 

Depending on the size of their population and its effect on the ecosystem, Bigfoot and its variants could be classified as game animals. Hunting licenses could be distributed to keep their numbers in check, just like elk and black bears. Given how difficult they have been to find, however, it seems they would be far too few to cause any concerns of overpopulation. 

 

Conveniently, the AGFC’s Sulphur River Wildlife Management Area is within spitting distance of Fouke, and could be where the creature dwells. The AGFC could begin programs to expand this area into a nature reserve to conserve and enhance its habitat, raise awareness of the subspecies and its unique attributes and work to increase its population. Someday, if the population increased enough, Arkansas Sasquatch could even be opened to quota hunting. The Fouke monster would once again be an icon of the state – a myth made real.

 

Of course, all of this is pure speculation. Bigfoot might not exist, or it may be something utterly different from what we imagine it to be. Yet, that mystery is what keeps the legend alive. A low-budget film about alleged monster sightings made millions and catapulted a tiny town of less than 1,000 inhabitants to brief national fame, from which they still benefit today. Tourists often visit Fouke hoping to catch a glimpse of the creature. If they do not, they can still visit the Monster Mart in the center of town, or the Miller County Historical Museum, which contains supposed Fouke Monster artifacts. Likewise, the Bigfoot Hideout Hotel in Northwest Arkansas invokes the legend of Bigfoot to highlight its position in the beautiful wilderness of the Ozark Mountains. 

 

Arkansas is The Natural State, after all. The AGFC may not be protecting a population of Sasquatches, but what we know to be real is well worth protecting. You may not prove the existence of Bigfoot while exploring the woods, might not rediscover the ivory-woodpecker or a population of mountain lions. But in such a beautiful state, when you spend time outdoors, it is certain that you will discover something worth finding. 

 

READ ALSO: Arkansas Backstories: Fouke Monster

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