Since 1967, the Oklahoma City-based International Association for the Investigation of the Unexplained has looked into creature reports and interviewed people who have heard, smelled or seen the creature. These sighting incidents have been taken from the association's files:

In 1967, George Burns was taking aerial photographs near Nelagony, Okla., about 40 miles southwest of Noxie, when his light plane developed difficulty, forcing him to land in an isolated area. Grabbing his camera, he went looking for help. As Burns walked through a heavily wooded area, he noticed a figure he believed was a farmer or hunter. When Burns waved and yelled for help, the "farmer" ran into the woods.

Burns walked about 600 yards further and noticed the "farmer" again, this time standing about 10 yards to Burns' right. As Burns was realizing the figure was no farmer or hunter, the figure started running again, but not before Burns had snapped a picture of it. The man described the creature as a 7-foot tall ape-like being with glowing green eyes, a large head and massive arms. The creature emitted a stale odor, according to Burns.

In 1970, Dusty Rhoades reported observing one of the creatures while he was hunting in Talihina, Oklahoma. Soon afterward, several head of cattle were found mutilated mysteriously on a Talihina-area ranch.

Within a mile of the mutilation-site, several high school students from Talihina reported the appearance of a short, hairy, upright creature. The teenagers, some of whom were armed, returned to the sighting location one night to seek out the monster. They only succeeded in causing a traffic snarl that police officers later broke up.

The same year a Florida sighting would move a witness to tell newsmen, "At first it looked like a very big man, but then I saw it had no neck and its body was covered with hair, like an ape. It was approximately 7 feet tall."

A famous case of recent years centered on the Missouri Monster- or "Mo Mo"- which was observed, heard or smelled by more than 20 people in 1972. Edgar Harrison - father of the children who first reported having seen the "giant, hairy beast," made plaster casts of the creature's footprints and turned them over to Lawrence Curtis, director of the Oklahoma City Zoo. Curtis and Dr. Hobart Landreth, the zoo's research director, examined the casts and found, according to Curtis, "They are not prints made by a known living animal. On the basis of
our examination, we think they're fakes and not very good fakes at that."

The face of the evidence would change when researcher Ivan Sanderson, shortly before his death, requested that a "female cast" be made from the "male cast" of the creature's footprint. Following Sanderson's directions, Tommy Blann, deputy director of the International UFO Bureau, made a female cast for study. From this new print cast, Blann learned, "The original cast is a small part of the print made by the 'Mo Mo.' Due to the dry dirt from which the cast was made, only three of five toes were visible on the male cast. Evidence indicates that the toe hit the ground first and carried the weight - as the foot was slightly turned. Bone structure indicates a human-looking footprint, although other characteristics tend to be ape-like."

-On August 22, 1972, Tom Hernandez and Kurt Leininger were riding horses on the Indian reservation near Lander, Wyoming when they saw a "monster" leaning against a 12-foot haystack. Tracks found after the sighting were measured at 16 to 18 inches. When researcher D.L. Richardson showed Hernandez copies of the Roger Patterson creature photos, Hernandez replied, "That's exactly what the creature looked like!" (Film analysis of the Patterson photos showed the creature in them to be approximately 7 feet tall with arms 3 feet long and shoulders 3 feet wide. Its weight was estimated at 800 pounds)

On March 19, 1973, at Benbrook, Texas Mark Fricke, an Air Force security police officer stationed at Carswell Air Force Base, sighted a creature described as "between 6 and 7 feet tall, big and black." No additional witnesses were located.

One June, 1973, evening at about 10:30, Randy Creath and Cheryl Ray, both 17, were sitting on the porch of the Rays' Murphysboro, Illinois home when, according to Creath, they spotted a creature "7-to-8 feet tall with light hair, covered with mud and weighing 300 to 350 pounds." Randy Needham heard a high-pitched howl and saw a creature--nicknamed the "Big Muddy Monster"-that "had the shape of a man. However, the arms were much longer."

Soon after the release of the film The Legend of Boggy Creek, the association decided to undertake its own investigation of the tall hairy monster sighted near Fouke, Arkansas by more than 200 people in the past 60 years. The film had featured several Fouke residents, who claim they have seen the legendary creature, including Willie Smith, who recalled, "The first time I saw him was in 1955. He was crossing the creek and looked like some kind of ape."

Dan Garcia, Association deputy director, contacted several of the Fouke witnesses in order to separate "fact from fiction." After Iooking over the information gathered in the Fouke interviews, he decided to organize an expedition-much like the "Mo Mo" expedition to see whether the elusive monster could be captured. Fourteen investigators made the trek from Oklahoma City to Fouke, including Roy Ramirez, Association assistant director for Oklahoma (and organizer of the Noxie expedition), and J. Robert Jenni, scientific consultant and big game hunter.

Upon arriving in Fouke, the investigators set up camp near the open field in which the monster had often been sighted and began interviewing the local residents.

Later, the investigators examined the area around their campsite, keeping in touch with one another via walkie-talkies. During their exploration, investigators found a possible watering hole. Garcia said, "While no one observed the elusive monster on our investigation, some unusual sounds were reported by members of the expedition."
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Credit Source: Tom Cousino 2002
© Probe the Unknown March 1976

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