Monster Mart

Posted on July 13, 2023 by Roger

Arkansas’ version of Bigfoot is called the Boggy Creek Monster

The hairy, ape-like creature reportedly attacked a family in a house near the town of Fouke in 1971. Large, three-toed footprints were found nearby, and there was some damage to the house. A search was made, but no monster was spotted.

And there it would have ended except for a docudrama called The Legend of Boggy Creek, which came out in 1972 and made a surprising amount of money. Seeing an opportunity to make money, someone created Monster Mart, a gas station in Fouke dedicated to the monster. I stopped by on my way home from Texas, where I’d gone to see a Cave Swallow.

While the outside is impressive and promising, the inside, when I was there, was decidedly run down, as though the owners had stopped caring. (According to the Internet, Monster Mart is since under new ownership — hopefully they’ll be a bit more enthusiastic about it.)

I wandered through the museum, which contained movie posters, newspaper articles, and chunks of plaster that are supposedly casts made of the monster’s footprints.

Lest you be alarmed, an archaeologist from Southern Arkansas University investigated and determined that “There is a 99 percent chance the tracks are a hoax.” The local sheriff at that time chimed in: “I don’t believe in it. But I’d say you don’t argue with people who say they’ve seen it.” And a podcast on the subject reports: “So in total, every last shred of evidence that the Fouke Monster exists at all is anecdotal. Not a single piece is testable.” Color me shocked.

These newspaper articles refer to the initial 1971 sighting.

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Ark-La-Tex Monument

Posted on July 13, 2023 by Roger

With my wife off cavorting with relatives at the family reunion, I decided it was time to add Cave Swallow to my life list. This involved an 8+ hour round trip down through Arkansas, across a corner of Louisiana, and 25 miles into Texas. As I usually do when I make a trip like this, I check for other sites I might want to see in the area.

Which led me to the exciting spot where Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas meet. The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey has placed a marker on a small chunk of concrete at the exact site. I found it, tucked up against a large tree, in an unimpressive neighborhood along a two-lane state highway.

I got out and took the obligatory photos, including one of me standing in three states at once. It wasn’t as thrilling as you might expect.

When I was satisfied that I’d seen all there was to see, I headed north. I think I was there perhaps five minutes tops.

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Jenkins Ferry Battleground State Park

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Roger

In search of something to do, I drove an hour and a half down into Clark County and saw the sights. My first stop was Jenkins Ferry, one of three southern Arkansas Civil War battlefields preserved by the state. At none of them is there much to see. Jenkins Ferry consists of a picnic area in a swampy woods along the Saline River. I hung around for 45 minutes looking for birds, but there weren’t many of them to see either.

In April, 1864, a Union army … you can read about it on the sign.

There was also this monument, which gives some idea of how well the battlefield is maintained. It reads, “Erected in memory of the soldiers of the Confederacy, who gave their lives for the cause at the battle of Jenkins Ferry, April 30, 1984. Dedicated September 19, 1938, by the James F. Fagan and Jenkins Ferry Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. We honor their valor and sacrifice.”

From the battlefield, I went to the Clark County Historical Society Museum in Sheridan. It’s a typical local historical museum, filled with random old stuff donated by local citizens, although this one had some cool displays and a “village” of old buildings that could have been interesting if taken care of. As is, the whole place feels likely to rot away within a few years. In the museum, I found this photo of Jenkins Ferry. I don’t know when it was taken.

Here are a few other random shots from the museum.

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Overflow National Wildlife Refuge

Posted on June 22, 2023 by Roger

I drove the three hours south to this refuge in extreme south Arkansas because other birders were finding Least Bitterns there regularly. I’d never seen one except for brief views in flights over marshes.

There were a lot of birds around, but not a lot of open areas where viewing was easy.

I found a small pond of open water, surrounded by reeds, and parked my car at an angle that let me view out the window. Over the next hour I saw at least three Least Bitterns, including an immature.

As I watched the bitterns coming and going, I noticed a log that blinked.

I stayed about two-and-a-half hours, then headed back home, stopping to look at some dark ibises nearby.

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Arkansas Travelers vs. Northwest Arkansas Naturals

Posted on May 11, 2023 by Roger

On a whim, I contacted the Kleins, friends from Illinois with whom we often went to baseball games. My purpose was just to say hi, but it turned out they were coming through Little Rock and planned on seeing a game. We met them downtown and had a good time catching up at Dickey-Stephens Park.

Our seats were on the first base side, between home plate and the dugout. The Travelers were playing as the Diamantes de Arkansas in an attempt to be relevant to Spanish-speaking fans and sell more stuff. There was nothing else about the game that was Spanish or Hispanic in anyway, so it seemed odd. Here’s the view from our seats.

The game began with a string of lucky hits and wild pitches, and the Travelers gained an early 7-0 lead. They scored two more in the fourth. The Naturals, who didn’t seem like a very good team, scored three meaningless runs in the last two innings and lost 9-3, but we weren’t around to see it. It had rained hard all day — to the point where we really thought the game would be called — and started up again in the eighth, so we left.

I wasn’t into the game much and didn’t care which team won. But we had fun with the Kleins talking about baseball and old days.

The highlight for me was when I noticed that the Traveler’s pitcher was named Woo. I immediately thought of the old term for flirting, “pitching woo,” but when I cracked the joke, nobody got it. I took a photo of the scoreboard and sent it to several people, but none of them had ever heard the term either. Still, I got a kick out of it. And he pitched a perfect game through six.

It was our first visit to this ballpark. It had a nice view of downtown Little Rock over the right field wall, for what that’s worth, but otherwise was a pretty conventional AA stadium.

Our tire light was on when we got back in the car. I checked quickly to make sure none of the tires was already flat and made it home OK. the next morning the tire was flat. There was a nail in it, so I had to put on the donut and take it in for a patch.

Here’s a news article on the game.

The Arkansas Travelers (19-11) scored seven runs in the first two innings Thursday while starter Bryan Woo carried a perfect game through six innings of a victory over the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (15-15) in front of an announced crowd of 4,028 at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock.

The Travelers scored three runs in the first inning on an RBI double by Robbie Tenerowicz, who along with Spencer Packard scored later in the inning on wild pitches from Naturals starter Jonathan Bowlan. Packard added a two-run single in the second inning and the Travs got RBI singles from Jonatan Clase and Robert Perez Jr. to push the lead to 7-0.

Tyler Tolbert broke up the perfect game bid in the top of the seventh inning with a single on an 0-1 pitch. Tolbert and Tyler Cropley both hit RBI singles in the eighth inning to account for two Naturals runs, with the other coming on a Jeison Guzman solo home run on a full-count pitch in the top of the ninth inning.

Further note: Less than a month after this game, Woo was called up to the Seattle Mariners.

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