There are a lot of myths in our region about ghosts, haunted houses and creepy creatures handing out in the woods.

We have all heard about Big Foot and the many sightings in Northeast Texas. But I've been doing a little studying about the Fouke Monster which allegedly hangs out a little closer to Shreveport Bossier.

Sightings have been reported pretty often over the years. The best place to get all the details about the Fouke Monster is RIGHT HERE.

http://www.foukemonster.net/gallery.htm
http://www.foukemonster.net/gallery.htm
loading...

The Fouke Monster is also known as the Southern Sasquatch and this big guy hangs out in Miller County Arkansas. But this creature has also been spotted in the Jonesville and Boggy Creek area in Eastern Louisiana.

The Fouke Monster has been the centerpiece of several films and books.

Sightings of the FM date back to the early 70's. In fact, various reports between 1971 and 1974 described the creature as being a large creature covered in long dark hair, which was estimated to be about 7 feet (2 m) tall with a weight of 250–300 pounds.

Some witnesses say the Fouke Monster runs with a gallop and swings his arms like a monkey. He's also described as being very stinky, kind of like a wet dog.

There are some earlier reports tracing the monster all the way back to the 1940's, but most of these reports came from the Jonesville area.

Is this monster real? Well in 1971, Bobby and Elizabeth Ford claim they were attacked by the monster in their home on the night of May 1st. Elizabeth Ford originally thought the hairy beast was a bear. Her husband and his brother chased the monster away.

Here's a report about what was recorded at the time:

The Bobby Ford family had moved into the house less than a week before. The men had been out hunting when they heard a woman scream at the house. Returning back to the house, Ford saw a creature that stood 7 feet tall and was 3 feet wide across the chest.  When he felt a hairy arm around his neck it scared him so badly that he ran through a glass and wood front door. The men said they shot at the creature seven times and thought that they had at least wounded it. They used all their ammunition. But when investigators later combed the scene, no blood was found.

At the time, Bobby Ford said: "I was walking the rungs of a ladder to get up on the porch when the thing grabbed me. I felt a hairy arm come over my shoulder and the next thing I knew we were on the ground. The only thing I could think about was to get out of there. The thing was breathing real hard and his eyes were about the size of a half dollar and real red. I finally broke away and ran around the house and through the front door. I don't know where he went."

The most recent sighting of the monster was in May of this year. Prior to that there is a report from a woman who saw the FM on September 13th, 2012, the FM was spotted on County Road 10 about a mile east of State Highway 237 near Fouke.

A woman was driving on the road at about 4am when she saw the creature cross the road in front of her car. She claimed the animal was a "good eight feet tall", with very long, and muscular legs.

More From 96.5 KVKI