Emanating from northwest Arkansas’ Boston Mountains, the seven-hundred-twenty mile long White River arcs northwards through southern Missouri before traversing back into Arkansas and flowing southeast to its mouth at the Mississippi River. During the twentieth century, over one-hundred sightings were reported of an unknown large aquatic cryptid in the river near Newport in Jackson County. Press reports over the years have often referred to the creature as the White River Monster; locals more affectionately dubbed it “Whitey.”
Few believe that an actual monster lies submerged in the Northeast Arkansas waters, but many contend some sort of creature different from the typical habitat was domiciled in a section of the White River. The exact denizen that had dwelled, and perhaps may still be lurking beneath, is still debated.
A Depiction Of The “White River Monster”
Or “Whitey” If You Prefer
By most accounts, the maiden documented sighting of the White River Monster stems from 1915, (some sources say 1912) when a plantation owner reported seeing a large gray-skinned creature he estimated to be “. . . three cars long.” Sporadic sightings continued over the following two decades.
Multiple sightings of the creature occurred in early July 1937 when it was seen in an eddy by a group of recreational fishermen, along with local farmer Bramlett Bateman, who lived along the White River six miles south of Newport. Bateman described it as having “the skin of an elephant, four or five feet wide by twelve feet long, with the face of a catfish.”
Fearful of the creature destroying his crops, Bateman sought to use TNT to blow up the eddy, but he was denied permission by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
State toll bridge collector W.E. Penix spearheaded the construction of a large rope net in the hopes that it could be used to capture the creature, but the lack of materials and money negated its completion.
U.S. Engineers (Army Corps of Engineers) diver Charles Brown scoured the eddy, but he failed to find the White River Monster.
Charles Brown
By year’s end, over one-hundred sightings were recorded of the creature. It was sporadically seen over the following three decades before multiple sightings of varying descriptions were again reported in 1971.
Some saw an armored gray creature having crusty skin and a horn protruding from its forehead, while others recalled a spiny head and back estimated at twenty-to-thirty feet long. Accounts describe a critter “the size of a boxcar” making noises sounding like a combination of a “cow’s moo and a horse’s neigh,” and having skin similar to a wet elephant.
The creature generally appeared with a ring of bubbles in the water and splashed about for several minutes before resubmerging. An unofficial report states it overturned a boat occupied by two men, Ollie Ritcherson and Joey Dupree.
A trail of three or five-toed, fourteen-inch prints found on Towhead Island leading to the White River through a path of bent trees and crushed bushes and vegetation were presumed by the locals to be those of Whitey.
Fisherman Cloyce Warren was paid $20 for taking this Polaroid on June 28, 1971. It is the only image of the purported White River Monster.
A Supposed Photo Of The The River Monster . . .
Most of the sightings of the White River Monster occurred during the summer (June to early September.) Estimates of the creature’s weight vary between 300-1,500 pounds.
Theories for what the creature may be range from a giant alligator gar or catfish, an elephant seal, a Florida manatee, AKA a sea cow, or, on the extreme end, a remnant of the extinct Xiphactinus, a prehistoric genus of large predatory marine ray-finned fish that somehow survived in the White River’s freshwaters, as opposed to the ocean’s salt waters.
The last reported sighting of the White River Monster was in 1974.
. . . Who Has Been Quiet For Over Half A Century
In 1973, the Arkansas State Legislature passed a bill sponsored by Senator Robert Harvey establishing the White River Monster Refuge and Sanctuary between “the southern point on the river known as Old Grand Glaize and a northern point on White River known as Rosie.” The legislation also made it illegal to harm or harass the being inside the refuge.
Sightings of the White River Monster were first documented in the early twentieth century, but folklore holds the creature was seen by Quapaw Indians over fifty years earlier, and that it made its presence known during America’s greatest conflict.
In the course of the Civil War, the White River was used for transportation, during which the creature is said to have sunk a Confederate gunboat or a large, heavily-loaded boat carrying supplies or gold near Newport.
Boats are confirmed to have capsized in the White River during the war, but no documentation has been found attributing any sinking to a water creature.
A Civil War Tale
In J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series of novels, a spine taken from the back of the White River Monster is used as a wand core by wandmaker Thiago Quintana.
SOURCES:
- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
- Batesville Guard, Batesville, Arkansas
- Baxter Bulletin
- Encyclopedia of Arkansas
- KAIT News Jonesboro, Arkansas
- Northwest Arkansas Times
- Ozarks Alive
- Paragould Soliphone Paragould, Arkansas
- Skeptical Inquirer
- The Sun Jonesboro, Arkansas
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