(Monster Monday) Two-Toed Tom, Alligator Monster of FL & AL

Florida Indians Battle Monster Alligators
Two-Toed Tom is said to rival the size of these gators.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the monster story I posted here last Monday, so I thought we might make Monster Monday a regular feature for awhile.
Today we focus on Two-Toed Tom, the legendary red-eyed, demon-possessed alligator Monster of Northest Florida and South Alabama. The story has echoed through the swamps along the border for more than 100 years and is still well-known today.

The monster first came to prominence in South Alabama where he terrorized farm communities just north of the Florida line. Described as red-eyed and demon-possessed, he gained his unusual name after an attempt to capture him left him with only two toes on one foot.

Alligator in North Florida

Tom was shot, dynamited and otherwise attacked but could not be killed. He eventually tired of the constant battles in Alabama and moved across the line to Florida. He soon appeared in Sand Hammock Lake in the little town of Esto in Holmes County, Florida. After driving out the other bull alligators in the area, he turned his focus on people.

I had the unique opportunity in 1989 to interview one of the survivors of an authentic Two-Toed Tom attack. She then lived in a retirement home in Pensacola and had been attacked by the monster when she was a little girl some 70 years before.

Reptilian mile

She described how she had been walking with her mother along a sandy path near Sand Hammock Lake. When she skipped ahead in the playful manner of most kids, she suddenly heard her mother scream. Turning around to see what was wrong, she was stunned to see that the feared alligator monster had come out into the path between them. It stood up on its hind legs and roared at both of them.

Their screams soon attracted the men of the community, including one who showed up with a "war rifle" to shoot the monster. Blasted with the high-powered rifle, the monster fell still but as the men gathered around to inspect it, the beast suddenly reanimated and swept them all down with the fierce lashing of its tail and escaped back into the swamp.

This is just one of the stories that have grown up around Two-Toed Tom, who is said to still inhabit the swamps of Washington, Holmes and Walton Counties in Northwest Florida. If you would like to read more about him, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/alligator2.

The Ozark Howler: Monster Cat in the Ozarks?

Ozarks of Arkansas

One of my favorite stories from my years of living in different parts of the South is the tale of the Ozark Howler in Arkansas. (It is also said to live in Missouri and Oklahoma, maybe even in Texas).
Now let me be clear from the start that this mysterious animal or beast or monster or whatever it is has been the focus of an incredibly large number of hoaxes and false reports. One hoaxer even admitted to a researcher that he spread as many false stories as he could to poke fun at the Chupacabra craze that swept through Texas a decade or so ago.

Small Waterfall in the Ozarks

That said, there are real stories from sincere eyewitnesses of a strange creature roaming through the Ozark Mountains. Its nightly cries are said to sound like a the screams of a woman.

I first heard reasonable eyewitnesses talk about the Arkansas Howler in 2004 when I was living in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Several people that I talked to who had seen or heard it or found its prints did not believe it to be a real "monster," but instead thought that a mountain lion or cougar was loose in the Boston Mountains that stretch between Fort Smith and Van Buren on the south and the booming Northwest Arkansas corridor.

Wildlife authorities maintained at that time that there were no native cougars left in Arkansas. Nevertheless, residents who lived in and along the fringes of the Boston Mountains, which are part of the Ozarks, were serious in their claims that a large animal was roaming their neighborhoods.



Cougar as seen in a USDA Photo

The most convincing evidence I saw during my time in Arkansas were photos from a trail cam belonging to a couple that lived north of Van Buren in Crawford County. The photos without doubt showed a large, tawny cat that looked just like a cougar to me. State wildlife officials did not dispute that it could be a big cat, they simply point out that there is no evidence of a breeding population of such animals in Arkansas.

Be that as it may, they do agree that there could be cougars or other large cats roaming the wild areas of the Ozarks, just believe that if they are there, they were someone's pets that either escaped or were released by their owners when they got too big and dangerous.

The Ozarks from White Rock Mountain

Now to be fair, other eyewitnesses claim to have seem something much more monstrous than a cougar in the hills and hollows of the Ozarks. Sightings ranging from a cat much bigger than a cougar to a cat-like monster with glowing eyes and horns growing from its head have been reported.

Whatever it is, and a recent investigation in Newton County, Arkansas, obtained plaster casts of what a biologist identified as possible Puma tracks (Puma is another name for a big cat like a cougar), the Ozark Howler is very much part of the modern folklore and tradition of the Ozarks.

To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ozarkhowler.

The Wild Man - 19th Century Bigfoot Sightings in Arkansas

Swamps of Eastern Arkansas

It might be a common perception that the first recorded sightings of the gigantic, hair-covered creature known as Bigfoot took place in the Pacific Northwest, but this is not true.

As hunters and settlers pushed deeper into the wooded frontiers of the early South, they often came into a contact with a monster that they usually called the "Wild Man of the Woods." Mirroring modern-day accounts by eyewitnesses who say they have seen Bigfoot, the 19th century reports indicate the Wild Man was a gigantic, hair-covered creature with unusually large feet.

Some of the most compelling written accounts originated in Arkansas in the 1840s, although these same reports indicated the monster had been seen there as early as 1834. In 1846, however, a newspaper story spread across the nation reporting a sighting near Crowley's Ridge west of Memphis. The monster's track, it was said, "measures 22 inches, his toes are as long as a common man's fingers, and in height and make, he is double the usual size."

Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas

The description of the footprints clearly is almost identical with modern accounts and is one of the earliest recorded descriptions of a Bigfoot's tracks.

The sightings in Arkansas continued to be covered by the nation's newspapers until the eve of the Civil War when, of course, other news took priority. By the time the war ended, the Arkansas Wild Man had almost been forgotten, although the term "Arkansas Wild Man" continued to be used to describe rowdier residents of the Natural State.

There are, of course, Bigfoot sightings in Arkansas to this day and the southwest corner of the state is famed for its Fouke Monster (immortalized in the low budget film "The Legend of Boggy Creek"). But the historical 19th century accounts survive as some of the earliest accounts of the mysterious creature and as such are a unique part of the history of the Natural State.

To read a full account, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/arwildman.

Monster Sighting near Two Egg, Florida!!

Strange Footprint found at Monster Sighting Location

There are some strange doings in the swamps about 7 miles from "downtown" Two Egg, Florida!
The latest in a string of eyewitnesses has come forward to report that she spotted the Two Egg - Parramore Monster, known affectionately as the Stump Jumper, during the first week of June. A check of the area around the sighting, which took place about in a swampy area, revealed physical evidence supporting her claims in the form of strange footprints.

The unusual prints appear to have three toes, one large "big" toe and two smaller ones. They were found leading from a swampy area across a plowed fire lane and into an overgrown area of planted pines.

The latest sighting matches previous descriptions of the monster, which is said to be hairy and around 5 or 6 feet tall. It is usually described as being brown or gray in color and is said to run at a remarkable speed. Because it has only been seen at night, usually in the beam of car headlights, most in the area believe it to be nocturnal. It is often described as a "mini-Bigfoot," although one eyewitness reported that the creature had a long raccoon-like tail.

What it could be is not known, but it has been spotted in and around a swampy area about 7 miles northeast of Two Egg and one mile north of a small crossroads called Parramore. The area is in Jackson County, about an hour northwest of Tallahassee.

To learn more about the new sighting, please visit www.twoeggfla.com/monster2.  You can learn more about the quaint little community of Two Egg by visiting http://www.twoeggfla.com/.

The White River Monster - Arkansas

One of the strangest and most enduring tales involves claims that a giant monster of some sort inhabits the White River in Arkansas.

The White River Monster first appeared in the press in 1912, when a party of timber workers spotted what they described as a giant 300 pound turtle on the bottom of the river downstream from Branson, Missouri. The claim led to considerable excitement in Branson and a party of sportsmen set out with ropes and other gear to try to capture the creature. The results of their expedition are not known.

The monster surfaced again 12 years later, near the town of Newport, Arkansas, but it was not until 1937 that it made its first huge splash. Hundreds of people flooded to the community in hopes of catching a glimpse of the monster after it was seen by Bramlett Bateman and workers on his farm in a deep eddy of the White River six miles below Newport. The local Chamber of Commerce made the most of the opportunity, spreading the news to newspapers far and wide, placing signs on highways and charging people 25 cents a head to look for the monster.

A former navy diver went into the river three times looking for the monster, joined once by a local resident who donned homemade diving gear made from an old gas tank, a rubber hose and a bicycle pump. The monster was not found.

Another major burst of publicity was generated in 1971 when sightings of the monster surged following a spell of high water.

What could it be? Theories range from a giant catfish to some kind of ocean creature that wandered off course to a prehistoric monster. Others less inclined to believe it is alive have suggested logs, masses of vegetation or a sunken boat that sometimes rises to the surface.

One thing is certain, over the last 100 years, the White River Monster has become an important part of the folklore and tradition of northeastern Arkansas. To learn more and see a possible photograph of the monster, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/whiteriver1.

Two-Toed Tom - The Alligator Monster of Florida and Alabama

Scotland has its Loch Ness Monster, but deep in the swamps along the border between Alabama and Florida can be heard stories of a water monster of a different sort.

Said to be a demon-possessed alligator that some estimate to be up to 24-feet long, Two-Toed Tom is the focus of numerous legends and tall tales. His name originates from the claim that he lost all but two toes on one foot to a bear trap.

The monster's story originates in Alabama, where University of Alabama professor Carl Carmer recorded tales about Two-Two in his book, Stars Fell on Alabama.

Following a dynamite attack that he avenged by killing a young girl, Tom supposedly made his way across the border into Northwest Florida. There, in the swamps of the Choctawhatchee River and Holmes Creek, he once again appeared. Some believe he lurks there to this day, particularly in the areas of Sand Hammock Lake in Holmes County and Boynton Island on the Choctawhatchee River.

If you would like to read the story of Two-Toed Tom, the infamous alligator monster of Alabama and Florida, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/alligator2.