Blue man of the Ozarks

[HaroldWayneHamlin]

THE LEGEND OF THE BLUE MAN

THIS IS AN ACTUAL REPRINT OF AARON SIM’S ARTICLE IN THE SPRING 1895 RIDGERUNNER

"If you've ever been walking out in the woods in Ozark Country and thought you saw a big hairy monster, you might have. Don't laugh many people have seen the "Blue Man."

Other parts of the world have their own real or maybe mythical monster. Scotland has "Nessie" the Loch Ness Monster, and the Yeti or Abominable Snowman from Tibet. The United States has a few creatures of its own.

From the Western states come Bigfoot legends, the Iceman from Minnesota, and the "Headless Horseman" as told of by Washington Irving. Ozarkers have never been ones to be out-done by others. Here in the Ozarks we have the "Blue Man of Spring Creek."

The story began over one hundred years ago in the winter of 1865 when a hunter from Douglas County, Sol Collins, was hunting on the Ridge between big North Fork and Spring Creek. With snow on the ground Collins was tracking game when he came upon a set of tracks that were something like a bear's. Sol had killed many bears, but these tracks were the largest and widest he had ever seen.

Quickly he followed the tracks, and kept on them. He had followed the footprints north, almost to Indian Creek, then in a wide half-circle to the west until he was close above the big North Fork River.

While climbing the north slope of Upper Twin Mountain, Collins looked up and barely escaped being hit by a boulder that tumbled by him. He again barely escaped two more huge boulders that crashed down the hill. Just as he stm1ed to get behind a big post oak he first saw the gigantic figure shaped like a huge man, which was naked except for what looked like the skin of an animal around its midsection and other wrappings around its feet.

The creature was completely covered with a coat of curly, short black hair. When the sun struck it, it took on a deep, dark blue hue. Collins never gave up his claim that this creature was not less than nine feet tall, and this is among the shortest estimates of many others in the years to come.

Sol stated that he only stared long enough to see the creature throw away a ten foot club he was carrying and pick up another boulder, which he threw against the post oak. Then the giant made an ear-splitting scream that some said was more terrifying than any that ever came from any beast that could be found in the hills.

Collins then headed back and gathered up some of his neighbors and for a few days they kept on the trail of the beast the best they could by following its tracks in snow. A few times they caught a glimpse of it at a distance, plundering through the woods at a rate that left the posse far behind. No man was ever able to get within distance to take a shot at the creature, but nevertheless the hunt continued for to or three weeks almost every day, but there were never any result".

Many people saw the wild man, and people in isolated cabins claimed to be awakened in the dead of night by the screams of the creature. Usually after the awful shrieks were heard, the person would find a lamb or pig had been carried away.

By now, the "Blue Man," as he was now called, had been considered a fake and it was almost nine years before he was heard from again. In Autumn of 1874, word was passed that he had emerged again, because sheep and hogs had started disappearing and the carcasses found in the woods. Organized hunts were carried out to capture the creature but after a week or two, the "Blue Man" disappeared once again.

Sixteen years went by and he only made two or three visits to the hills along the Big North Fork. Every visit he was seen and hunted by many. Every visit he also made a clean get-away from the hills men. However, the last time they got too close, for he remained out of sight from 1890 to 1911, and nothing was seen or heard of him. For this reason, many of the people who had moved into the area regarded the stories of the "Blue Man of Spring Creek" as a figment of someone's imagination.

About this time he was seen again and more joined in the search. Reportedly they discovered the creature's den in a cave in a remote valley. The floor of the cave was littered with the bones of animals he had eaten, and a bed of dry leaves was found in a corner. Again, just as before the creature disappeared.

The next time the Blue Man was seen, O.C. Collins was searching for two lambs that had disappeared. He spotted the creature on Spring Creek four miles from Old Horton. Two days later Cap Turner came across him catching fish with his hands in Indian Creek. The creature chased Turner up the steep hillside swinging a huge

Cal Alsup, a few days later, was one of a posse that chased the Blue Man into a cave. He stumbled through the darkness over objects he knew were the pelts of sheep or the dried hides that had once made a meal for the wild man. He was seen one more time after eluding his pursuers at the cave. That time was at Ava Crossing where he was catching crayfish from under rocks and eating the tails.

By November 15, 1924, terror was prevailing over northern Howell and Douglas Counties. From Tater Hill to Collins Ford and from Blue Buck to the Ava Crossing people were searching for the Blue Man. Cattle weren't allowed to graze, sheep were watched by herders with rifles, and livestock was locked up at night. nobody left their home, and churches and schools were closed. People armed with rifles and shotguns searched every nook and cranny of the area in search of the Blue Man of Spring Creek.

December of 1938 was when the next account of the Blue Man came. The Bunt Brothers, who were living in Johnson Hollow, said their coon dogs had bayed off from them quite a little distance. The men had been seeing range hogs in the area quite often so they didn't go to their cabin for their guns; they just went up the ridge to call off the dogs before they killed one of the hogs.

They got quite a surprise when they saw the dog, baying up the big tree in which there was a man hissing and snarling in anger. He had no weapons and no clothes, except for some type of fur garment around his middle and something wrapped around his feet. According to the brothers he was hairy and apparently blue from the cold.

The younger brother took the dogs a good way off while the older tried to talk to the man in the tree, Bunt promised him food, shoes, clothing and a place to sleep but the man in the tree just stared at him. After about half an hour Bunt gave up and joined his younger brother. They said they were hesitant to walk away and leave the man there, yet they had no reason to question him further. Later they were questioned as to why they didn't report this to the law and they said they had no complaint against the man and had no way to come the eight miles into town.

Only once was a "wild man" caught, but it happened before the Bunt Brothers had their confrontation with the Blue Man. The August 18, 1911 edition of "The Sentinel" published at Pomona ran a story entitled "Wild Man Captured".

The mysterious disappearance of livestock and farm truck that had had many farmers along Bryant Creek puzzled was solved. Two boys, Ott Collin and Tom Reyburn, were returning from a fishing trip. They noticed something apparently spring right out of the ground, near the base of the hollow, and begin chasing one of the frightened sheep that was grazing there. The frightened boys didn't stick around; they ran home just as quick as they could get there.

When they got back home and told their parents what they had seen, they quickly gathered a bunch of men. The boys acted as guides, and when arriving at the spot they found a log and an opening into the ground that looked as if it frequently used.

One of the men pulled together his courage, shoved in a lantern and followed into a cave room of considerable size. At the far side a man was crouched, and said to be the sorriest specimen of a man any of them had ever seen. He was bare of clothing except for a breechcloth of some kind of animal hide. His body was completely covered with short hair, and his head was covered with a mass of hair two feet long.

The wild man tried to get away but he was caught and turned over to the authorities. He either couldn't or wouldn't talk, and his cave was littered deep with wool, hair, bones, and feathers. There was no evidence of him ever having cooked his food.

The most recent account of an encounter with a wild man occurred in 1966 in Peter Bottom, a fertile meadow along the War Eagle River, near War Eagle community in Northwest Arkansas. It began when a doctor who was wanted for murder found refuge in the forests around Peter Bottom.

When the man was caught he was ruled insane, and sent to a state mental Institution. Just before he died in the early 1960s he made the statement that since he was near dying he wanted to tell the story of a monster that lived in Peter Bottom. He also made the statement to stay away from the area and the story appeared on the back pages of local newspapers. But because of his history of mental disorder it was treated as a figment of his imagination.

Little interest was stirred in the War Eagle area until 1966. On a Sunday afternoon, two men were horseback riding down the steep road that leads to Peter Bottom. Suddenly a tractor coming at full speed from the bottom almost ran them off the mad. The man on the tractor warned the two there was something horrible living down there. He had been starting his spring plowing when he spotted the monster.

The boys thanked him for his warning but decided they wouldn't believe it unless they saw it for themselves. They kept riding but the horses became restless, and soon refused to go any further. The boys then walked the rest of the way into the valley where they spotted what they thought was a large clump of white fur in the grass near a cedar tree. They thought it must be a dead horse or cow, but when they got within ten yards of the clump of fur it stood up.

The two young men described it as an animal that stood upright like a man, with its body covered completely with white hair about two or three inches long. They said its height was about eight or nine feet and his features looked more like a man's than an ape's. Its face and hands were pinkish color and these were the only areas not covered by the white fur. They also said there was a strong, offensive odor, which they described as smelling like old coffee grounds, coming from the creature.

The two stood there unable to believe what they were seeing, then the creature began slowly walking toward them making strange sounds and they turned and ran as quick as they could. When they got to their horses they put quick distance between them and Peter Bottom. The parents of one young man said by the time he reached his home in the Nob Hill community he was almost in a state of shock. He then spent several days in the hospital with a nervous disorder.

As the young men's tale spread, hunting parties were formed, but the strange creature was never seen again. Over the years, cattle have been found, torn apart, and one man's corpse was found with his limbs ripped from his body.

No one can prove that the two really saw the creature, but Peter Bottom hasn't been farmed since then. It can be said that the albino monster in Peter Bottom is clearly unique in its own right.

How then can the legend of the Blue Man of Spring Creek and the monster in Peter Bottom be explained? This has come to be the most widely accepted reasoning:

Jerry Hilterbrand, who settled in what is now Douglas County in 1820 and died there in 1885, told the following story handed down to him by the older residents of the area. Years before the American Revolution, while Missouri was still a part of the French Colony of Louisiana, a French fur trader came through the Ozarks with a beautiful Spanish woman. After a while he got tired or his companion and traded her to an Indian Chief for a large amount or furs, leaving her captive. The woman, left with the Indians in the wilderness, lost her reasoning and lived for years a demented creature of the hills.

From her came a race or people, hair-Spanish and half-Indian, who never mingled with anyone and hid away in remote and inaccessible places. There they increased in numbers, and were known to exist for a good many years. Between 1820 and 1840 when the pioneering settlers came into the Ozarks, the race probably disappeared and many thought it probably retreated to the more remote Boston Mountains in Western Arkansas."

[T Harger]

This a reply to the reference of the Peter Bottom Cave incident in 1966. What happened was that a man had gone out at about 4:00 A.M. to milk cows in his barn. There was a bigfoot sleeping in the barn on some hay. The man was startled and out of fear poked the bigfoot with a pitchfork. The bigfoot pulled the man's limbs from his body and escaped. The police report and death certificate state that a bull had killed the man even though the bull didn't have any horns, any wounds, or a drop of blood on him. In reference to the white animal described - it was simply an old bigfoot sleeping under a tree. There was not a single bigfoot, but a whole family of bigfoot living in the peter bottoms. Today there are a lot of "no trespassing" signs in the area to keep people out. This has sparked rumors of drug dealers growing dope in the area and numerous other fatalities by bigfoot. I could give more detail of the 1966 incident but that is enough for now. I know this because my eighty year old father was the law enforcement officer brought in to investigate, and track down the bigfoot. He was the one who conducted all the interviews concerning the case, is the source of information on it. The Peter Bottom Cave had a lot of deer and goat bones in it.

[luckyalaska98]

I am originaly from Berryville Ar and was a Washington County Deputy this is the first I have ever heard of this Blue Man

[macbestus]

The blue man is pretty famous. Check out this page for loads of cool info on Ole Blue


http://ozarkshistory.blogspot.com/20...sasquatch.html


Mac

[harhey]

Thanks for the post and the replies. I love this stuff ,Ive been interested since I was a kid.

[Greataxe]

I grew up in the Ozarks. These Bigfoot, I mean Blue Man witnesses were either stoned on something or liars.

[rextex]

I've spent MANY hours and days hiking, fishing and hunting in the Ozarks never seen anything like this.

[kenny256]

I live in the "Ozarks" area...only once have I ever seen something I couldnt explain like this.

Its really scary but I just blew it off and tried to forget I ever saw anything.

[george506]

I was wonder where Peter Bottom Cave is located in Arkansas

[HaroldWayneHamlin]

believe or disbelieve BUT ALWAYS

always keep an open mind, an open mind learns and grows, a closed mind , turns up its nose at all, BUT lives in peace and bliss, until the Nazi SS stuffs them in the ovens.

Yes, it does apply to bigfoot space aliens or your wife fooling around with bowlegged cross eye homeless person down the way

an open mind in the end saves the day

later
wayne

[roadking]

Odd...I have lived in Ozark county most of my life...I have never heard anything about this. Usually tales like this will be told in hunting camps and other gatherings. Heard of a lot of strange/weird stuff over the years but nothing like this. Oh well, since none of the witnesses are alive any more, guess we may not ever know the entire story.