147. Ozark Howler 1

0:03 Imagine that this line represents a time present 1985 Future Past. Prior to this point in time, somewhere in the past, the timeline skewed into this tangent, creating an alternate 1985. Alternate to you need Einstein, Fucker, Reality, everyone. Else, the Ozarks cover a significant amount of both Arkansas and Missouri, with small sections in Oklahoma and Kansas. These 47,000 square miles of highland area encompasses both the Boston and the Saint Francois Mountains, as well as the Salem and Springfield Plateaus. In 1908, the first area of the Ozarks became protected as the proclamation by Theodore Roosevelt created the Ozark National Forest by using over 90,000 acres of land from 5 counties of Arkansas, with over 600,000 more acres being added a year later in 1938.

1:18 This was expanded to include areas of Missouri, now known as Mark Twain National Forest, and also adding another 550,000 acres to the already established protected area of the Ozarks. The area is old, very old in fact. The second oldest mountain range in North America is the ancient St. Francois Mountains, which has been approximated as roughly 1.5 billion years old, which also makes it the 7th oldest in the world. In comparison, the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Appalachians, which is known worldwide for its deep history, is roughly 300,000,000 years younger at only 1.2 billion years old.

1:59 The age of the area hides many secrets that are slowly being uncovered every day. The specific composition of the bedrock holds some of the oldest fossilized remains found on Earth, with specimens from as early as the Proterozoic Era. This ancient era was known as the first to give our planet its multicellular organisms and the birth of the organelle. The time period was roughly 2 billion years prior to the first dinosaurs. Walking the earth but along. With old rocks, the area has other secrets as well. Secrets that hide in the shadows of the Ozarks use the thick vegetation and the sparse population of human life to exist without notice of the modern world, the many creatures both known and unknown. Live their lives protected by the forests and The Cave systems created by millennia of erosion and collapse of various parts of the ancient landscape.

2:52 The beauty alone isn't enough for most outsiders to one stay, but what is hard for one to survive in is a paradise for another paradise for a monster. A monster that some describe as being bigger than the average black bear, with glowing red eyes and horns on top of its head. This quadrupedal creature is commonly seen as brown or black, with a long goatlike beard and the eerie call that gives the animal its name today. We peel back the layers of truth, legend, myth and reality. Today we dive into the Ozark. Howard, welcome back to the Infinite Rabbit hole.

3:35 Welcome back to the Infinite Rabbit Hole Podcast. I'm your host, Jeremy today. Have a couple special guests. We're gonna start with the the lease special, Jacob. Wow. Dang. Welcome back to the infinite rabbit hole, man. Thanks again. Yeah, yeah, is. This number 3 #3 guest spot. For like, since you left, yeah, we just can't seem to shaky man. No, it's gonna blow people's minds. What happens next. I know you're gonna guess me again. Hi, you been man? I mean, well, been doing all right. Yeah. Nothing to be terrible. I had a motorcycle crash on Saturday. I'm still alive.

4:17 So, yeah, good. Yeah, yeah. You did a lot of work on that bike, man. Yeah, now I get to rework it. What kind of work Rework? Well, I like the stash, man. It looks like you drank some really thick dark chocolate milk. Dude, I like your stash, except that you need to trim it, 'cause you could probably floss with that thing. It is what it is, man. It's it's the squash. Look, we talked about this, All right, Moving on. We are kind of kind of blessed because it's been a while. Like, I just can't get this guy to come on the show anymore. CJ, welcome back to the infinite rabbit hole, dude. Well, thank you. It's been a minute it.

4:59 Has it? It's been several minutes. Yeah. Did I have you come on recently? No. For like the We're Never Doing Infinite Rabbit Hole Again episode. Oh, that's right. It's been It's been so long that Jake now has more hair in his lip than he does in his head. True story. That is true. It's a good looking lip. And how you been? Come on. Yeah, you I've. Been chilling? Just that's it. Just chilling. Chilling. That's. It well man, you just you've been doing 3 fucking. Podcasts tall as. I have been, I'm not telling you about one of them, but you got Mystery Stone back off the ground because it's horrible.

5:46 Like whatever man. Do you want your friends to keep talking to you? Because they won't if they listen to that podcast, But no. So we we got met a Mystery Stone podcast back up off the ground after like a two year hiatus and. That was cool. Like, our listenership picked right back up where it left off, even in two years, like we were still kidding, like 200 a week without uploading a single episode. So that was kind of cool, but we brought it back. It's in full swing. The community's not as active as I'd like it to be, but it's getting there. And then I just launched a new podcast called Ethereally Yours recently, and that's actually going really well.

6:28 I'm having a lot of fun doing that one. Yeah, Episode 2 just came out today. Three. Well, I have the pilot and then this. The season one episode one and season one episode 2 is out. OK, well the one I listened to today was really good. Which one was at Stanley House, the Stanley Hotel? Yeah. Yo, thank you. Appreciate it. It's called thoroughly yours. Ethereally yours? Yeah. So like, the premise is like, it's like I'm reading a letter to people. Yeah, you know, but we're talking about hauntings and ghost stories and stuff, and it's like short. I think it's like, I think the the pilot's like 25 minutes and the Stanley Hotel's the second longest at 18 all.

7:10 Right. You got it. You got it all out, man. You good? Nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's long enough for Jake to listen to you while he poops. I might listen to it. He won't listen to. It probably won't, yeah. He'll subscribe, but he won't listen. Yeah. All right, let's let's introduce the smartest person in the room by far. The cat. The cat. No. Our special guest, our special guest for today, is a fan of the show. She's actually one of my coworkers. She's an engineering intern, so she's by far the smartest person in this room. Lauren, welcome to Anthony Rabbit Hole. Yeah, it's nice to be here. I just cryptids are kind of my thing. I don't necessarily believe in most things, so it's gonna be interesting, but the Ozarkowler is kind of what got me into the infinite rabbit hole.

8:07 Not necessarily because you talked about it, but in the indirect way of that's what got me into another podcast, which then got one of our other coworkers to recommend me this one. So yeah. I was surprised that somebody listened to it from my work. Not gonna lie, that's pretty interesting. I actually, I had to ask him. I said, like, dude, you you listen. He's like, yeah, I'm occasion. That's enough. I feel you with the not liking or not believing in most of them. I believe in like 2 and CJ, what do I think about the rest of them? What are they? Demons. That's exactly what they are. I knew you'd understand. Well, yeah.

8:49 So we are talking Ozark Howler today. This is Lauren's recommendation. She wanted to come on and talk about the Ozark Howler. So I dove deep and trust me, it was hard to find some stuff. I actually had to get into some local. I don't, I don't know what to call it. Some like local libraries and stuff. I had to contact some people. I did. I reached out to some some areas of Arkansas and Missouri. To try to see, try to confirm some things. Which was cool because I was reading a book and I started, I got to the point where I was like, this has to be made-up there, like this has to be all fiction. Like this guy just came up and just wrote all of these on a whim.

9:34 But I I reached out to a few people and just just threw some emails out into the nether there and they came back and they came back with more information. So I was able to add some stuff to this presentation. This is probably the deepest I've ever had to dig for stuff. And man, let me tell you, I got some cool stuff. Bro, that's deep. I got a question. Not to spoil anything, but did you ever there's a particular stained glass window? Yes, you had the howler. We talk about. Did were you able to confirm whether or not that actually existed? I was able to. Confirm that the church burned down.

10:16 Darn. Cuz everything I've come up with, they're like, well, we can't. We've not been able to find the stained glass maker. We haven't been able to talk to anybody who's seen it. Well, yeah, I was. I I did confirm that it burned down. I did like it is in their records that the stained glass was there. But we'll we'll discuss that a little bit more at the back end of that. That is actually at the end of this episode or or actually I think this is probably gonna end up being two. So this would be at the end of the next episode. All right, cool. You guys ready to roll? Yes. OK. Thanks. That all I do is roll. CJ Characteristics of a Howler The Ozark Howler gets its name from both the area that it claims as its home and the sound it so famously makes that somewhat resembles a howl. It's described as resembling the sound of a howl due to unfamiliar and eerie noise that often echoes through the darkness of the Ozarks at night.

11:12 Author Ralph Taller describes it as quote. It's like the howl of a wolf plus the bugle of an elk and the laugh of a hyena all blended together somehow, the call of the howler being its most powerful and influential feature for so much more than one reason. One of which is that before there were sightings and reports of a large quadrupedal creature roaming the forest of the Ozarks, there were tables of screams and yells in the night that would petrify those that heard it. Besides that, the creature has never been described as small or tiny. In fact, almost every report describes specifically how the experiencer was surprised as how big it was. The creature has been described more as big and bulky while being both.

11:57 Tall and long. It generally has a reputation as being humongous in stature, with a general size that rivals full grown bowls while sporting a long tail. Besides the general size of the animal, the next most noticeable feature is the horns that are commonly reported on top of its head and the creatures seemingly self illuminating red eyes course to wrap it all up in a nice terrifying package. The creature is covered all over from head to toe in long, shaggy black hair or fur, with a rather long collection under its chin, giving it the appearance of a goat's beard. Sound like you were describing yourself that whole time. I was not. The hair covers the horns.

12:38 That was the description of the Ozark Heller, Sir. So is it just a big goat? It no. Oh, actually, no. It's interpretation I guess. Some people do claim that it is goat like, but most claim that it is feline. This is, I think this is a great time to kind of point this out, Lauren, actually. Drew the cover art for this episode. That was so sick. I know. And CJ, I actually just sent that to you, so you could take a look at it as well. She definitely is the smartest one in the room. By far, so, Lauren, drawing creatures. I know you do it. You see my cubicle, you know. She's got these really detailed creatures drawn out on the walls of her cubicle on post it notes, like these tiny little post it notes.

13:27 And it's got tons of detail. It's it's absolutely it's impressive. Really is. Take a little break here from the Howler and would you like to spread word about where people can see more of your artwork? Yeah, so I have artwork on Instagram at El Mecum Studio. So L Mecum Studio. And yeah, I've got a lot of drawings on there. I do a lot of ink, watercolor, a lot of markers. It's actually what I used for the howler was the. Alcohol markers until they decide to be a butt. And like all the ones I wanted to use for the background died, so I had to use colored pencil. So it was not my original intent, but ohh. Well yeah, I also have an Etsy shop.

14:10 There's nothing on it right now, just 'cause I haven't made anything. But I do like commissions, pretty much everything on my Instagram. If you want the original or the print, it's pretty much for sale, so I also do custom long boards. Like custom design, laser print the design, shape the long board, press it the whole shebang. That's awesome. Can you say that again? L Mecum. Yeah, LMECUM. Yeah. I almost went to art school, too. I got like a $10,000 scholarship. It was like, Nah, let's do engineering. Well, you just got followed by Infinite Ravl, so. Cool.

14:52 Thanks. Absolutely cool. Absolutely stoked to have the very first hand drawn cover for the Infinite rabbit hole. I think that's really, really cool. Breaking down barriers today. Anybody have anything before we jump back in? No. How about you there, beardless man? I have to control myself because you work together. No, no, no, no. You can still be CJ Go ahead. I mean, she specifically asked for Jake and CJ. That was a mistake. Honestly, I just like hearing you terrorize Jeremy.

15:35 When Jeremy asked me to come on the show, I was like, why is Jeff and Kenzar not available? Are you at Kenzar yet, Lauren? Yes, I I am quite far. I have like an hour and a half drive. Every day. Well, at least for this week, that's gonna be an hour. But so I've listened to far more than I probably should have. I'm all the way at like Gateway process which I ended up I couldn't handle all y'all trying to pronounce things like usually it's bad with the different languages with all of like the scientific jargon. And then I think it was Jeff said something about like the guy who.

16:22 Discovered the double Helix structure for DNA was on acid and I was like, that's not even remotely true and I just. I couldn't. So I skipped that. Well, I mean, Jeff's an idiot. So there's that. That's that's that's true. No, wait. But wait, wait, I thought we liked Jeff. No, we do. What's going on? We love, Jeff. We love. Jeff, OK. Jeff thinks everything is. I'm still wearing his shirt. There you go. Freedom not fear. Love it. All right, let's move on. Save some time here, we'll jump into the lore Story has it that a fur trader by the name of Renee August, Chateau Junior, who established a frontier town that was well known for fur trading and would eventually become the city of Saint Louis, was married into the local native Osage tribe, which benefited both the Osage and many others because it opened lines of communication and trade between various parties. This would stand true for many years until August was offered the opportunity to wed a Therese Serre, the daughter of a very wealthy merchant in the region.

17:31 August saw this is a great opportunity to expand his business and needed to come up with a way to lose his wife without giving up the respect he had worked on for so long with the rest of the Osage tribe, so with the help of his childhood nanny in New Orleans. August used magic to transform his wife into a rampaging, ugly and large monster that would be shunned by the locals. It worked, and his exwife disappeared with nobody knowing what exactly happened to her except August, who would hear her cries at night from her loneliness and his betrayal. August will go on to marry his new wife and keep relations with his inlaws.

18:12 And it was the daughter of a high-ranking family within the Osage tribes ranks that would be forever known as the Ozark Howler. The lore of the Ozark Howler surpasses one simple story of an origin, but crosses the divide into the realm of fantasy and mythology as well. The Howler has a perfect opposite and a creature referred to as the snofice which is described as a white deer with flowers growing from its antlers. The snofice is the Yang to the howler's yin. In other words, whereas the howler is known as an omen of death and darkness, the snofice is the embodiment of light and life, both creatures of the Ozarks and both legendary in their own way. Another close companion of the Howler is a spirit or being known simply as the Flannel Man.

19:04 In 2013, a hunter claimed that a man in Flannel appeared to assist in his safe escape from the imminent attack from the Howler itself. There are many stories of a man in flannel showing up in the nick of time to assist in targets of the howler. Throughout the region's recorded history of this creature, nobody knows who or what he is, but many have been thankful for him at one point or another. There is another aspect to the Flannel Man that is that he has been reported as appearing in the bedrooms of unsuspecting people, often accompanied by a spectral black dog, but more on this in a future episode of The Infinite Rabbit Hole. But Speaking of black dogs, the legend and lore of the Howler shares a lot of parallels with the phantom black dog phenomenon in ways such as they are known to appear, disappear, reappear during times of danger, and be an omen that proves death after its third sighting by an individual.

19:58 Now, the difference being with the Howler's lore tells of hearing its howl three times being certain death. It is even believed by many that the creature is one of these shadowy mutts. But as we may soon discover, this may be pretty far from the Howler's true identity. All right, guys, we're at a break. I'll be honest with you, like this is like most things. How do people know that they howl three times and then it's the certain death if everyone, whoever heard it has died? Somebody's third. How could be somebody else's first, and then as soon as that that person hears the third one, he just drops dead. Dude, come on man, think outside the box. I'll be real. I barely heard any of that. I'm looking at Lauren's artwork and it's awesome. Thanks.

20:44 What do you guys think about Lore of the? Of the Howler Wait, what are we talking about right now? I actually have a question. The white deer singing Mo Bobber, Yeah. What? What did you say that was go? The Snofus Snawfus. Are there modern sightings of that? There are a few, and I actually kind of sidestepped a little bit during the research of this to see if I could do a whole episode on that. We actually just came out with a brand new. Type of episode called a mini doc and that that is definitely a candidate for one of those. Not a lot, but probably enough to do 10 minutes worth of.

21:26 Just one person talking. It's just a white stag. White stag with flowers or some say Ivy growing up. It's antlers. There's plenty of white stags in the world. Yeah, there's tons. Black ones 2. Yep. Is that like, tied to the howler through the original story or through, like sightings of them together? Yes. Yes, OK. Cool. No, actually, I I don't know. I I didn't dive as far as I wanted to with the snoffice. There is nothing that I came across where it specifically tied the Howler to this office other than just that they're like the opposites of each other.

22:08 I do not know if they have, like when we were talking about the Stanley Gaster and the Snarly Yow. Those two are, you know, they butt heads. I don't know if that's the same situation here. I can't tell you, okay. I was just curious. All right, ready to roll? Yup. History according to ozarkhalers.com An interesting piece of not only Howler lore, but American history, was created when Representative Flander Keep Roots negotiated terms in order to fund the order of The Who Who. More on that later, but this is a secret order said to have secret ties to the Howler in which they construct fortifications to fend off the Howler in Arkansas.

22:53 Philander keep roots. A KAPK served in the Union Army as an engineer, and it was during this time that both he and his brother were stationed in Arkansas and Missouri, where rumors were spreading that the Ozark Howler had aligned with the Confederacy and was being used to attack the Northern camps. The brothers specific jobs in this effort were to create forts that were impenetrable to the howler. And yes, apparently after further research and the claims this is true. This is actually what was written as the claim for what he was told to do while he was in the Union Army. After the war, PK won the election to the House of Representatives and continued his efforts in protecting the people of Arkansas, both in the towns.

23:38 And the railways against the likeliness of the Ozark Howler and to protect the howler from the people. In Ralph Howler's book The Ozark Howler, he describes how a group of over 150 Russian Jews had arrived in Arkansas in hopes of establishing a commune in 1883. As time went on, a few of them began to disappear and the community began acting by building crude buildings for women and children to sleep in while the men slept outside to protect against whatever was making the people disappear. 20 men in total eventually ended up disappearing on watch, and when blood was found in the vicinity of their disappearances, the group began drawing connections to their dark times in Russia. The official cause of death was that all the men died of malaria.

24:23 No one ever showed signs or symptoms of the disease while alive or after the group moved out of the area. The locals use this as an example of the terror that is the Ozark Power. In spring of 1905, a very strange set of events took place immediately after many citizens of Arkansas began reacting to an extremely large number of reports of howler sightings and attacks. Businesses began closing down early enough for people to get home before night. Parents would keep their kids home instead of going to school, and people in general refused to travel after sunset. An announcement was made by public officials that there were no widespread threats, but people didn't seem to care. They continued with their cautious lifestyles at that point.

25:06 Things continued throughout the early summer, and on August 1st Governor Jeff Davis sent National Guardsmen to every Rd. entering the state. The state was locked down completely from anyone entering or exiting for the time being. The official reasoning was that they were protecting the citizens from yellow fever, but yellow fever was not a thing in or around Arkansas that year. In fact, according to encyclopediaofarkansas.net, the last cases of yellow fever in the state were in 187926 years prior to the state being shut down. People began reporting sightings of guardsmen in the forest and along the roadways with weapons for almost the entire week after the shutdown, and when a report of the howler was made, the Guardsmen were quick to arrive.

25:52 This led the population to believe that it was in response to the increased aggression from the animal in the months prior that finally made the governor start taking it seriously, and the excuse of yellow fever was used to not create a stir in the community. I find it so strange that they believe that yellow fever would have caused less of a stir in the community than a wild unknown animal on the loose. Anyways, shortly after a week of shutdown, the stay opened back up and reports of the howler runins were basically gone. But in 1927 there was a spat of howler sightings in the area of Hella Bend. This area used to be a lush farming community until the summer when the howler terrorized the farmers operations.

26:34 The fear of the creature was so great that many of the farmers missed their window to harvest and a late flood destroyed what was still salvageable. Due to this, many farmers had to sell their land, and the only buyer that would bid was the federal government, who bought the land for pennies on the dollar. The majority of land around Hala Bend is now owned by the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the area is now practically barren of human life. So we got into a little bit. Of some history when it comes back down to the land. Yes, I I did confirm a little bit of that now. I mean, records only go back so far and I obviously didn't have the reach that I could have to. Confirm everything. But yes, a lot of that seems to be true. It's very cool.

27:21 And I like how there's like a secret society that believes in it so much that they're willing to, like, set up defenses against it. I can't wait to get into that. If you're gonna believe in something, you might as well protect yourself from it, right? Something like this vicious beast, apparently. That's awesome. CJ Come on, man, give me stuff. I mean, if it's out here destroying all kinds of farmland and like ruining people's lives and shit, why is that representative trying to? Protect it from people. Well, this is part of the question. The question about why they would want to protect it. There's some theories out there, but nothing concrete. But as you'll see as we get later into this this. Is this thing is taken very seriously, Lauren, What do you think?

28:13 Well, initially when you were talking about, I think it was, you were saying that they were saying that the Confederate Army was using it, right? That was, that was what the Union Army was saying. I don't know if it was important. Like fear mongering to me that maybe that was some rumors that was spreading kind of like as intimidation. I think it's strange that the government would shut down and prevent anybody from coming in or out of the entire state. Were all of these across the whole state, or were they localized? No, no, this is, this is statewide also getting into Missouri and I think we talked a little bit about Oklahoma a little bit later, but yes, Arkansas statewide for sure.

29:05 And the shutdown of the state did happen. That happened for a week. They did blame it on yellow fever. I was able to confirm that the last case of yellow fever in or around that state and I looked into. Every state that touched Arkansas closest. Case of yellow fever happened 26 years prior. Interesting. To have that big of a response in that many studies across an entire state makes me think that it wasn't just one animal. Yes. It's demons. I beat Jake to it. Well, it has to be multiple animals because it's not like one animal has immortality and just sustains forever. Right.

29:47 But to have that many across that wide of an area for one specific period of time feels suspicious to me. Or they're lying. You know, Jake, there's not a lot of cryptids out there that I think have a legitimate chance at existing. I did not continue listening. I telling you man, I did not think when I first started diving into the Ozark Halar and just knowing the the surface information, I didn't think that this was a possibility. I don't know man, this I I think this is up there. This is up there. This is one of this is on on the cusp of being believable, Like very.

30:27 So the demons thing wasn't actually like me being an asshole towards Jake, no? And we actually get into that too. Good. Cuz well, here we go. I'm gonna go ahead and put it out there like it sounds very reminiscent of like a hell hound. Almost, yes. Like, maybe not quite. But I mean, it's Arkansas. Who knows what they're smoking and drinking out there out in the woods, doing all of. They want that. All of it. Well, I mean, some of the 1920s and stuff like pot was still like a huge, huge thing and you grown it out in the woods or whatever. I don't know, moonshine, whatever they got going on. But witchcraft also has a massive prevalency in Arkansas, especially around that time. Practice of the esoteric and whatnot. Old world Satanism and stuff which would potentially have the ability to call out.

31:22 Things like demons and hellhounds and whatnot, depending on what their what their objectives were. Especially if someone was being salty against the community as a whole, rejected by the community or whatever, they could have easily summoned on some sort of demonic presence to take revenge in that aspect. So yeah, if anyone wants to know what Mystery Stone Podcast is about, there we go. Shameless. But yeah, shameless, but no. But seriously. I could actually like get in line with like Jake's Typical what everything is on this particular subject Feels good. I feel like if it was a Hellhound though it's very specific form of that to 1 area, whereas I feel like hellhounds, you would have seen it in another place across the country or in a different country.

32:16 Well, when you're dealing with the esoteric and. Specifically, dark magic, witchcraft and things like that. It depends on what exactly they were trying to call. So especially if you're working with like the Lesser Key of Solomon's Galatia and things like that, each individual demon could potentially have its own hellhound. It could look different things. And like throughout history, when you look at hellhounds, we have hellhounds. The Black Shuck, the headless one that's out there in England. Yeah, they they they all take on these many different forms, so it's not unreasonable to think that this could be a different type of Hellhound. Yeah, we did an entire series on the phantom black dog phenomenon, which is tied directly to Hellhounds, if not an interchangeable name for him.

33:07 Yeah, I listened to actually really liked that one. Spoiler alert, I'm working on some more. Good I am. You left him unfinished. I did. I got some South America stuff. That's really, really cool. Are you gonna get a South American guest? I don't know. Maybe it maybe. I don't know anybody from South America that wants to come on for the South American black dog phenomenon and reach out for sure. All right, you guys ready? I think this one's a little long this stint, but this one, this one's good. I like this. Ready early sightings. Daniel Boone is no cheese. Really. You're. Such an asshole. Get out of here. Get out of here. Early sightings. How does he have access to the to the script and I don't this some bullshit?

33:50 Because he still has access to the drive for for reasons unknown. All right, talk about that later. Early sightings. Daniel Boone is known as the Appalachian explorer that pushed the borders of the United States westward, eventually moving into Missouri, which was at the time part of the Louisiana which would eventually be purchased by the US and the famed Louisiana Purchase. From this point he would always push W for the sake of exploring, expanding or hunting, and it was during the 1810 trip into the forest and what is now referred to as Cuba, MO, where Daniel Boone became the first recorded person to have an encounter with the Howler.

34:34 The original letter written to his sisterinlaw describing the incident and is written in an older style of English, so I did my best to translate this quote. I leave you with alarming story of a black creature I found and wounded on the solder Creek, black and swarthy with horns on its scalp, ignorant of its name. I am told the sound it makes with a terrible owling in the night, Warnings of this for settlers shoaled by past along your humble servant, Daniel Boone. It is said that Boone had one other encounter with the same creature. Although this account can't be verified, it is said that he supposedly killed it in 1816.

35:26 In 1846, several families in the small town of Red Oak, Arkansas claim to have encountered the howler. Unfortunately, the only form of documentation is that of an oral retelling of the encounters. Therefore, it is impossible to get anything solid on what the events actually were. That's pretty much all there is to report on this story. Sadly. In 1852 a Mr. Baird was living near modern day Branson, MO, who is a lead miner that not only worked in his mind, but also live just 30 feet away from the mouth of it on the inside. The man would leave the comfort of his mind every so often with a load of heavy lead to trade with the people at the bottom of the mountain.

36:08 According to author Ralph Toller, Baird eventually began showing up in town without any lead and yelling at anybody who would look his way. Yelling things like it calls, it beckons and it howls. Eventually a group of men took out to Old Man Baird's mind and camped out to see what he was fussing about. And as the sun lowered toward the horizon made by the canopy of tree tops. They began to hear a low moan, which quickly turned into a loud and straight and shrieking. Soon after the switch in tone, it was made clear that the call wasn't coming from deep within the forest, but rather it was coming from behind them, deep within the mine. The group of men and Baird decided to investigate the strange sound and then, as they approached the chamber only 50 feet in, a set of red glowing eyes were seen peering at them through the pitch.

37:03 As light from their torches illuminated the area, it was to their surprise that the culprit of the sound and the red eyes also sported a rather large set of horns on top of its head, as well as a beard that resembled that of an old man's. With torches in hand, the men slowly creeped up towards the creature, and before the men got too close, the creature stood up and ran deeper into mine. Baird recognized the area that the creature ran to as a place that he recently excavated, which when they approached Baird was surprised to see that there was a large hole in the ground which seemed to lead into a deeper cavern. The men could hear the creature moving around at the bottom, but the footfalls began growing fainter as they believe the creature was moving away from them. So the men lowered themselves 1 by 1 down the shaft and into the cavern below from there.

37:57 The group moved along and eventually walked right out of another opening in the side of the mountain, a good way away from Bard's mine. The creature could be heard coming from the forest in front of them now, as the sound of a towel was unique. The men decided this was the point where they would separate from Baird and head back to the village, and the next morning they would share their story with everyone that would listen. Baird would continue to live in his mind for a few more years before his death. And reported that he always heard the sound of the howler, the majority of Knights, but never saw it again. In the early 1900s, a man by the name of William Klein's claimed to have a run in with the mysterious upright, hairy creature in the nighttime in modernday brushy Oklahoma.

38:42 As he approached what he thought was another man walking along the road in the pitch of night, he lent a greeting and whatever it was, jumped on top of his horse and began attacking it with its long, sharp claws. He attempted to fight off the creature, but it was the horse that was able to free itself so that the two of them could get away. On April 22nd of 1922, at about 5:30 in the morning, the Jude family was awoken by the sounds of their cattle in distress. As Tom Jude entered the barn where the commotion was taking place, he noticed that the milk station had blood spotted all around it. As he took a few steps to investigate, something large and Black ran by him and gave him a nasty slice on his leg before it darted out of the barn.

39:24 He unfortunately didn't get a good look at whatever it was, but his wife was watching the entire event from the safety of their house and described the creature that ran away as quote. It first appeared to be a large bear or mountain cat, but as it was running I swear to Lord that thing was a horned feline. When the event was all said and done, only one cow was found dead in the past year and what was really strange was that there was no damage to the body whatsoever. And it seemed like it had died of natural causes. In 1927 in Arkansas, Cumberland College student tells of his encounter with the beast, in which he describes the night that he was traveling down A1 lane Back Rd.

40:06 When something jumped out in front of him. The animal had the face of a feline but was shaggy with large yellow eyes. After he stopped, the creature began walking slowly towards him, and his reaction was the floor of the gas. The animal gave chase briefly but never reached him. Red Oak OK 1946. Many servicemen began coming to the area due to a lot of cheap land, and since the war ended the year prior, there were many that were willing to gather it all up. This led to a rash of sightings within the blossoming community. Unfortunately, there isn't much else on this other than that there were a lot of sightings during this time, but at nearly the same time a similar occurrence was happening in Marshfield, MO, just about 250 miles northeast of Red Oak.

40:53 Marshfield, being another area with an abundance of cheap land at the time, was also becoming the new home of many veterans of World War 2 that were coming home and looking to begin their new lives. On the edge of the growing town, a group of three veterans and their families purchased a section of land that they had split up into three lots and began building their new homes. After a long day of erecting framework, the guys were sitting around the truck putting the tools away and getting ready to share a few beers before calling it a night. But the easy part of their day was disrupted by the sound of a loud and strange howl coming from the nearby woods. The men all grew up in Missouri within the borders of the Ozarks, and none of them could pinpoint what was making the sound.

41:36 The men thought differently of their drink and headed back to the home that they were staying at for the time being. When the three men returned the next morning, all their work from the day prior had been destroyed. The studs and beams they had laid were either shredded, broken, or in some cases split down the middle the long way. There was zero chance that the wood they used could be salvaged and reused. So the men cleaned it up and built it back up with new wood. And at the end of the day the howling returned, and the next morning all their work was destroyed once again, rightly pissed at this point the men reluctantly went into town to purchase more lumber and began rebuilding for the third time. Only this time one of the men brought his shotgun and the decision was made to stay at the site for the night to scare off the vandals they believe for causing the issue. The howling came late in the evening, this time at about 10:00, and the men responded by yelling into the tree line to tell whoever it was that it was out there to come on out. What came out in response was no human. The beast lumbered out on all fours, and the men were instantly not only concerned for the work that they had done, but also for themselves.

42:50 The men attempted to yell at it to try and scare it off, but the creature continued its stride to the framework of that first house and began attacking it with paws and teeth. One of the men raised the shotgun and fired right at the beast. The creature wasn't fazed in the least and turned towards the men and began its lazy stride directly towards them. The men described the eyes as glowing red and as the creature came closer it lowered its head and aimed the 2 sharp horns at one of the men before beginning its charge. One of the men took a horn in the shoulder was pinned between the head of this animal and the truck. One of the other men took another shot at the creature and this time it clearly struck as there was an audible thump and a jerking reaction from the target. It yelled out in pain and took off running back into the tree line.

43:39 The men never had another run in with the howler again after the homes were built and continued their lives on the property. The town, however, would hear the calls of the howler for weeks after the incident and a few other structures or items were destroyed under the Cape of Night, but nobody recorded a physical run in with the creature again in this town during this period of time. In response to this event, a very famous visitor had made their way to Marshfield in order to conduct business involving the creature, but I'll cover that in a later section in this presentation. Oregon County, Missouri, October 1951. A dairy farmer scared away a creature standing taller than his cattle who is posing an offensive posture against his cornered animals. He described it as hunched, with muscular shoulders and a bearded face.

44:30 The creature never attacked as he scared it off before it can make a move, and in 1953 a man by the name of Jasper Pollard described a run in with the howler which left him in awe of the uniquely twisted horns on top of its head. All right, guys, So that's all the early sightings Now, I I didn't include everything. When Paula recognized the beast, he slowly backed away and was never. I had to cut a little bit out. Just, you know, a lot of them were very similar accounts, so I chose to go with the ones that were different. Ones that didn't sound like it was just the same account, just in a different location or a different time. So what do you guys think?

45:13 I think the one in the mine was a Caribou. Think so. Caribou or elk, they make the most horrific noise and they can go from that like low rumble to that high pitch pitched shriek and the only thing they described was horns, red eyes and a beard, all of which in the light a Caribou or elk would have. I don't think there was anything in the mind at all. Also, why would they go after it like you see something spooky? Why don't you just leave it go run? Because they're men, and men are stupid. That that's right. That's fair. That's that's very true. The story of the mind stuck out to me specifically because the guy was mining lead, and typically where lead is being mined, you're able to find mercury. And mercury causes what's called Mad Hatter's disease, right? Yeah.

46:07 And my man was definitely seeing some shit in that mind. And he went down, like just like his ramblings. Like it hows, it calls like, you know, we're all a little crazy here, like we're all a little mad. And then he gets those guys to come up there. And what I would gather what they saw was actually a group hallucination caused by mass hysteria. I actually 100% agree. With everything but the group hallucination 100%. It's funny that you said that because when I was reading this I was like, this is fucking lead poisoning. Yeah, it's definitely heavy metal poisoning. Absolutely. Little mad Hatters in there too. And you know, even if that was the case, I mean, you know, the the old man definitely had it bad. I mean, if he was, he was living 30 feet within the mine. He was living there.

46:56 This is where he slept, 8 chat, worked, everything. So yeah, this. And he was probably drinking at a lead cups. Probably This guy is fucked. Connecting Cj's and Lauren's there, you know, you get somebody who's all dope, dope on lead. Then you see an elk, which I'm pretty sure were in the area at that time. I don't think they are anymore, but I could definitely see that being a thing for sure. So I brought up my notepad so I could start taking notes and stuff this. Was it Jude family with the their distressed cattle? Yes. And yet your endpoint was that it seems that it had died of natural causes. Yes.

47:39 Doesn't strike me as odd in any way because, I mean, you can scare animals to death, Yes. Just like you can scare people to death. Put them in enough stress and they'll just same as us. They'll have massive heart attacks and stuff. It's just so weird. This like, horned feline concept. It gets, it gets. Crazier and I kind of explained that a little bit. I want to say it's in the next bit. Whichever section it was that the guy thought that he saw a person and I was immediately like, well, obviously that's a Bigfoot, right? Big old hairy man. But then it came out with the claws and I was just like. I I was actually thinking dog man, and I'm not. I'm not a huge component to the dog man phenomenon, but. I mean, if you're talking about an old time dog man encounter, this is this is what it sounds like. Yeah, I thought the same thing.

48:34 Sure, cuz I mean honestly, if the the basic idea is that this thing is on all fours sometimes I guess, and it's covered in shaggy hair, then if people don't see the horns. Or the obvious feline look. Then I guess technically it could be mistaken with a plethora of things. And of course I I thought about CJ's, you know, his witchcraft, demonic hellhound theory, when the guy shot the shotgun at it and it didn't have really in effect, but then it was also destroying the wooden pieces. I was like, well, that wouldn't be the case because it was a spirit animal.

49:15 It wouldn't be able to physically manipulate things. Like that. I think they missed it. Yeah, until you said there was a second shot, or the third shot rather, and it made a thump. And then that's when they got the reaction from the creature. Yeah. But I was also thinking about, I don't remember, we did an episode a while back where someone, maybe it was a black dog episode and they said that they shot it and it passed right through it and we were like that guy was crap in his pants. And was running scared and had to look tough for all of his boys, right? Or something along the lines of that. And so I was like, brain was going a couple different ways from that.

49:56 But yeah, I think that that the first guy, if this is indeed a real incident, that he was just so scared, he probably went way, way high or went straight into the dirt, whichever it was. And so I was making my opinions. And then you're like, and then he, they shot it again. And then it actually had a reaction. So it could still technically be. Like a demonic force, a hell hunt, There's a practice within the metaphysical where they can open a portal and that allows the spirits to cross through into our dimension with physical form instead of an ethereal form. At least that's what it's supposed to do. I don't know much about that, man. That's your.

50:43 That's your side of things. What about? But also what about these veterans? I mean, so they had to build the structure like three times before they actually posted watch on it. Did they just not notice being like, man, there's a lot of teeth Marks and claw marks in all of this wood, you know those Dang kids. So yes, this, this story does have some, some, some glaring issues, right? And that is one of them. But this is the most influential sighting that we're going to talk about today. This sighting influenced a major player to come in and we'll talk about that actually in the next episode. But the the this sighting gets way bigger than what it what it is right now. By far the most influential site. Cool deal.

51:27 Lauren, what do you got? I was just thinking about how that sighting seemed fishy to me, but I think Jake pretty much covered it. To me. It feels like they had vandals messing up their work site and they weren't doing anything about it, so. Weren't doing their a good job like they should from keeping that from happen. They got spooked. They came up with a story so they could act like they were tough and fought off a beast. I would have absolutely said yes if it weren't for the guy who got pierced in the shoulder by a horn and the guy actually had an injury. Took one for the team. They used a tool on him. Yeah, that particular encounter took in took part in 1946, the year after World War. We are well into the realm of of records medicine, right? And yeah, you could find it.

52:18 The guy took a fucking horn or something to the shoulder and actually had medical treatment done, blamed it on a fucking big ass black animal with a horns. And that is what caused. A big. The big person to come and take notice and do something about. It was it. Was it Roosevelt? No, no. Roosevelt's earlier than 46. But we do talk about Roosevelt and. Let's be fair. If it was Roosevelt, that thing wouldn't have been around for longer than 10 minutes. He'd have pulled up by himself with like a Bowie knife and a pistol and that would have been the end of it. I'm so glad you guys are up to date on on these presidents and their and their their habits because you guys are going to love the next episode.

53:09 I'm telling you, you guys are going to fucking love it. The other side of that, you know, so say okay, this sounds fishy, but it's actually, there's some legitimacy to it. I would have to imagine that if this is in fact a real thing that like most, well, alpha predators. They have a territory and so if these guys just move on to the its area, maybe it was where it beds down, who knows, right? And then they're just setting up their houses right there. A lot of people will end up having runins with alpha predators because of territorial type purposes, not just like they have food in their cars or whatever.

53:57 You know people will stumble upon. Bears while they have Cubs and stuff and all sorts of like chaos ensues. But I would imagine it would be very specifically like this thing lays in wait for them to show up and then just mauls them to death versus destroying all their lumber, you know? So I don't know. It shows up like a Minecraft creeper. You sure have a nice everything there. That's another question about that encounter. Do we see other encounters where it uses its horns? No, I did not see. That was another one that was actually I was trying to look for, and I didn't see anything where it used it as a weapon. What I want to know is why nobody showed up with a red scarf and tried to handle it the old school way. Conquistador Yeah, yeah.

54:47 Just start bull fighting it throwing daggers in its back. That's right. See, if CJ was there, he would have taken that thing down, put it on his wallet. Ohh no bitch. I ain't doing that. Hell no. I'll do it. We're taking a trip to the Ozarks. Let's go. Except for Jake's wearing a red shirt. He's gonna get it right, Yeah. Right. I must dangle Jake in front of it. I'm gonna take running off running like. Where I survived a motorcycle crash. I'm indestructible. Let's go. Alright, well that is the end of part one of our coverage on the Ozark Heller, Lauren. How was it? Cool. Yeah. Anything new?

55:29 Did you get anything new? Yes, yeah. Good. So we did better than all the other pockets. I'd heard a lot about the Daniel Boone story and his encounters with it, which I was. Because of the lack of description, I was just inclined to think it was something like a mountain goat or Big Horn sheep or something like that. Does goats and sheep make weird noises too? Oh yeah. And Daniel Boone's a pretty reliable source he is. I listened to the Bear Grease podcast and they cover a lot of Daniel Boone and he his stories are, for the most part, very pretty verifiable. Daniel Boone was a mountain man.

56:09 Yeah, I mean, he he he knew his animals. And yes, he was most famous for being in the Appalachians and maybe wasn't fully aware of all of the fauna. In the area West of the Mississippi, but you'd have. To think he had some sort of idea. Well, bighorn sheep and mountain goats are more of rocky, so they're more West. Very true. So I don't even know if they get all the way over to the Ozurks. And they could have back then. I mean, that's in the 1800s when you're talking about the boom. So. Boone is also, he's also like he said, he's a man, he's a mountain man, but he still is a man. He's he's still subject to the psychologies and stuff of of human beings. And back then everybody was super superstitious and already as human beings we already have a predisposition to look for human faces in some of the ways.

56:57 That's why you see them in clouds and all that. So all it would take is is somebody creating a a convincing description of it and people minds will actively search to. Find. That thing, even when there's even in nothing like you could be looking at the darkness and your mind will actively look for that, especially if you believe that heavily in those things and back in that day they they certainly would have. So we're looking at potentially just people being told of a convincing description. There's superstitions coming into play, and we're talking about mountain men. There really aren't too many more people more superstitious than mountain man. True. I mean they have their own sets of crypt. It's literally the lumber industry. Have the Jackalope, the Hoop Snake, the jeez, I'm going to forget the the other ones.

57:44 But anyways, the Jackalope and the hoops. There you go. I still think if it was actually there, it was demons. I don't know. I don't know. We're going to get into, I want to say just after the modern sightings, that's where we're going to start off on Part 2 is modern sightings. And then we're going to jump into something that's very interesting when we talk about the cultures and everything. All coming together into the Ozarks roughly around the same time, and little bit from this culture and a little bit from that culture and how it all combined into what we now know as the Ozark howler. It's very interesting, very interesting stuff. Anybody else have anything to say before we sign off on this episode?

58:25 No, Sir. All right, all right. That's been another episode of the Infinite Rabbit Hole podcast signing off. Jake, CJ, Lauren and myself have a good one everybody. Bye bye, CJ, both have to say. It Bye oh. Lauren, there it is. I would like to thank you once again for tuning into the Infinite Rabbit Hole podcast. Please make sure to give us a follow and one of those beautiful five star ratings on your podcast player of choice. If you would like to join the conversation and stay up to date on all things infinite rabbit hole, head on over to Facebook and search for the Infinite Rabbit Hole Facebook group. You Don't Know it's Us when you see the logo. If you would like to help contribute to the cause, there are a few ways to do so.

59:19 First, head on over to anchor dot FM forward slash. Infinite Rabbit hole and click on the subscribe button where for $5 a month you'll get access to all the old episodes that will never see the free spotlight ever again. It's horrible stuff. But if you're into that kind of thing and go check that second, head on over to infiniterabbithole.com and click on the IRH Merch Shop tab and grab yourself a sweet Tshirt sticker or whatever else you see that. You wouldn't mind own. Until next time travelers, I'm Jeremy and I'll see you But the next fork. In the path of the infinite rabbit hole. All right, reality for everyone else.