Gabe Brown's brother Ben has his own show on the Internet called Discover Cryptids. Gabe and his friends Tyler and Sean help Ben hunt down these monsters and make sure the show goes on! For this episode the Monster Hunters travel to the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas to investigate sightings of a large animal thought to be half cat, and half bear! Is that even possible? Aligned to Common Core standards and correlated to state standards. Calico is an imprint of Magic Wagon, a division of ABDO.

The people who live in the Ozark country of Missouri and Arkansas were, until very recently, the most deliberately unprogressive people in the United States. Descended from pioneers who came West from the Southern Appalachians at the beginning of the nineteenth century, they made little contact with the outer world for more than a hundred years. They seem like foreigners to the average urban American, but nearly all of them come of British stock, and many families have lived in America since colonial days. Their material heirlooms are few, but like all isolated illiterates they have clung to the old songs and obsolete sayings and outworn customs of their ancestors. Sophisticated visitors sometimes regard the “hillbilly” as a simple child of nature, whose inmost thoughts and motivations may be read at a glance. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The hillman is secretive and sensitive beyond anything that the average city dweller can imagine, but he isn’t simple. His mind moves in a tremendously involved system of signs and omens and esoteric auguries. He has little interest in the mental procedure that the moderns call science, and his ways of arranging data and evaluating evidence are very different from those currently favored in the world beyond the hilltops. The Ozark hillfolk have often been described as the most superstitious people in America. It is true that some of them have retained certain ancient notions which have been discarded and forgotten in more progressive sections of the United States. It has been said that the Ozarker got his folklore from the Negro, but the fact is that Negroes were never numerous in the hill country, and there are many adults in the Ozarks today who have never even seen a Negro. Another view is that the hillman’s superstitions are largely of Indian origin, and there may be a measure of truth in this; the pioneers did mingle freely with the Indians, and some of our best Ozark families still boast of their Cherokee blood. My own feeling is that most of the hillman’s folk beliefs came with his ancestors from England or Scotland. I believe that a comparison of my material with that recorded by British antiquarians will substantiate this opinion.

A crossroads energy is the heart and soul of the Missouri Ozarks, where earthquakes, monster lore and UFO sightings are as familiar as limestone bluffs along historic Route 66. When Momo the Missouri Monster materialized amid auditory phenomena and UFO sightings, mayhem consumed a sleepy river town. The Joplin Spook Light has appeared nightly for more than a century. At sunset, park guards at the legendary Zombie Road turn away ghost hunters for their own good. Learn about how historic earthquakes reversed the flow of the Mississippi River. See Missouri native Mark Twain's lifelong interest in the paranormal following a lucid prophetic dream. Join Cynthia Carroll--author, tour director and sixth-generation native--as your guide through the magic of the Missouri Ozarks.

From exotic wild species inhabiting unfamiliar settings to elusive forms still unknown to science or thought to be extinct, the Felidae, better known as ‘cats’, have been reported in sightings from around the world. According to conventional wisdom, they do not exist, but mystery cats of all sizes have attracted increasing attention from naturalists and laypersons alike, and the evidence for these animals is becoming more substantial and increasingly difficult to deny. Now, one of the world’s leading cryptozoological investigators and field researchers offers a comprehensive field guide and overview of these mysterious cat-like creatures. Filled with photographs, comprehensive paintings, classifications, and hard evidence, this book offers an invaluable resource for those who wish to investigate these sightings further or simply enjoy the fascinating reports provided by others.

There is a monster in the American South.With razor sharp horns, glowing red eyes, a thick predator's body and a bone-chilling call in the night, the Ozark Howler is one of the most compelling creatures in American folklore, and yet one of the least understood. Author Ralph Toller, a lifelong resident of the Ozarks, explores the folklore, rumors, and sightings of this unique beast of Southern mythology, providing the first nonfiction portrait of the horned and hairy antihero that until now has been spoken of only by word of mouth. Once you have met the Ozark Howler, you'll never forget it.

Tales of the Ozark Howler shares the folklore surrounding the legendary but mysterious dark beast that has long haunted the remote hills and hollers of Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma: The Ozark Howler. This book collects folktales, eyewitness accounts, archival documents, and folk wisdom about the strange creature, a massive shaggy haired predator larger than a bear said to have glowing red eyes and a pair of large horns sprouting from the top of its head. This nightmare of the American South has haunted generations of families with its strange, mournful howls.Originally published in 1936 by a small, local printer shortly before the death of its author, Saul Ashton, Tales of the Ozark Howler was quickly pulled from distribution by family members who were scandalized by Ashton's interracial love affairs, atheism, and affiliation with the Communist Party. By suppressing the book, they hoped to end their embarrassment and restore the reputation of their conservative family.With the death of the last remaining members of this generation of the Ashton clan, Hawthorne Cornus was given permission to finally republish the short book, which remains unchanged from the original, except for a new foreword explaining the long struggle over its publication.With the distance of a few decades, the political, religious, racial, and cultural subtexts of this neglected work of American folklore have become clear. Is the monster the Howler itself, or the people who have pushed it to lurk in the margins? For those readers who are interested in the roots of Ozark culture, and for those who simply enjoy a frightening story, Tales of the Ozark Howler is sure to provide a pleasantly unusual reading experience.