Tailgator news for June 21, 2013.qxd

The Southern Arkansas
Poetry: Farm Pond; P-4
First
Issue:
May
2007
TAILGATE NEWS
A Nelson Publication accepting news from: GURDON, BRYANT, Arkadelphia, Prescott, Hot Springs, Bismarck, Fountain Lake, Malvern, Glen Rose, Magnet Cove,
Benton.
We are a magazine covering community progress, Christian testimonies and sports highlights. Online “Current issue” every Friday.
Check out our archives since going digital in April of 2012. Password: Jesus Lives! PDFS, past and present, free to copy. Enjoy the read.
YEAR 7: 2013
ISSUE: June 21, 2013
VOL. 109
12 Pages
FREE
Food bank
helps needy
Page 11
Bryant ‘Bigfoot’ man peaks Rotarian interest
GURDON SUMMER READING - This year’s theme at the Cabe
Library summer reading program is pirates and how pirates who read
have more knowledge. Making pirate shovels on Thursday, June 13,
are, from left: Isac Hunnicutt, Gurdon Primary School fourth grader
for the fall; Grace Hunnicutt, first grader; and Kyle Radford, third
grader. See more story hour photos on page 5. (John Nelson photo)
GATE INDEX Making
JOHN’S
SERMON
Christian Joy
Page 3
Swimming fun
Families enjoy
Lake DeGray dipping
Page 6
Vacation trips
a Difference
Making new Florida Days
Page 8
OBITUARIES, P-10
Editorial
Freedom means choices
Page 12
Ph: (870) 353-8201
jay_ [email protected]
Address: 111 East Cherry
Gurdon, Ark. 71743
By JOHN
NELSON
Tailgate News
Editor
A suspected “Bigfoot” cow
killing, in rural
Clark County
has prompted
an interest in
what some have
called
Sasquatch, a
Native American
Tal H.
term for the perBranco
haps mythological creature known as “Bigfoot”
because so many of the reports
describe this Neanderthal-type
quasa human as having feet large
enough to go with a 9 to 12 foot
body.
Local folklore in Southern
Arkansas has placed a “Bigfoot”
monster in Fouke, although many
have considered Halloween hunts
for such a creature to be as unbelievable to common thought as
vampires or werewolves.
Kay, a local store attendant
who has lived in the Gurdon area
most of her life, said Tuesday after
being told about Tal H. Branco’s
research on Bigfoot, “I hope you get
to go looking for him because it can
be exciting.
“We have gone as a family to
Fouke on a trip to look for the monster many times.”
Kay gave no indication she
ever found said “monster,” but on
the other hand never said she did
not find a Bigfoot creature at Fouke.
Rotarian Leonard Gills, a
retired principal for Gurdon High
School, had another appointment
and did not get to hear Branco’s
evidence on the Bigfoots, but said
of the Fouke monster, “Our school
plays Fouke in sports and we were
all naturally curious about the
alleged sitings. But I have never
seen the monster.”
ROTARY LECTURE
Tal H. Branco, also known as
Bill, came to the Gurdon Rotary on
Tuesday, June 18 to present
excerpts from a lifetime of gathering
evidence to support the theory that
Bigfoot is real and actually not just
one ‘monster’ but a race of creatures known to many Native
Americans as “the other brothers.”
Branco, who spent years working under another name as a law
enforcement officer, is the director
of field research and investigation of
the Bigfoot Researchers
Organization (BFRO). He is a
Saline County resident, but does a
lot of traveling in his research.
Branco told Rotarians he has
investigated hundreds of Bigfoot sitings over 35 years in 15 states,
including Arkansas, Oklahoma,
Alabama and West Virginia..
Branco began by saying when
he first started getting curious about
Bigfoot he asked a Native American
friend to describe to him what the
whole thing was about.
“I did research on what many
(Continued on Page 2)
SWEET MAMA’S TO GO GRAND OPENING - The Gurdon
Chamber of Commerce was on hand about 11 a.m. Friday morning,
June 14 to cut a grand opening ribbon for the city’s latest restaurant,
Sweet Mama’s To Go. It operates a to-go window from the old House
of Joy, just across from the CADC Senior Center on Main Street,
Highwa 53 and features Cajon cooking, plus old style Southern and
Northern recipies. Hours are from 11-4 p.m. Sunday through
Wednesday, 11-8 p.m. on Thursdasy, 11-9 Fridays and 11 to 10 p.m on
Saturdays. Sharrita McCutchen and Jim Loisel are partners in the business. From left are: Steve and Holly Orsburn, Autumn Smith, C of C
president; Sharrita McCuthcen, owner; Mayor Clayton Franklin,
Yevetta Lacey, sister of Sharrita McCuthen and Jim Loisel, cook and
partner. (John Nelson photo)