The White River Monster

The White River at Newport, Arkansas, was the scene of several sightings in the 1970s. On July 28, 1971, Cloyce Warren of the White River Lumber Company went fishing with two friends. Mooring their boat just south of the White River bridge, they cast their lines. Suddenly the three men were astounded to see a huge column of water belching skyward from a point about 200 feet away. "I didn't know what was happening," Warren later told reporters:

This giant form rose to the surface and began moving in the middle of the river, away from the boat. It was very long and gray colored. We had taken a little Polaroid Swinger camera with us to take pictures of the fish we caught.

I grabbed the camera and managed to get a picture right before it submerged. It appeared to have a spiny backbone that stretched for 30 or more feet. It was hard to make out exactly what the front portion looked like, but it was awful large.

The Newport Daily Independent published the picture two days later. The White River Monster, seen in the distance, was slightly blurred around the edges but appeared to be a large creature as yet unidentified.