Bizarre but true

LITTLE ROCK — Did you know that Arkansas has not only a Fouke Monster, but a Heber Springs Water Panther? And that the Tantrabobus is an Ozark nickname for monsters?

Did you know that the Arkansas River is lawfully prohibited from rising any higher than the Main Street Bridge in Little Rock?

Did you know that it was an Arkansan, Ray Suggett of West Fork, who invented several gross-out gag novelties, and another Arkansan, Jonesboro native Rodger Bumpass, who has served as the voice of Squidward Tentacles in the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon?

And did you know that Toad Suck, the Perry County community, was named earlier this year as having themost unfortunate town name in the United States, thanks to an international poll taken on the website findmypast.com?

Yeah, well, we didn’t either. And we’ve lived in Arkansas most of our lives.

These and many other nuggets of “Bizarrkansas” history are carefully chronicled in a new book, Forgotten Tales of Arkansas (The History Press, $12.99) by husband-and-wife authors Karen J. Underwood - whose parents’ families have their roots in the Arkansas Delta region - and her “Yankee”- born husband, Edward L. Underwood.

The Underwoods have themselves led lives a bit off the beaten path. She’s an independent musician, singer and songwriter who has scored productions of Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. He’s a jack-of-all-trades who has worked in such jobs as museumcurator, radio personality, minister and magician.

The couple met while attending Arkansas State University at Jonesboro, which was Karen’s hometown and where Edward lived from 1977 to 1991. They moved to Texas, then returned to the state four years ago. Recently, they moved to Springfield, Mo., to work on a developing program in Branson.

Together they have crafted a literary odyssey around Arkansas ... which (as mentioned in the book) was once referred to by noted early-20th-century journalist and satirist H.L.Mencken as “the apex of moronia.” HAVING OUR SAY

Even familiar stories are spun by the Underwoods in a style that combines a “Hold my beer and watch this!” vibe with a touch of Mencken-esque intellectual cynicism: tales of historic Arkansas superstitions. Tales of other Arkansas towns bearing quirky names, such as Goobertown and Stinking Bay. The stories behind such landmarks as Eureka Springs’ reportedly very haunted Crescent Hotel, and the doomed Dogpatch USA. Tales involving such colorful characters as former Gov. Orval Faubus; Dr.Victor Mayfield, the “Victor/ Victoria” of early 20th-century Mena; and the racially biased Gerald K. Smith, the man behind the Christ of the Ozarks statue in Eureka Springs. Readers will find the complete mini-biographies of the indefatigable Carry A. Nation, who so famously opened “a can of whoop-ax” on so many unwitting saloons and bars ... and yes, Tony Alamo, the imprisoned religious leader and convicted sex offender whose wordy fliers are probably still being tucked under car windshield wipers somewhere.

Then there are the really groan-worthy stories. An embarrassing museum-artifact hoax, termed “The Greatest Nearly Academic Fraud in Arkansas History,” makes up Chapter 16. The granddaddy of them all: the story of the Jonesboro Church War of 1931, which pitted preacher against preacher, flock against flockand necessitated intervention via the National Guard.

ART IMITATES LIFE

Co-author Ed Underwood says the idea for Forgotten Tales of Arkansas grew out of his family’s work as a variety-show troupe called THE UFOs.

“About four years ago, we wrote and self-published a book of weird Arkansas history and called it Bizarrkansas,” Underwood says. “We used it in our live shows when we would talk about Arkansas. I tell a ghost story from Eureka Springs and do a Carry Nation tribute by juggling hatchets.”

Underwood also started the successful Jonesboro Ghost Tour. He was subsequently approached by officials of the South Carolina-based History Press to turn the Ghost Tour research into a book for its “Haunted America” series. The Underwoods did so, releasing Haunted Jonesboro in the fall of 2011.

The book went on to do well enough that History Press representatives asked him what else he might have in keeping with its publishing focus. Underwood then came up with a revamped, expanded edition of Bizarrkansas, which fell under the company’s umbrella of Forgotten Tales books.

“Hence, Forgotten Tales of Arkansas was unleashed on the general public on my birthday ... Oct. 10,” Underwood says.

Underwood says his favorite “look, we’re not making this up” stories in the book would have to be the Church War, which he likes to re-create during author events; the history of Dogpatch USA; and the museum-artifact hoax, a scandal involving fake artifacts in a Little Rock museum founded by Arkansas Democrat society editor Bernie Babcock in response to Mencken’s disparaging pieces about Arkansas along with the rest of the South. (The museum is now the Museum of Discovery.)

“I have told all of those stories to live audiences, and someone always comes up after the program and says, ‘Did that really happen?’ It is unbelievable,” Underwood says.

Reaction to the book has been positive - “for the most part.” Readers have shown up from as far away as Japan; one reader asked Underwood to let her know if he ever did a showthere.

He acknowledges arousing the ire of a few Arkansans who felt that the book reinforced all the bad stereotypes and were upset because “some of the state’s favorite sacred cows were made into juicy burgers of truth.” MOVING FORWARD

But does Underwood believe the book has proved Arkansas to be the sum of all its stereotypes, or served as proof of the progress the state has made in the 21st century? He hopes the latter is the case ... though he says the state still has a way to go.

“We tried to be very clear that Arkansas has all these crazy elements in its history, but it also has a chance to learn from that and plow a great future,” he says. “I really believe Arkansas has major talent and resources going for it and with some good-natured prodding, it will drop the resistance to progress and move on.”

Underwood hesitates to name Arkansas the Oddest State in America, though he’d put it in the top five. “Most of our states have some history that reads pretty funny too,” he says.

Will there be a Forgotten Tales, Part Two? History Press has asked for more projects, but the Underwoods haven’t yet acted on that request.

“We have no plans for a documentary unless AETN [Arkansas Educational Television Network] wants to call me and set one up,” Underwood says, but adds that he and his wife have written a screenplay and cast an independent film, How to Carry A. Nation, about guess who.

“All we lack is a financial partner to make it all happen,” he says. “That is the next Arkansas project we have our heart in.”