The Walker Stone house in Fayetteville, Arkansas, built in 1945 by Judge David Walker is a historical home that survived the Civil War. Judge Walker built another house for his daughter near Ghost Hollow, which was reportedly haunted. 

In October, when the winds turn cold and the nights lengthen, many people enjoy sharing ghost stories. In the Ozarks, there are many to choose from. Anyone from this corner of Missouri has heard of the spook lights outside Joplin. And whether they’re haunted or not, there are many rural graveyards that can easily give someone the heebie jeebies on a dark night. And it’s been recorded that people have heard a train whistle and seen a lone train caboose streak through the night on tracks not used for years.

With the long history of this area dating to the Civil War era, there are ghost stories passed down through the decades. From Fayetteville, Arkansas, came the sad story of a fire on a wedding night. The story goes that a couple went back to their cabin after their wedding. While tending their fire, a spark struck the bride’s dress. The dress caught fire, and in a panic, the bride ran outside and through the wooded hollow setting it ablaze. All was lost in the fire, including the bride.

When in 1872, Judge David Walker built a two-story brick home near that land, servants refused to stay overnight in the home. There had been too many reports of people hearing the bride’s screams echo through that area and even some who saw a woman in white walking amongst the trees. These stories carried over to the Walker home and continued to be embellished. Servants saw a ghost descending the stairs in the Walker home. And Judge Walker’s grandson recalled that his father warned him to stay away from the water well where a monster supposedly lived. Today, “Ghost Hollow” still stands behind the Walker home and is one of the few undeveloped areas of Fayetteville.

Monster stories, like the one of the monster in the well, aren’t uncommon in these parts. Stories have been shared of the Ozarks Howler, a cat-like animal that is recognized by its odd howling. But there are also stories of a Sasquatch-like monster in these Ozark hills. One monster story starts off with a doctor who was a murder suspect that hid from authorities for nearly 20 years near Peter Bottom Cave outside War Eagle, Arkansas.

Once his identity was revealed, he spent the rest of his days in a mental healthcare facility. Before his death in the early 1960s, he told the story of a very tall, hair-covered beast that lived near Peter Bottom Cave.

In 1966, two men in their 20s decided to seek out the monster. Much to their shock, they encountered an animal that stood eight or nine feet tall and was covered in thick white hair. They also observed that the animal had a strong, offensive odor. The men raced away from the area and suffered from shock for days afterward. While hunting parties sent to find the animal never were successful, stories continued for years of cattle torn apart in fields near the cave and of chicken houses plundered.

The monster at Peter Bottom Cave was never given a name, but a similar monster found in Missouri was nicknamed “Momo,” a shortening of “Missouri Monster.” This monster is described much like the one in Arkansas with the exception that its hair was darker. Still reported as very tall, covered in hair, and having a strong odor, this monster appeared in Mt. Vernon in 1959 where it cleaned out a chicken house.

This Momo was also described as having glowing orange eyes. It was also seen near Cape Fair around that time when a man driving a Jeep came around a sharp corner one night and his headlights landed on a Momo in the middle of the road.

The Momo also made an appearance in Louisiana, Missouri (north of St. Louis), in 1972. The story goes that a girl was in her house while her little brothers played outside. When she heard the boys screaming, she looked out her window and saw the Momo standing in her yard and holding her lifeless dog. There were a number of sightings in this area during that summer which led to numerous hunting parties but to no avail. The story caught the eye of the producers with Small Town Monsters, a production company based in Ohio that produces films about small-town monsters. In 2019, they released the independent film “Momo: The Missouri Monster” that documented the summer of 1972 and the hunt for the Momo.

Photo postcard of Virgin Bluffs by George Hall, circa 1915. Courtesy of Lens & Pen Press.

Virgin Bluff today.

Courtesy of Lens & Pen Press.

Dating back to the earliest days of explorers to the Ozarks is the star-crossed lover story of Moon Song. In the early 1800s, Spanish soldiers passed through and explored the Ozarks. A young soldier met Moon Song, the daughter of the local tribe’s chief. They fell in love and made plans for her to return to Mexico with the soldier. But when Moon Song’s father discovered their plan, he attempted to stop them so Moon Song could marry a member of their tribe that her father had chosen for her. Hearing of the chief’s plans, the Spanish soldier escaped never to return.

Moon Song was heartbroken and refused to marry the man her father had chosen. After months of waiting and hoping for her soldier to return, Moon Song acknowledged that he’d never return. She walked to the top of a 325-foot bluff and leapt into the James River below. The chief forbade any members of their tribe to go near that area and had a medicine man curse the bluffs.

The legend of Moon Song was carried to settlers as they came to the area. The waters below her bluff were called “Virgin’s Shoals” and “Virgin’s Swirl” because of the unusually turbulent water found in that part of the river. Many boats capsized in Virgin’s Swirl and many people drowned below the bluffs. Eventually, the name Virgin Bluffs became the common name for the area.

In 1912, a wealthy lawyer and engineer purchased these lands and began construction on a dam and reservoir. The project was plagued with machine failures, rock slides, and multiple injuries and deaths of workers due to accidents. The workers believed in Moon Song’s tale so strongly that they refused to work. When World War I began to stir in 1913, investors abandoned the project and the land. When this area of the James River was flooded with the construction of Table Rock Lake in the 1950s, many people thought the legend of Virgin’s Bluff would disappear. Instead, there have still been strange incidents and reports of the sounds of a woman crying near the bluffs.

Legends, folklore, ghost stories, they’re all part of the history of every part of our world. The Ozarks are no exception to stories of lost loves, ghosts, and monsters roaming these rugged hills.