The story begins around the turn of the century, the late 1800s, when the owner of the land went spelunking in Devil's Hole. During his adventure, however, he heard a ferocious hissing noise from within the darkness, and that's when he decided he'd better skedaddle on home.
Later, he and his friends decided to investigate this. They tied a flatiron to some rope and lowered it into the cave. They heard another hissing sound, and the rope was pulled taut. When they pulled it back up, the flatiron was badly bent and scratched, as if it had been mauled by a wild animal. The next experiment involved a stone tied to the rope. Once again, the rope was pulled tight, but when they pulled it back up it had been cleanly sliced, and the rock was gone.
The Gow Row is not limited to the Devil's Hole Cave, however. The Arkansas Gazette tells us more about the creature, and how its name comes from the noises it makes as it wanders around and night slaughtering livestock. It only stopped once a band of monster hunters destroyed the beast. It was a terrible battle that left several trees fallen and even took one man's leg.
The creature is said to have been twenty feet long, with tusks and a row of horns on its back. It had webbed, clawed feet and a long tail with a blade on the end.
The Gow Row may be no more, but I think we can all congratulate Arkansas on having one hell of a monster!
Sources:
"Gowrow." The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.
The Central Arkansas Library
System, 14 Dec. 2009. Web. 29 Aug. 2014.
<http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net
/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5669>.
Moran, Mark; Sceurman, Mark, and Taylor, Troy. "Bizarre Beasts." Weird U.S. New York: Barnes &
Noble, 2004. 124. Print.
