First Tuttle Bottoms Monster report?

Can we supposed this was the first Tuttle Bottoms Monster report? This was taken from the Aug. 6, 1963, Daily Register:

Saline County Sheriff James L. Thompson spent a busy night last night, starting about 11 p.m. and ending about 4:30 a.m. The Sheriff said he ran across a youth at Tuttle Bottoms about 11 p.m. The young man was armed with a rifle and told Thompson that there was a monster loose in the bottoms. He said it was eight feet long, four feet high and had a nose like an anteater.

The young man put his rifle in his car and left, and later Thompson ran across about a dozen boys, armed with shotguns and other weapons and all looking for the "monster" in the bottoms. Their Sheriff soon dispersed the boys and sent them home.