THE SPRINGFIELD UNION, Mass. Nov. 1, 1951

• Campa Bros. Circus animals escape
• Ouachita Mountains, Mesa, Arkansas
• Polk County folklore mythos

The top of the front page has a two column heading: "150-Man Posse Hunts Vicious Circus Animals On Loose in Arkansas" with subhead. (see images) 
Complete with all 40 pages, light toning and minor wear at the margins, generally nice.

Background: The November 1951 escape of animals from the Campa Bros. Circus near Mena, Arkansas, stands out as a stark historical reminder of the high risks associated with traveling mid-century exotic animal shows, while simultaneously embedding itself into regional folklore. After a vehicular mishap in the rugged Ouachita Mountains allowed several dangerous animals to flee—including two leopards, a black bear, and a monkey—local authorities mobilized a posse of over 100 armed men, ultimately leading to the lethal shooting of both leopards by a state trooper and a local lumberjack whose dog was attacked. The event's primary significance lies in its dual legacy: beyond triggering a high-stakes emergency response that exposed the vulnerabilities of mid-20th-century circus safety and animal containment, the unconfirmed escapees directly birthed a long-standing Polk County mythos, where decades of subsequent big-cat sightings in the Arkansas wilderness were routinely attributed to the ghost population of animals never recovered from the incident.