Honey Island Swamp - Swamp Monster

Swamp Monster

Main article: Honey Island Swamp monster

The swamp is famous for being the home of the Honey Island Swamp monster. The creature is described as bipedal, seven feet (2.2 metres) tall, with gray hair and yellow eyes. It is accompanied by a disgusting smell. Footprints supposedly left by the creature have four toes. The first claimed sighting was in 1963 by Harlan Ford, a retired Air traffic controller who took up wildlife photography. After his death in 1980, a reel of Super 8 film showing the creature was allegedly found among his belongings. In 1974 the monster gained national fame after Ford and a friend claimed to have found unusual footprints in the area, as well as the body of a wild boar whose throat had been gashed. Ford continued to hunt the creature for the next six years. The idea of a large, ape-like creature in the area is not without its critics, notably the local ecologist Paul Wagner, who with his wife Sue run nature tours in the area. They claim they have not seen any evidence for it. A local legend tells of a train crash in the area in the early twentieth century. A travelling circus was on the train, and from it a group of chimpanzees escaped, interbreeding with the local alligator population.