Honey Island Swamp Monster

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Honey Island swamp in St. Tammany parish, Louisiana is perhaps not the most famous cryptid but is certainly an interesting one. Known as La Bête Noire (the Black Beast) in Cajun french is a folkloric bigfoot type creature that roams the the swams and surrounding area of Honey Island. 

The name of the island comes from the large number of Honey bees that used to inhabit the island and it's stunning 70,000 acres are home to many species of animals including snakes, alligators, birds and insects. However one creature that supposedly haunts the vast bayou is scarier thank any snake or alligator. Regular tales date back to the 1960s but old folklore from the natives date back far further into history. 

Local legends suggest it could be some kind of humanoid creature raised by alligators or spme kind oh hybrid alligator primate animal. Of course no evidence existed for such a creature. That is until 1963 that is. A one Harlan Ford a retired air traffic controller was scouting out spots in Honey Island swamp that would make a good base camp for a hunting expedition. He found the ideal spot with only one problem, it was so remote it would take a boat ride and a hike to get there. During a trip to haul equipment to base Ford and a hunting buddy came across what they thought was one animal feeding on the carcass of another. Worried that they may startle the animal and it may attack them they raised their guns. Upon seeing the men the animal raised up on two legs looked the men square in the eyes and then took off running further into the swamp. 

Describing what he saw in a letter Ford wrote that the creature was over seven feet tall, covered in dark grey hair had yellow eyes and stank with a foul odor.

Ford become somewhat obsessed with seeing the creature again over the next 10 years he began to gather any evidence he could to help him identify what the creature was. He eventually decided to go back to the scene of the crime the area of the first sighting the previous decade. During this visit Ford saw what he believed to be signs of a violent encounter between two animals. Crawling through the undergrowth of a nearby watering hole he discovered the carcass of a wild bore who appeared to have had its throat ripped out. Next to this bloody scene were distinguishable footprints. He came back later and cast them with liquid plaster. They looked like large three toed webbed feet. Obviously bemused Ford took them to a local park warden in the hopes of identifying what creature could have made these prints but unfortunately the warden was at just as much of a loss as Ford was.

Despite his best efforts after 10 years of searching all Halan Ford had to show for all his effort was one eye witness account of a strange creature seen at some distance through undergrowth and an ambiguous foot print. That was until Ford's granddaughter Dana Holyfield was given a role of 8mm film of her grandfather's upon his passing. The film titled 'Honey Island Swamp Monster' no one had seen what was on this film except Ford. It showd a film from one of Ford's hides he had set up. A few minutes into the film about 100 yards away a faint bipedal creature can be seen crossing the swamp. It seems the swamp would make a great hunting ground with fish and boars galore coupled with the protected nature of much of the land there are areas that have remained untouched by human intervention. 

When asked why he hadn't shown this footage to anyone Dana speculated that he was worried that other less careful folk may mistake a hunter for the creature and someone could get hurt or worse, or maybe he discovered more about the creature than he thought he would and realised there are some questions humanity is just not ready for.

What ever the reason if you're going down to Honey Island swamp please be careful you never know what you might find. 

If you would like to read further information can be found here, here and here.

Until next time 

Stay safe

Thanks for reading

RTI

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