CSS EP-19 Strange Sightings in the Gulf Coast Region (Part 1 - Bigfoot, Swamp Monster, Rougarous, & Sackabillies)

Crazy Strange Days podcast presents your Crazy Strange Stories, Episode nineteen. This is all coming from the Country roadmagazine dot com. A lot of interesting stories in this and this is all coming from the Mississippi Delta to Louisiana Coast. It is really, really, really cool And of course I will leave links in the show notes so you guys can all reread or check these out yourselves. Let's kick it off. Strange sightings in the Gulf Coast region, Monsters, cryptids and other legends of the Bayeu State. Where are they legends at all? Now? This is a number of articles within this introductory article by Alexandra Kennon Keenan and various other authors. From a sasquatch lurking in the woods of northwest Louisiana to a feral girl roaming Cattahula Parish to aliens in Pascagoula, the Gulf Coast region has encountered its fair share of bizarre and often inexplicable monster sightings in the spirit of Halloween. Here are some of the more notable and we're a little late, it's December, and bone chilling cryptid encounters that have been reported from the Piney Forest and murky swamps of our mysterious state, perhaps not far from your own backyard. Bigfoot in Louisiana. Is Bigfoot in Louisiana? I know they're reportedly in Ohio, Southeastern Ohio for sure, the Grassman of Ohio, the Wild Woman of doug Ademona, and other sasquatch encounters. This one's by Terry L. Jones, Doctor Terry L. Jones. Bigfoot aka Sasquatch is not confined to the Pacific Northwest. He has been reported on every continent except Antarctica, and some believe he is right here in Louisiana. Let me start out by saying that I do not believe Bigfoot exists in North America, but I'm open to the possibility that there are and may be unknown hominids in the vast expanses of Asia. Interesting. What I find fascinating is the Bigfoot phenomena itself. What exactly are all of these people seeing out there in the woods. The creature is said to have a humanoid face, stands between six and eight feet tall, is covered in darker reddish hair, and smells the high heaven. Bigfoot tracks usually have five toes, but researchers claim that in north west Louisiana and East Texas they often have three toes, with one balbous big toe and two smaller ones. There's a little bit. It was hairy and looked like a human in a way, he said. I hollered at him, and he took off running. It happened so quick I didn't have time to be scared. Now. Bigfoot likes to range sticks and strange patterns, twist and break large limbs and saplings, and knock down small trees to mark a trail or stake out territory. Knocking on trees with a stick is also common and may be a way of signaling one another. One research researcher told me that bigfoot can make sounds ranging from soft whistles and peacock like cries to terrifying screams and roars. According to him, my family heard a bigfoot back in the mid nineteen sixties when we lived in the piny woods of northern wind Perish, not far from doug Demona River. I'm assuming I'm saying that right. During the wee hours of one bright moonlight morning, I was awakened by a epiphany of sounds. Excuse me, our dogs were barking frantically, and the cows and dogs on my uncle's place next door were also agitated. Something was making its way in the dark down Highway five oh five in front of our house. It made a noise like I had never heard before or since. Starting out in a low moan, it rose to a high pitch, like a woman screeching, and then fell back to a low moan. The next morning, I was reluctant to say anything, thinking maybe I had been dreaming, but I soon discovered the entire family had heard it. A month later, on another moonlight night, we heard it again, but this time we were watching television. We chalked it up to a cougar, which were sometimes reported in area, and have jokingly referred to it ever since as the Doug Demona wild Woman. When I have related that story to a bigfoot researcher, he asked, did it sound sort of like an old World War One air raid siren? Yeah, I said, a sirner, is exactly how I remember it. And if you've all not heard the Ohio sounds the Ohio, how I mean, you need to check that out. That was down by East Palestine in the nineties and it's it's pretty it's pretty crazy. It's something, so definitely, he replied, definitely, that was a bigfoot. The Louisiana Bigfoot has even made it onto television, with at least two programs focusing on sightings at Cotton Island in Northern Rapid Parish and near Goldana in the natche Tokyas Parish. Dakachocius, you guys are gonna kill me in the emails. My pronunciation is garbage. I will butcher many more names before I am done. I hunt around Goldona, so I have to be extra careful there from now on, he says. In two thousand and one, the Alexandria Daily town Talk covered a bigfoot sighting in central Louisiana after Earl Witstein claimed to have seen one while cruising Timber for a logging company. He says, it was harry and looked like a human in a way. I hollered at him and he took off running. It happened so quickly I didn't have time to be scared. Two days later, Carl Dubois was with Witstein on the same track at Timber when they saw the creature again. When we saw it, Earl hollered at it, and it ran off toward the bayou. I wouldn't have believed it, he says. One thing I've noticed in reading about Bigfoot is that there's a lot of reports that are simply unusual noises, smells, eyes shining in the dark, or an eerie feeling of being watched. Are people really encountering an unknown creature or are they simply experiencing something out of the ordinary and mistaking it for Bigfoot. If someone unexpectedly runs into a bear or a hog in the woods where they've never seen one before, might their mind play tricks on them. Feral hogs, for example, have a distinct musty smell, and that would be an unusual salt on the senses of anyone who had never smelled one before. And where is the hard evidence? With thousands of trail cameras in the woods these days, surely someone should have snapped a clear photo of Bigfoot if he really is creeping around. As one wildlife official told me, quote the two things they should be recording are Bigfoot in black panthers, but we have yet to see a photograph of either. That's from doctor Terry L. Jones Hey the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization or GCBRO is the main bigfoot research group in the South, so you should go check out their stuff. They have a website GCBR dot com and you can check out some Louisiana sightings for yourself. Tell me what you think. Let's check this out. Bigfoot the historical record and this is by doctor Terry L. Jones as well, sightings of giant, hairy bipedal animals predate the modern era. Last month's Call Them dealt with big Foot sightings and I admitted to being a non believer, and that's the article we just had went over. However, I find it fascinating that sightings of giant, hairy bipedal animals predate the modern era. Over one hundred and seventy years ago, the Arkansas wild Man terrified residents of that state. The first published report in eighteen forty six claimed a footprint was discovered in eastern Arkansas that measured twenty two inches. In eighteen fifty one, the Vermont Watchmen and State Journal reported that two men were hunting in Greene County, Arkansas, when they saw something bearing the unmistakable likeness of humanity, chasing a herd of cattle. He was of gigantic stature, the body being covered with hair, and the head with long locks that fairly enveloped his neck and shoulders. That sounds like my daughter's boyfriend. The creature stopped and stared at them for a few moments, and then ran into a patch of woods with great speed, leaping from twelve to fourteen feet at a time. The newspaper went on to explain that sightings of the wild man had been reported in Saint Francis, Green and Point Set Counties since eighteen thirty four. That's going way back. Many local residents believe the wild man was a human survivor of the great eighteen eleven eighteen twelve New Madrid Madrid earthquake who had turned feral while living in the woods. Two prominent Memphis organized excuse me. Two prominent Memphis men organized a search party to try and capture this guy, but nothing else is known of their attempt now. According to the Ashland, Ohio Union, the elusive creature was spotted again near the Sunflower Prairie during the winter of eighteen fifty six, and some men gave chase with hunting dogs. The wild man tried to flee across the frozen Brandt Lake, but the ice was too thin and he retreated back to the bank. The first men who arrived reported seeing quote an athletic men man about six foot four inches high, covered with hair of a brownish cast. Although within easy range, the hunter decided to capture the wild man rather than shoot him. It was a bad idea, according to the newspaper quote. The wild man bounded upon him, dragged him from the saddle, and tore him into a dreadful manner, gouging one of his eyes and biting a large piece out of his shoulder. He then threw the saddle and bridle from the horse and mounted. Say what, he set off for the mountains at full speed, guiding the horse with a piece of sapling. Okay, that's sensational. Twelve years later, a Mississippi wild man was encountered in southwestern Mississippi. According to the Cambria Freemen, Evansburg, PA. A similar creature had been seen near Vicksburg the year before. In the former incident, some hunters were falling a pack of dogs hot on the trail of an unknown animal when they discovered a footprint in the mud. It appeared similar to the track of a human foot, and the observed also that the toes of one of the foot turned backwards. When the dogs finally bade their prey, the men beheld a frightful looking creature of about the average height of a man, but a far greater muscular development, standing menacely in front of the dogs. It had long hair flowing from its head reaching to its knees. Its entire body also seemed to be covered with hair of two to three inches in length, which was a dark brown color. From its upper jaw projected two very large tusks several inches long. Now, I'm going to say that the back in the day newspapers were just crazy. It's like almost one upsmanship and storytelling. It seems, you know, if you delved down in even the seventeen hundreds, eighteen hundreds, they're just wild. I don't think. I think it's more like dimestore novel. But you know, let's get back to this. Less, I mean, more of this is better for you guys. The wild man ran towards the Mississippi River when the men advanced, but the dogs once again bade him at the river bank. When the dogs attacked, it reached forward and grabbed one of them, pressed it against it its tusks, pierced it through and killed it instantly. The hunters fired several shots, and the creature jumped into the river and remained submerged for several minutes. Suddenly it surfaced, uttering shrieks, which almost petrified the pursuers with terror. No similar sound had ever come to the ears of the men, who were all familiar with the howl of the wolf, the whine of the panther, and the horse horse bellowing of the alligator. Alligators have infantchound check that out. After sinking and rising several times, it swam to the Louisiana shore and disappeared some time later. Other wild men reported near Vicksburg and Meadville. They were reported my bad, I gave blood to day and had a bad experience. I'm not real happy with it, so a little little dizzy and out of sort's apologies. What is interesting about the Mississippi wild Man is that the people believed it to be an unknown creature, not a feral human, and did not ridicule the witnesses. The newspaper even suggested that the area around Meadville was suitable for such animals. Throughout Franklin County. There are retreats especially adept to the accommodation of wild beasts, as such as the high Barren Hills Ravines and the dense, vine matted swamp of the Homa Chito River. Again shout out to doctor Terry L. Jones for this article. I find the especially the old historical records of the newspaper accounts, to be really amusing. I get a kick out of them. I hope you guys like them too. So up next, the Honey Island Swamp Monster. Now, this is an interesting case. Some of you that dig on cryptids may be familiar with this. I just heard of this story a couple of years back, and I've been following, you know, Bigfoot for half of my life. Easy, so let's get into it. Honey Island Swamp Monster. This is by Megan Holmes. In a remote corner of Honey Island Swamp, two sportsmen made a controversial discovery late at night in the depths of the Honey Island Swamp. A piercing and unforgettable cry heralds the movement of the creature known to rip out the throats of wild boar and tear elevated hunting camps from their pilings. The Honey Island Swamp Monster serves as a powerful image of what lurks in the marshes, waiting for unsuspecting prey. Legends of a giant beast terrorizing the regions stretched back to Native American lore, but modern sidings began only in nineteen sixty three, when two FAA air traffic controlmen and a local outdoorsman set up camp in the interior of the marshes seventy thousand acres. It's a chunk of land. Harlan Ford and friend Billy D. Mills Senior noticed the potential camp site while flying over a remote area of the swamp outside Slidell, Louisiana. It was prime hunting territory and in an isolated area that few people had traveled, said Dana Holyfield, Ford's granddaughter and swamp monster advocate. After he retired, he spent a lot of time at that camp, documenting wildlife and eventually the creature we call the Honey Island Swamp Monster. Ford appeared on a nineteen seventies television series called In Search of Who Doesn't Know Of? In Search of Iconic Great Great Great I mean, that's how a lot of us got introduced to the cryptids, and described an unkept behemoth of over seven feet tall, with scraggly bat black hair covering its body from head to toe and piercing amber eyes looking out from a surprisingly human like face. I thought it might be a bear, and then it turned around, said Ford. Along with his physical descriptions, Ford produced a plaster cast of an impression of the creature's foot, a fore toad. Now get this, a Ford toad webbed footed cross between that of a primate and of a large alligator. Now, because Ford's account aired nationally, the local legend reached a new audience. It was monster mania around here, said Holyfield. Other area residents came forward to challenge Ford, claiming he and his friends created the swamp monster to secure their hunt territory. Maybe they were bored or wanted to boost their local economy. Someone had a shoe with a swamp monster track glued on the bottom, and they said Ford and his friends walked around a swamp making the footprints, said Holyfield. Now, Ford never stopped searching for the monster, but retreated from the public eye following the criticism. His wife, Yvonne found a video he recorded in the attic after his death in nineteen eighty. It was a grainy eight millimeter film of what looks like a large man covered in hair walking behind rows of trees in the foreground. The family also found a letter Ford wrote describing his encounters, clearly meant for publication, but boxed up along with plaster casts in the video footage. If Ford invented the swamp monster for notoriety or how are hunting rights, why did he hide the majority of his evidence. Yeah, that's that's a question right there. I don't care whether or not people believe in the Honey Island Swamp Monster, said Neil Benson, owner of Pearl River Eco Tours. There are a lot of things in life we believe in that we haven't seen. Like God, I don't know what it was. I just know I saw something that day. Now, Benson doesn't claim he saw what people call the Honey Island swamp Monster, but he described something similar. I was sixteen years old, paddling away from my duck blind in pirogue. Again, you're gonna see that. I routinely butcher words, especially French words. I'm particularly vicious and rudal with friends. I saw something tall, moving unlike any creature I had ever seen, move on two legs through water, unimpeded. It wasn't a bear. It wasn't like any man I've seen, he said. Benson tells the story on his swamp tours when people ask, and also keeps a plaster cast of Harlan swamp monster footprint impression given to him by Dana. The casts have made their way around Saint tammany parish gifts from Holyfield to enthusiasts and fellow believers. Another is on display at the Ebida Mystery House in Abida Springs, Louisiana. Now. Museum owner John Preebell likens the swamp monster to the ivory billed woodpecker, interesting a species that hasn't been formally observed or documented for years and is considered by experts to be extend People tell me they've seen the swamp monster and that they've seen the ivory build woodpecker. The swamp is huge, there are places where things can hide, he says, and Dana is the real deal. When you meet her and hear her story, you believe it. Holyfield has spent most of her life searching for the same creature as her grandfather. She has written books and produced documentaries the detailing encounters across the Honey Island Swamp. I do this work because I believe my grandfather's story. It matters whether or not it's real, because if it weren't real, a lot of people living around here would be crazy and have seen things that aren't there, she says. Before Harlan Ford met the Honey Island Swamp, monster Cajun legends about the werewolf's loop garou and ghostly trickster lutin Bloutine were whispered around the swamps for centuries. Many of these tales took their inspiration from early Native American legends Chichimacha and Attakapas tribes. Sorry, guys, no disrespect. Tribes in the region spoke of wolf like walkers. Wolfwalkers, man eating creatures part human and part beast, just like a bros out in a Navajo country. They talk about the walkers. Right, I'm not going to say the word. You guys know what I'm talking about, But when the sun shines over the Honey Island Swamp, it's hard to imagine running a foul of a man eating beast bound by the east and west Pearl rivers. Slender curving waterways branch away from those main channels and comprise the interior marshes tangling around endless elephant ears, water hyacinth, the highest synth, my bad Cyprus, and willow. Whatever mysterious creatures may reside here in the dark, deserved to reign undisturbed. Hey man, check out Eco River Tours at Pearl River ecotours dot com and then the meetiate the Abita Mystery House. I'd like to go. They're Abita Mystery House dot com. So very interesting. I've always found that story to uh have some I mean it sounds like Bigfoot with webbed feet, right, I guess you may have web feet if you live in a swamp. All right, So coming up, we have rugaroos and sacabillies. Now really excited to hear about these sacabillies because I have never heard of sacabillies. I've heard of stump jumpers, hilschkabills, you name it, rednecks. I'm probably, you know how, a redneck in a way, so nothing wrong with that, but sacabillies, Man's let's check it out. Riugaroos and sakabillies. This one's by Ed Collin, and I'll give you a little intro with how he approaches this quote. I might have left the likes of the loop Guru in childhood had Betsy's excuse me, had Betsy not become our next door neighbor. Betsy's childhood bugaboo was the sakabilly, the creature her grandmother May said lurc at the Pensacle and night. May was intentionally vague when it came to describing the sackabillity. She liked misbehaving children to provide their own horrific details. Someone bad moving around in the night with a sack was a good start. I agree, man, let's check it out. I love miss and legends, rugaroos, loop Garus and sakabillies to Ed Colin. Before we could anticipate cool October air and running through the night at Halloween, there was always for Louisiana school children the heat of September in new blue jeans and the hyper bowl of class room calendars and bulletin board art. We never tired of being tricked by calendar illustrations made in Maine. We took the illustrator's word that somewhere it snowed enough at Christmas for large horses to pull car sized sleighs down snow filled country lanes and overfields of oceanic white. Fall in Louisiana comes just in the nick of time. Summer's a long, hot moist. The heat reduces the speed of children and dogs to a slow trot. A quickened pace is encouraged only by the threat of a thunderstorm or the promise of lunch. I hear dad. Thunderstorms are a welcomed event. The wind picks up as the temperature drops. In the days before air conditioning, attic fans pulled air into the house. With the first sounds of thunder, my French grandmother turned off the big fan mounted in the attic and began moving from room to room, closing windows. She held the belief that lightning followed a draft. That's interesting. My grandmother grew up on a farm, educated in formal French, and steeped in Cajun lore. For my Cajun French grandfather's people, a werewolf meant to keep children home at night was the rugaroo. My grandmother's refined French name for the creature was loop. Garou, which made sense. Loop is wolf in French. Excuse me. My sister and I learned family myths in two languages. Three if you make the distinction between so called book French and equal col equal. Yeah, you guys know what I'm saying. Cajun for my Cajun French grandfather's people, it were a wolf meant to keep children at home at night? Was the rugaroo. I'm sorry, guys, I read this twice. My grandmother's French refined French name for the creature was loop garou, which made sense. Loop is wolf in French. My bad. I'm down a pine of blood, so forgive me, forgive me. By the time I could read, my grandmother had, from lack of use, lost the ability to read French and never learned to read English. Her smock pocket sized phone book held only numbers, no names. Her sevens had bars through them, a holdover from her education at the hands of recent Europeans. Her myths were as homegrown as the okra in her gumbos gumbos betou fe red beans, and her eyes delicious delicioso. My sister and I didn't believe we'd become insane if we slept in the light of the full moon, but my grandmother's belief gave us pause. My bed was beside a window that filled with moonlight. Curtains billowed inward as the attic fan sucked. Moist. Night air in my moonlit room, with its waving curtains was spooky, but mornings seemed as sane as the night before I did. My grandmother taught me to play poker in beret by the light of the holy candles during storms. I have no idea what b o you are our apostrophe e is accent e beilray by the light of holy candles during storms. Apologies, Oh, the electricity hadn't been knocked out. The candles offered protection against tree limbs crashing through the ceiling. I peeled playing cards from my fingertips in the still damp air. I might have left the likes of the loop Garu in childhood, had Betsy not become our neighbor next door. Betsy's childhood bugaboo was the sackabilly, a creature her grandmother May said lurk in the pensacle the night. May was intentionally vague when it came to describing the sackability she liked misbehaving children to provide their own horrific details. Someone bad moving around the night with a sack was a good start. I read that. So you guys got it twice. It's interesting now, sackabilly. The first time Betsy reported sounds in the night in her backyard or possibly between our houses, I assured her I checked outside. The next time, my wife awoke, asking did you hear that? What do you think made the noise? I asked Betsy. I don't know, she said, I hope it wasn't the sackabilly. Great, I added a goblin to my list of possibilities when things went bump in the night by ed Colin. So we get no clear, definitive backstory on a sackabilly. I guess I can tell my nieces a nephew some spooky stories about a sacabilly. I'll come up with the rest. We'll see, I'll fill in the blanks. It would be cool. Maybe you guys can do the same to me your story about the saccabillies. All right, everybody, this is going to be a two parter. As I lack I lack the energy. Mickey Strange, well, Mickey Strange is a little little low on energy right now, so I'm gonna make this a two parter. There's a couple more coming up for you, and i'll release that probably tomorrow and the next day. As you hear my dogs barking crazily, please as always, you lovely people, do me a kindness, five star, rate and review wherever you get this podcast. It truly helps with the algorithms, gets more ears, helps me keep going. And also check out the new project. It's called Chasing Bad. It's with my good buddy Sean aka Joker. It's pretty much for adults children beware, there's some bombs being dropped. There f bombs in the like in the content's not always pretty as we'll be doing true crime, serial killers, a lot of serial killers, a lot of Siica so and then something that I don't touch upon too much that I absolutely love. And I'm totally into the conspiracy theories. So true crime and conspiracy theories over there at Chasing Bad. Some discussion. It's yeah, about forty five five minutes probably. We've got three episodes, so check that out. We will be dropping another one around Christmas, believe or not, but yeah, so check that out. I think you'll have fun. Thanks so much for your valuable time. I have been nick strange, and I am out of hearing about any day. Ladies, d