Tracking the Swamp Monsters

INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL Tracking the Swamp Monsters o mysterious and presumab- told his story on an episode of the 1970s happened—with gun and camera. He ly endangered manlike crea- television series In Search of... did supposedly find several, different- Dtures inhabit swamplands of According to his granddaughter, Dana sized tracks on one hunting trip. He also the southern United States? If not, Holyfield (1999a, 11): claimed to have seen the monster on one how do we explain the sightings and other occasion, during a fishing trip When the documentary was first tele- even track impressions of creatures vised, it was monster mania around with Mills and some of their friends that thus far have eluded mainstream here. People called from everywhere. from work. One of the men reportedly science? Do they represent additional . .. The legend of the Honey Island then went searching for the creature Swamp Monster escalated across evidence of the legendary Bigfoot or witfr a rifle and fired two shots at it be- Southern Louisiana and quickly made something else entirely? What would its way out of state after the docu- fore returning to tell his story to the oth- an investigation reveal? mentary aired nationwide. ers around the campfire (Holyfield 1999a, 10-15). Monster Mania Harlan Ford continued to search for Searching for Evidence The outside world learned about the monster until his death in 1980. Louisiana's Honey Island Swamp Dana recalls how he once took a goat Intrigued by the monster reports, which Monster in 1974 when two hunters into the swamp to use as bait, hop- I pursued on a trip to New Orleans emerged from a remote area of backwa- ing to lure the creature to a tree blind (speaking to local skeptics at the plane- ter sloughs with plaster casts of "unusual where Ford waited—uneventfully, as it tarium in Kenner), I determined to visit tracks." The men claimed they discovered the footprints near a wild boar that lay with its tiiroat gashed. They also stated dial over a decade earlier, in 1963, they had seen similar tracks after encountering an awesome creature. They described it as standing seven feet tall, being covered with grayish hair, and having large amber-colored eyes. However, the monster had promptly run away and an afternoon rainstorm had obliterated its tracks, the men said. The hunters were Harlan E. Ford and his friend Billy Mills, both of whom worked as air-traffic controllers. Ford Joe Nickel! is CSICOP's Senior Research Fellow and author of numerous investigative books. Figure 1. Louisiana's pristine Honey Island Swamp is the alleged habitat of a manlike monster. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER July/August 2001 15 the alleged creature's habitat. The claims is naturalist John V. Dennis. In 2). It is clearly not the track of a stereo- Honey Island Swamp (figure 1) com- his comprehensive book The Great typical Bigfoot (or sasquatch) whose prises nearly 70,000 acres between the Cypress Swamps (1988), he writes: footprints are "roughly human in de- East Pearl and West Pearl rivers. I signed "Honey Island has achieved fame of sign," according to anthropologist and on with Honey Island Swamp Tours, sorts because of the real or imagined pro-Bigfoot theorist Grover Krantz which is operated out of Slidell, presence of a creature that fits the (1992, 17). Instead, Ford's monster Louisiana, by wetlands ecologist Paul description of the Big Foot of movie tracks are webbed-toe imprints that Wagner and his wife, Sue. Their "small, renown. Known as the Thing, the crea- appear to be "a cross between a primate personalized nature tours" live up to ture is sometimes seen by fishermen." and a large alligator" (Holyfield 1999a, their billing as explorations of "the However, he says, "For my part, let me 9). The track is also surprisingly small: deeper, harder-to-reach small bayous say that in my many years of visiting only about nine and three-fourths and sloughs" of "one of the wildest and swamps, many of them as wild or wilder inches long compared to Bigfoot tracks most pristine river swamps in America" than Honey Island, I have never which average about fourteen to sixteen ("Dr. Wagner's" n.d.). obtained a glimpse of anything vaguely inches (Coleman and Clark 1999, 14), The Wagners are ambivalent about resembling Big Foot, nor have I ever with tracks of twenty inches and more the supposed swamp monster's exis- seen suspicious-looking footprints." He reported (Coleman and Huyghe 1999).' tence. They have seen alliga- tors, deer, otters, bobcats, and Monsterlands numerous other species but Clearly, the Honey Island not a trace of the legendary Swamp Monster is not a Big- creature (Wagner 2000). The foot, a fact that robs Ford's and same is true of the Wagners' Mills's story of any credibility Cajun guide, Captain Robbie it might have had from that Charbonnet. Beginning at age association. Monster popular- eight, he has had forty-five izes instead equate the Honey years' experience, eighteen as a Island reports with other guide, in the Honey Island "North American 'Creatures of Swamp. He told me he had the Black Lagoon' cases," pur- "never seen or heard" some- ported evidence of cryptozoo- thing he could not identify, Figure 2. This plaster cast preserves an alleged Honey Island logical entities dubbed "fresh- certainly nothing that could Swamp Monster track. (Photos by Joe Nickel!) water Merbeings" (Coleman be attributed to a monster and Huyghe 1999, 39, 62). (Charbonnet 2000). concludes, "Honey Island, in my experi- These are supposedly linked by tracks Suiting action to words throughout ence, does not live up to its reputation as with three toes, although Ford's casts ac- our tour, Charbonnet repeatedly iden- a scary place." tually exhibit four (again see figure 2). tified species after species in the remote In contrast to the lack of monster In short, the alleged monster is unique, swampland as he skillfully threaded his experiences from swamp experts are rare even among creatures whose exis- boat through the cypresses and tupelos die encounters reported by Harlan Ford tence is unproven and unlikely. hung with Spanish moss. Although the and Billy Mills. Those alleged eyewit- Footprints and other specific details cool weather had pushed 'gators to the nesses are, in investigators' parlance, "re- aside, the Honey Island Swamp Monster depths, he heralded turtles, great blue peaters"—people who claim unusu- seems part of a genre of mythic swamp- herons, and other wildlife. From only a al experiences on multiple occasions. dwelling "beastmen" or "manimals." glimpse of its silhouetted form he spot- (Take Bigfoot hunter Roger Patterson They include the smelly Skunk Ape and ted a barred owl, then carefully maneu- for example. Before shooting his contro- the hybrid Gatorman of die Florida vered for a closer view. He called atten- versial film sequence of a hairy man- Everglades and other southern swamps; tion to the singing of robins, who were beast in 1967, Patterson was a longtime the Scape Ore Swamp Lizardman of gathering there for the winter, and Bigfoot buff who had "discovered" the South Carolina; Momo, the Missouri pointed to signs of other creatures, alleged creature's tracks on several occa- Monster; and, among odiers, the Fouke including freshly cut branches pro- sions [Bord and Bord 1982, 80].) Ford's Monster, which peeked in the window duced by beavers and, in the mud, and Mills's multiple sightings and dis- of a home in Fouke, Arkansas, one night tracks left by a wild boar. But there was coveries seem suspiciously lucky, and in 1971 and set off a rash of monster not a trace of the swamp monster. (The suspicions are increased by other evi- sightings (Blackman 1998, 23-25, closest I came was passing an idle boat dence, including die tracks. 30-33, 166-168; Bord and Bord 1982, at Indian Village Landing emblazoned From Dana Holyfield I obtained a 104-105; Coleman and Clark 1999, "Swamp Monster Tours.") plaster copy of one of the several track 224-226; Coleman and Huyghe 1999, Another who is skeptical of monster casts made by her grandfather (figure 39, 56). 1 6 July/AugusI 2001 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Considering this genre, we must ask: Monster and similar entities. He O'Lantcrn, a malevolent spirit who lures Why swamps and why monsters? thought that frightening stories might humans into dangerous swampland with Swamps represent remote, unexplored have been concocted on occasion to his mesmerizing lantern, as well as the regions, which have traditionally been keep outsiders away—perhaps to pro- Loup Garou (a werewolf) and the zom- the domain of legendary creatures. As tect prime hunting areas or even help bies (not the relatively harmless "Voodoo the noted Smithsonian Institution biol- safeguard moonshine stills. He also Zombies" but the horrific "Flesh Eaters") ogist John Napier (1973, 23) sagely ob- theorized that such tales might have (Blackman 1998, 171-209). served, monsters "hail from uncharted served in a sort of bogeyman fashion By extension, swamp creatures are territory: inaccessible mountains, im- to frighten children from wandering also ideal subjects for horror fiction. penetrable forests, remote Pacific is- into remote, dangerous areas. (Indeed The Fouke monster sightings, for exam- lands, the depths of loch or ocean. .. The essential element of the monster myth is remoteness." Many alleged paranormal entities appear to stem Echoing Napier in discussing one reported Honey Island Swamp either from mankind's hopes or fears—thus are encounter, John V. Dennis (1988) envisioned angels and demons—and some entities states: "In many cases, sightings such as this one are inspired by traditions that may evoke a range of responses.

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