The Honey Island Swamp Monster

The Honey Island Swamp Monster

Honey Island Swamp, part of the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area, near Slidell, Louisiana, USA
One of the least-altered river swamps & most pristine swampland habitats in the US.
Managed by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

The Honey Island Swamp , Creole French: Marais de l'Île-de-Miel earned its name because of the honeybees once seen on a nearby isle.

It is a Cypress & Tupelo (tree) swamp
Plants:
  • Bald cypress(Taxodium distichum), 
  • tupelo gum (Nyssa aquatica), 
  • swamp blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica), 
  • swamp red maple (Acer rubrum), 
  • black willow (Salix nigra), 
  • ash (Fraximus spp.), 
  • water elm (Playera aquatica), 
  • Virginia willow (Itea virginica),
  • buttonbush (Cephalaythus occidentalis)
  • Sarvis holly (Ilex amelanchier)
Animals:
  • alligators, 
  • raccoons, 
  • owls, 
  • wild boars, 
  • nutria, 
  • snakes, 
  • turtles, 
  • bald eagles and 
  • black bears, 
  • honey bees, 
  • Wood stork (Mycteria americana)
  • Osprey 
  • waterfowl, 
  • deer, 
  • rabbits, 
  • squirrel, 
  • woodcock
Breeding area for
  • wading birds 
    • egrets, 
    • herons, 
    • ibises
  • alligators 
  • nutria
  • muskrat,
  • raccoon, 
  • otter
MIGRATORY SPECIES:
  • Songbirds
  • passerines
  • Ducks
  • geese
  • Eagles
~~~~~~~~~~~            ~~~~~~~~~~~            ~~~~~~~~~~~            ~~~~~~~~~~~            

The Honey Island Swamp Monster
The first claimed sighting was in 1963 by Harlan Ford. 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 his friend Billy Mills claimed to have found footprints in the area and made a plaster cast of one. They also found the body of a wild boar whose throat had been gashed.

The plaster cast of the foot shows 4 toes and appears to be the right foot (because the left-most toe is much shorter (like a small thumb), 2 to 3 inches, than the next 3 toes - long with webs in between each of the 3.
The width near the arch of the foot is 4-5 inches, and widens to 7-8 inches from the "thumb" to the outside of the the 3rd toe.

In 1974, zoologists from Lousiana State University (LSU) met with Harlan Ford to study the plaster casts of the creature's four-toed footprints. Cryptozoologist from Washington also arrived in Louisiana to inspect the unusual casts.

Harlan said, "That thing stood eye level with me. The thing that startled me the most, we're it's large amber eyes."

Dana Holyfield (granddaughter of Harlan Ford, wife of Terral Evans):
"My grandpa said that he remembered most was the amber-color eyes. He said it stood upright; and it had the long arms; and; but it was very hairy... long, dingy hair... like a grayish.... sometimes they say like a gray and muddy look; then some people said it had a reddish tint to it;
And my grandfather poured the first plaster casting that were studied by cryptozoologists

Dan Holyfield (Dana Holyfield's father)
(he hit something with his boat and shined a light in the water)
"I was just so confused. i thought now i done run over somebody and hurt it. when it stood up it looked like a human being and looked like he had a overcoat or somethin or some kind of coat, you know.

Horman Broom : "The thing that scared me so bad is that it looked like a person; because the face did resemble a person; and it had an animal body; and it scared the life out of me; I have never in my life seen anything like it;
What I saw... scared the life out of me. I was face to face with... I didn't know if it was man or beast... to be perfectly honest with you, I mean ... I never seen anything like this before in my life; it had a head and a face like a man... and a body like a... a animal;

"I never told anything about it to anybody except my family; the smell; almost like a datgum wet dog kinda smell;

"Jason Holburn: My first instinct... maybe it was a deer or something; but... it just...it didn't look right. Well... it actually... when it come across the canal, it actually looked like it was walkin across the bottom of the canal, you know. Well it got up on the other side... and just kinda shook its hair off; it looked kinda like a person; and then it went on across.
Everybody looks for the monster. It's not a monster. and if it was it would probably be easier to track. ... if this.... it's more man than what we think it is.

"I believe in this this thing. you know it didn't it wasnt in the swamp i'm 51 years old i've heard it probably half a doesn't times; seen tracks 2 dozen times that are similar to you know tracks that are believable... that you can't fake

"Terral Evans: 
I felt like something was looking at me; you ever get that feelin... where somethin's starin at ya?
It walked upright...uh...this thing had a flat back... with his shoulders; the face... doesn't have hair on it; in the cheeks... or the forehead... or around the nose; uh... down toward the chin is skin, no hair.
Likes so they said; fast; elusive moves fast; gets out the way fast.
That's when I knew it wasn't a bear; once I seen that I knew it was time to, uh, change my mind about whatever I had planned anyway.

"You can't just go a hundred yards and step in the wilderness; you must get on out there; and just stay till daylight, because from midnight to daylight is when you gonna... well you'll see.

Let me track you in there (by boat) about a mile and a half... and uh... build you a little fire, I'll give you... leave you with some vienna sausages and snicker bars.... and I'll come back and get you tomorrow morning. Then tell me... how sceptical you are...

The trailer to "The Legend Of The Honey Island Swamp Monster"

Dana Holyfield, Oct 24, 2017
I decided to upload my original film on YouTube since it is not listed for sale. I revised and updated my original film to a version in HD called, "Encounters with the Honey Island Swamp Monster."  

For more information on the legend, visit Dana Holyfield's website.


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