The Legend of the Honey Island Swamp Monster


Editor’s Note: This is a post by Bigfoot Evidence contributor Vicki W.

Since a few of the comments recently made mention of the Honey Island Swamp Monster, I thought it was an interesting story to explore. The legend and alleged video footage captured by air traffic controller Harlan Ford in Louisiana's Honey Island Swamp was featured on the popular series "In Search Of", hosted by Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame. The story was also featured on an episode of Syfy's "Fact or Faked", a television program following a team who investigate paranormal video uploads on sites such as Youtube, in addition to an episode of "Lost Tapes".

Harlan Ford and his friend Billy Mills, claim to have come face to face with a strange hair covered humanoid creature in 1963. In 1974, he claimed to have cast foot impressions of peculiar webbed tracks with four toes. It was not until his death in 1980 that a reel of Super 8 film was found among his possessions. The film showed an upright, shaggy haired creature as it made its way through the swamp. However, a boot with a four-toed foot glued to it was also discovered. This raised serious questions as to the authenticity of Ford's track castings, the film, and his eyewitness reports.

Harlan's granddaughter, Dana Holyfield put together a documentary and wrote a book about the experiences of her late grandfather. She stands behind her grandfather's claims. See the footage included in both "In Search of" and "Fact or Faked: Bayou Beast" and decide for yourself---was this a man in a ghillie suit or do you think it's the real deal?

Fact or Faked Documentary

In Search Of Episode

Comments

  1. I just can't take the overly dramatic music in these new shows.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I use to watch the In Search of Episodes in the 70's. By then my mind was open to all sorts of things that did not fit conventional wisdom, and this series was well done and on the major networks, something that does not happen today. Have to go to the Discovery channels now and that's OK.

    A lot of the local swampers believe in this creature which is most likely Sasquatchs and its history goes much further back than Harlan Ford.

    Chuck

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, there's something strangely comforting by Nimoy's voice for those who grew up with it in the '70s. I actually identify him more with paranormal shit than I do with Star Trek.

      Delete
  3. A boot with four toes was found later.
    I give up.
    There are no SwampMonsters.

    ReplyDelete
  4. harlen ford could be anyone's grandfather so to speak. with that said those swamp men know their stuff. if we lost our society i would want to be around the harlen ford's of the back-country. they along with some others can and would help you survive in difficult times. looks to be a good honest guy. wouldn't you agree? but the thing that bothered me was the boot with the toes on the bottom of the soles. so everything i said above this sentance goes out the window. except the survival stuff. i want to believe him about the sasquatch neighbours, but it's that damned fake footprint boot that kills the whole swamp monster thing for me!

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  5. First, "Fact or Faked" screwed up by looking at well fed bears and concluding bears do not walk on two legs. There are several videos on Youtube showing ones that do for short distances and one with three legs for long distances.

    Second, the "In Search of" episode was one of the early episodes of 1977 and Michael Nahi made a replica costume based on the observations of witnesses at that time.

    The rival hypothesis is it may be the case that Michael Nahi made a Super 8 film of a man in the costume to show Harlan Ford for comparison. Or Harlan Ford may have been been working with him on this to get as accurate a description as possible for a re-enactment.

    The best assumption for this not been shared prior to his death is that he did not want muddy the waters and be sure it was only shown in context. That, obviously did not happen.

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  6. There is a segment on an episode of History's SWAMP PEOPLE. One of the swampers and his family spend the night on the island to investigate. They hear some sounds and end up wit a picture from a game cam of something. It is large and hairy. Its a pretty good show. Its on season two. Can probally be viewed on the website.

    BigHix

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  7. The 4 toed tracks are gator tracks.

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  8. Its pretty funny how the author failed to mention their was a very cool documentary made called "the honey island swamp monster". For those that like the low budget documentaries that are very cool, this is a great movie. I own a copy and really enjoy it.

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  9. lol, buddy you need to watch the documentary. Those 4 toed tracks resemble a gator about as much as my foot resembles a gator. Look at the boot with the foot attached, does that look like a gator foot. lol. I swear arm chair skeptics dont even take the time to look at pics anymore, they just make claims.

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    Replies
    1. Anon 9:53,
      Are you referring to the one made by Dana Holyfield? I mentioned at the end, but I could only find clips about it, not a way to watch the entire documentary. For those interested, here is Dana Holyfield's site with info. about it:
      http://swampmonster.weebly.com/

      There is also a segment included in "Southern Fried Bigfoot". It's a great dvd, by the way-covers the Lake Worth Monster, the Fouke Monster, along with skunk ape tales. The website is http://southernfriedbigfoot.com/ if anyone is interested.
      Sorry for the oversight. I'm sure there may be more out there that I'm not aware of.

      Delete
  10. These "experts" on ForF are just laughable. The one guy in the red and green outfit looks like a lost Baldwyn brother that would make Stephen look like the sane one.

    Really, this whole show is nothing but glitzy padding over an excrutiatingly obnoxious soundtrack.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fact or faked showed how easy it was to fake the moon landing photos and then said they were not faked..
      on all other episodes when they showed how something could be faked they concluded that it probably was.
      interesting show but bias in there conclusions

      Delete
  11. Why couldn't it be a guy in a ghillie suit?

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    Replies
    1. Good question,I'm sure the ghillie suits have been improved over the years, this could have been an earlier one.

      Delete
  12. Yeah, finding a four-toed boot with the footage does make the footage seem like it was hoaxed. Why would anyone get some footage and not show it to anyone?

    It just seems odd that an air traffic controller would dabble in bigfoot hoaxing.

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    Replies
    1. Not sure whats odd with an air traffic controller dabbling in a hoax.. the guy worked in a high pressure enviroment where everything had to be precise and exact, so for unwinding it would seem likely that he would have loved doing this kind of thing.
      my grandfather was a high ranking air force guy and he loved practical jokes& was always making up stories about ghosts, ufos, bigfoot and such like, he would claim that they wete true& give names of others involved, but we never met the others who supposedly saw this&were told not to mention it when his miltary pals were over as he was not supposed to say anything...

      Delete
  13. Pretty much a waste of time. And how did these guys manage to find the only two Yankees living in the swamp to interview?

    ReplyDelete
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