Never mind the 15-foot gators, the menacing, poisonous snakes or the elusive black panthers, there’s a creature in the Honey Island Swamp that elicits far more fear in people than all the other animals combined.

Longtime area residents call it the Honey Island Swamp Monster.

The Legend

Dana Holyfield and husband Terral Evans continue their quest for the truth about the Honey Island Swamp Monster. They'€™re seen here standing before the Honey Island Swamp holding the most recent track casting of the legendary beast. (Staff Photo by Chad Ruiz)

The legend of the now infamous creature began when Harlan Ford sighted the monster back in 1963 while on a hunting trip with longtime friend Billy Mills.

While pilots in the Federal Aviation Administration during the early 1960s, Mills and Ford spotted an abandoned camp deep in the heart of the swamp near Pearl River during a flight over the swamp. The avid hunters decided the camp would make a perfect lodge while on hunting expeditions.

In 1963, when the two gear-laden men traipsed through the thick swamp toward the empty campsite, they came upon a dark figure crouching low to the ground on all fours.

“When the creature heard their voices, it stood up on two feet and faced them,” Dana Holyfield said, recalling her grandfather’s story. “And then it ran into the brush,” but not before Ford got a long glimpse of its piercing eyes.

“That’s the one thing he always talked about were those amber-colored eyes.”

He also said it was covered in dingy, dark hair and possessed a smooth, hairless face that resembled a man.

Although the creature was several feet away, Ford, who stood 6-foot-4, pegged it to be almost 7 feet tall.

After the being took off, the two men followed it into the brush, where they inexplicably lost sight of it. But it wouldn’t be Ford’s last encounter with the unusual beast.

On another hunting excursion in 1974, Ford, alone in the damp swamp, was strolling along the bank of a slough when he noticed some commotion originating from the opposite bank. Upon investigation, he found a boar, quivering but dead, with its throat ripped out. Nearby the deceased animal he found fresh tracks left by a different animal he didn’t recognize. He likened it to the mysterious swamp creature and made plaster castings of the tracks and presented them to cryptozoologists at Louisiana State University.

The Honey Island Swamp Monster was born.

The Monster

Holyfield still has the cast Ford made, which partly resembles a human’s foot except the cast contains four toes with three dominant digits in the front of the foot and a fourth, smaller toe recessed further back on the foot. The heel and insole are strikingly similar to human feet.

Scientists at LSU and other universities were dumbfounded by the castings and offered Ford no explanation for what type of animal left the track.

The Discovery Channel soon learned of Ford’s encounter and featured his story on its “Monster Mania” program.

Afterwards, news crews and people from all professions visited the swamp looking for more evidence of the creature, but none was found and the hysteria quickly fizzled.

Ford died in 1980, but his legacy lives on through his granddaughter, who recently produced the first documentary on the fabled beast.

The Evidence

The “Legend of the Honey Island Swamp Monster” was released earlier this year and features a dozen interviews with sportsmen who’ve had personal encounters with the creature.

Accounts from locals includes Holyfield’s father and an eyewitness who was reluctant to speak on camera because of the possible media attention the monster would attract.

During the making of the documentary, Holyfield and husband Terral Evans, a 50-plus-year swamp resident, discovered more tracks of the monster, only these — about 16 inches long — were larger than the original tracks cast by Ford nearly 30 years ago.

They also made castings of the track and presented it to cryptozoologists, who said the foot design is similar to other tracks found of alleged swamp Bigfoots with the three toes appearing almost webbed.

Another, more chilling, encounter Evans and Holyfield experienced while making the video came one night during a campfire with friends inside the swamp. Again, fresh tracks were found in the mud, but this time Evans released his bloodhounds in an effort to track the elusive creature. Soon after, shrill, shrieking screams emanated throughout the swamp closely followed by the howling of the hounds.

After several minutes, the dogs appeared to have treed the beast, but when Evans located his canines, the creature was nowhere to be seen and the harsh, echoing cries of the monster continued in the distance.

The most compelling evidence in the documentary comes at the end of the film when Holyfield presents the uncut, original super 8 mm video Ford made of the swamp monster while camouflaged in a tree blind.

“Instead of hunting animals, he started filming the wildlife,” Holyfield said, adding her mother found the antique film reel while searching through Ford’s belongings during the making of the documentary.

Plainly labeled “Honey Island Swamp Monster,” the footage begins with Ford filming the scenery of the swamp from his boat. The next scene begins with Ford filming the tree blind he built for hunting or capturing footage of wildlife, and it finally ends with the camera filming a thicket of trees when a stout figure appears, walking upright behind the trees. It appears to be a man-like creature but covered in long hair with abnormally long arms.

The documentary is earning the monster more publicity with Holyfield’s phone ringing off the hook from local and national media.

The latest news station to contact Holyfield was Fox News, which ran a 30-minute special on the elusive creature.

Evans said he’s been trying to track the monster most of his life, even coming as close as hearing the deep, grunting breath of the being, but his attempts to catch a glimpse of the swamp-thing have never materialized.

“I’ve collected hair that we sent off to have the DNA analyzed, but they always call and say they have no idea what species of animal the DNA belongs to,” Evans said.

“I’ve even been so closed to it I could smell it,” he said, adding the scent was extremely musky and strong, like that of a skunk.

He also admitted to hearing its shrill cries occasionally and frequently stumbling upon tracks left by the monster.

“I think there’s more than one, maybe a family, because I’ve come across multiple tracks that were different sizes,” he said.

Evans also believes the monster to be a vegetarian because he has yet to find an abandoned animal carcass.

But if you’re seeking a glimpse of the beast yourself, you’ll have to go at night, according to Evans, who said the only occasions he’s encountered the animal were during the late evening and night.

For more information on the documentary or monster, visit www.honeyislandswampmonster.com.