1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:17,085 This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. 2 00:00:17,085 --> 00:00:21,612 The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily 3 00:00:21,612 --> 00:00:28,664 the only ones to the mysteries we will examine. 4 00:00:28,664 --> 00:00:35,675 Dogs inspire fear in many minds. 5 00:00:35,675 --> 00:00:42,927 Dark and damp, they are full of mystery and creatures that slither in the mud. 6 00:00:42,927 --> 00:00:49,257 An experienced guide entered Louisiana's Honey Island Swamp one fall day in 1973. 7 00:00:49,257 --> 00:00:56,269 The outing would become the stuff nightmares are made of. 8 00:00:56,269 --> 00:01:03,681 Normally, the trek held few terrors for the guide, even the lethal alligator was rarely 9 00:01:03,681 --> 00:01:07,687 a problem for an experienced outdoorsman. 10 00:01:07,687 --> 00:01:12,696 The guide would discover something else lurking in these quiet waters, something that struck 11 00:01:12,696 --> 00:01:32,328 his boat. 12 00:01:32,328 --> 00:01:37,015 There is a land of endless winter where the air is thin and clean, with peaks soaring 13 00:01:37,015 --> 00:01:43,706 five miles high to form the icy roof of the world, the Himalayas. 14 00:01:43,706 --> 00:01:48,274 The nomad sherpas who tend their flocks on harsh alpine meadows believe they are not 15 00:01:48,274 --> 00:01:51,599 alone in the wilderness. 16 00:01:51,599 --> 00:01:56,247 They know the mountains are gods and that the gods have sped good and evil spirits who 17 00:01:56,247 --> 00:02:02,457 keep watch from the highest crags. 18 00:02:02,457 --> 00:02:08,867 The most frightening of these spirits is the manned beast the sherpa call Yeti. 19 00:02:08,867 --> 00:02:12,713 Western men call him the Abominable Snowman. 20 00:02:12,713 --> 00:02:23,090 Abominable because legend says he kills those foolish enough to enter his frozen world. 21 00:02:23,090 --> 00:02:29,300 Sir Edmund Hillary had heard of the Abominable Snowman, but along with Sherpa tensing norke, 22 00:02:29,300 --> 00:02:36,552 he challenged the elements and the unknown to scale Mount Everest in 1953. 23 00:02:36,552 --> 00:02:44,926 Hillary would bravely return years later to search for the monster, but would find nothing. 24 00:02:44,926 --> 00:02:49,574 Other places in the world have secrets to tell and there are other men fascinated by 25 00:02:49,574 --> 00:02:51,096 mystery. 26 00:02:51,096 --> 00:02:54,462 One such place is America's Pacific Northwest. 27 00:02:54,462 --> 00:03:03,436 One such man is Peter Byrne. 28 00:03:03,436 --> 00:03:08,765 Like the Himalayas, this is a high and lonely land as yet unvanquished by the steady surge 29 00:03:08,765 --> 00:03:19,382 of humanity called progress. 30 00:03:19,382 --> 00:03:23,990 Byrne once hunted game in the foothills of the Himalayas where he became fascinated with 31 00:03:23,990 --> 00:03:25,993 accounts of the Yeti. 32 00:03:25,993 --> 00:03:32,283 Now he roams the northwest substituting camera for gun in search of another man like beast, 33 00:03:32,283 --> 00:03:37,211 Bigfoot. 34 00:03:37,211 --> 00:03:41,017 Men of strong character have challenged this wilderness before. 35 00:03:41,017 --> 00:03:48,149 In 1924 a group of rugged miners staked a claim near Mount St. Helens in Washington state. 36 00:03:48,149 --> 00:03:53,277 They reported that early one morning they were attacked by giant rock throwing beasts. 37 00:03:53,277 --> 00:04:13,110 The battle lasted hours. 38 00:04:13,110 --> 00:04:18,839 The miners thought they had killed one of the creatures, but no trace was ever found. 39 00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:22,685 Bigfoot and the abominable snowman have much in common. 40 00:04:22,685 --> 00:04:29,376 Perhaps Bigfoot migrated here across the ancient land bridge that once joined Asia with North 41 00:04:29,376 --> 00:04:30,378 America. 42 00:04:30,378 --> 00:04:41,396 A world away from the mountains is the urbane and colorful city of New Orleans, yet less 43 00:04:41,396 --> 00:04:51,372 than 40 miles from the Superdome concrete and steel give way again to wilderness. 44 00:04:51,372 --> 00:04:58,023 Called Honey Island Swamp, 27,000 acres of sluggish streams, still ponds and dense subtropical 45 00:04:58,023 --> 00:05:04,513 forest make up another of the world's great remaining primitive areas. 46 00:05:04,513 --> 00:05:09,642 Life on the edge of this vast Mississippi Delta bayou seems prosaic enough with comfortable 47 00:05:09,642 --> 00:05:12,446 old homes punctuating lush farmland. 48 00:05:12,446 --> 00:05:18,015 In the little towns and farmhouses however, stories are exchanged about a creature said 49 00:05:18,015 --> 00:05:20,740 to lurk deep within the swamp. 50 00:05:20,740 --> 00:05:25,788 Few outsiders ever hear them, perhaps for good reason. 51 00:05:25,788 --> 00:05:29,755 Ted Williams farms a small plot of land near Honey Island. 52 00:05:29,755 --> 00:05:32,439 He also traps muskrat and mink. 53 00:05:32,439 --> 00:05:34,883 One day it appeared he'd been trapped himself. 54 00:05:34,883 --> 00:05:40,492 The first time I ever saw it was standing plumb steel, like a stump. 55 00:05:40,492 --> 00:05:46,422 I went on a trap line and I stopped there until I realized it wasn't a stump. 56 00:05:46,422 --> 00:05:48,625 I thought it wasn't supposed to be there. 57 00:05:48,625 --> 00:05:49,627 And it runned. 58 00:05:49,627 --> 00:05:59,122 When I stopped it runned, it was a dark, dark gray, about seven foot high. 59 00:05:59,122 --> 00:06:02,728 They jumped about as the first sighting I ever saw. 60 00:06:03,129 --> 00:06:06,775 The next time I seen them was swimming the river. 61 00:06:06,775 --> 00:06:07,777 Two of them. 62 00:06:07,777 --> 00:06:12,624 One of them was bigger than the other and one of them was faster than the other. 63 00:06:12,624 --> 00:06:14,628 They swim just like a human. 64 00:06:14,628 --> 00:06:17,633 They're long, overhand strokes. 65 00:06:17,633 --> 00:06:21,639 I tried to get one of them to look at me and the other run off and got out of the way 66 00:06:21,639 --> 00:06:23,642 and the other one there would look at me. 67 00:06:23,642 --> 00:06:28,971 I could have shot him but I wouldn't do it on the count of the wood and look at me. 68 00:06:28,971 --> 00:06:30,974 It looked too much like a human to me. 69 00:06:30,974 --> 00:06:35,983 A broad shoulder with arms signed down below its knees. 70 00:06:35,983 --> 00:06:38,987 Hands looked almost like a human. 71 00:06:38,987 --> 00:06:43,996 I don't like to talk about it because people don't believe what you say, what you've seen 72 00:06:43,996 --> 00:06:47,001 and I don't like to be called a liar. 73 00:06:47,001 --> 00:06:49,004 Nobody do. 74 00:06:52,009 --> 00:06:58,018 There are those who scoff at Ted Williams and say his story is beyond belief, beyond comprehension. 75 00:07:00,022 --> 00:07:05,030 The swamp is undeniably vast however and still largely unexplored. 76 00:07:09,036 --> 00:07:14,045 It could hide an incredible secret for a very long time. 77 00:07:23,059 --> 00:07:28,067 Ted Williams is not the only one to confess seeing something frightening in the swamp. 78 00:07:28,067 --> 00:07:33,076 While some still prefer to keep quiet, others have begun a systematic search for the creature. 79 00:07:33,076 --> 00:07:38,084 At this time we're well within the interior of Honey Island Swamp 80 00:07:38,084 --> 00:07:42,090 and you can tell by surroundings here it's a pretty desolate area. 81 00:07:42,090 --> 00:07:46,097 This is one of the main spots here that we're at now. 82 00:07:46,097 --> 00:07:53,108 When we came through going to the camp and we first encountered this creature was in this very area right here. 83 00:07:53,108 --> 00:07:59,118 Holland Ford is a retired air traffic controller who has lived near the swamp for 20 years. 84 00:07:59,118 --> 00:08:07,131 Going to the camp, pitching through this ravine right here is where we found where it had been leading off of this ridge 85 00:08:07,131 --> 00:08:10,136 coming right through this little ravine bottom on this wet ground 86 00:08:10,136 --> 00:08:17,147 and this is where we first found its tracks and it was watering about 50 yards over at this creek over here. 87 00:08:17,147 --> 00:08:22,156 And at no time did we find any tracks where it had gone in the water. 88 00:08:22,156 --> 00:08:27,164 But once we would get to this water's edge, just as a bear would do or something, 89 00:08:27,164 --> 00:08:34,175 then I guess it would let down the drink and that's when we would find the heavy-clothed front feet of this creature. 90 00:08:40,185 --> 00:08:47,196 One evening late, just about dusk dark, a friend of mine, we encountered eyes. 91 00:08:48,198 --> 00:08:52,205 There were a yellow or an amberish color and real wide apart. 92 00:08:52,205 --> 00:08:57,213 So, his friend of mine, Jim Hartzog, he took a gun and went into this area 93 00:08:57,213 --> 00:09:01,219 and to try to kill whatever it was. 94 00:09:01,219 --> 00:09:04,224 And he says that he came face to face with this thing. 95 00:09:04,224 --> 00:09:11,236 It looked something like an 8'7 foot tall and he fired on it with using an inline. 96 00:09:11,236 --> 00:09:15,242 He said when he did, the eyes went out. 97 00:09:15,242 --> 00:09:21,252 Probably what happened, it turned and ran and he shot at it one more time. 98 00:09:21,252 --> 00:09:27,262 But we went back the next day and checked for sign and blood, but we didn't find any. 99 00:09:27,262 --> 00:09:30,267 So, we figured Jim missed it that night. 100 00:09:30,267 --> 00:09:34,273 The last sign that we've had or anybody has had of this creature, 101 00:09:34,273 --> 00:09:40,283 and this is within the last four months, was on the sandbar where the thing crossed the river, 102 00:09:40,283 --> 00:09:45,291 crossed the sandbar and left footprints on it, and that was found by a member of the Louisiana Wildlife Fish Commission. 103 00:09:45,291 --> 00:09:49,298 And that's been the very last contact we've had with it in this area. 104 00:09:51,301 --> 00:09:53,304 Men are hunting the creature with guns. 105 00:09:53,304 --> 00:09:57,311 It seems unlikely the next encounter will be a peaceful one. 106 00:09:57,311 --> 00:10:01,317 If finally cornered, what will the creature do? 107 00:10:11,334 --> 00:10:17,343 Honey Island Swamp has been largely ignored by men and seemingly forgotten by time. 108 00:10:24,355 --> 00:10:32,368 Monster Hunter Harlan Ford is among those who believe a prehistoric relative of man may have been isolated here ages ago, 109 00:10:32,368 --> 00:10:38,378 developing in its own way, unmolested by the winds of evolutionary change. 110 00:10:40,381 --> 00:10:47,392 Ford is pressing his search deeper into the swamp, his walking where a few men before him have gone. 111 00:10:47,392 --> 00:10:52,401 Traditional scientists have largely ignored the reports of monster sightings. 112 00:10:52,401 --> 00:10:56,407 Ford hopes to come up with evidence that will change their minds. 113 00:10:59,412 --> 00:11:02,417 A track, obviously fresh. 114 00:11:02,417 --> 00:11:06,423 It resembles nothing that is known to inhabit the swamp. 115 00:11:07,425 --> 00:11:11,432 Clearly the track was not made by a man. 116 00:11:18,443 --> 00:11:22,449 Ford believes he must move deeper still into the swamp. 117 00:11:22,449 --> 00:11:27,458 Darkness is approaching, however, and Ford is a prudent man. 118 00:11:28,459 --> 00:11:35,471 The tracks ascribed to the monster give Louisiana State naturalist George Stevens a clue to its size. 119 00:11:36,472 --> 00:11:41,480 From what we can find out, from the tracks we've found in the woods, 120 00:11:41,480 --> 00:11:47,490 I would say that he's about, well, from the young to the old. 121 00:11:47,490 --> 00:11:54,502 It's hard to estimate how large the young are, but if something like this has a 10 or 12 inch track, 122 00:11:54,502 --> 00:12:00,512 and if he puts enough weight on that track to bury in the sand or the mud so deep, 123 00:12:00,512 --> 00:12:04,518 then you can estimate something about what he might weigh. 124 00:12:04,518 --> 00:12:09,526 So I'd say a full grown male adult probably would weigh better than 400 pounds, 125 00:12:09,526 --> 00:12:14,534 stand about 7, maybe 8 feet tall, and he almost completely covered with hair. 126 00:12:14,534 --> 00:12:22,547 A frightening picture, but it will take more than plaster casts of three-toed webbed feet to convince the skeptical. 127 00:12:22,547 --> 00:12:27,556 Michael Nehe has his own ideas of what the monster might look like. 128 00:12:27,556 --> 00:12:30,560 Nehe is a professional makeup artist in New Orleans. 129 00:12:30,560 --> 00:12:37,572 He was commissioned to study the available evidence on the creature and devise a model to match eyewitness accounts. 130 00:12:39,575 --> 00:12:43,582 The feet were constructed to exactly match one recent set of tracks. 131 00:12:52,596 --> 00:12:55,601 The face mask couldn't be as accurate. 132 00:12:55,601 --> 00:12:59,608 It does, however, match the descriptions of several eyewitnesses. 133 00:13:02,613 --> 00:13:08,623 We still don't know where the creature came from, how it has avoided man for so long, 134 00:13:08,623 --> 00:13:12,629 or how it survives in the hostile world of Honey Island Swamp. 135 00:13:12,629 --> 00:13:30,658 If a man can survive in the bayou without tools or fire, it follows that a man like creature can. 136 00:13:30,658 --> 00:13:35,667 Major Gavin Storter is an army ranger and specialist in swamp survival. 137 00:13:35,667 --> 00:13:41,676 We challenged him to spend some time in the bayou and evaluate his chances of lasting very long. 138 00:13:42,678 --> 00:13:48,688 As long as you can overcome your fear of it and try to understand what's there, 139 00:13:48,688 --> 00:13:57,703 usually have very little problems as far as the food sources go or negotiating, moving, or anything else. 140 00:13:57,703 --> 00:14:03,712 The biggest thing I would be concerned with would be the plant life. 141 00:14:04,714 --> 00:14:11,725 What plants could afford me an obstacle, or would afford me an obstacle, 142 00:14:11,725 --> 00:14:16,734 should I have to move around or try to move around after dark. 143 00:14:16,734 --> 00:14:26,750 I would also look for food sources, both animal and plant life, and the feasibility of catching animals. 144 00:14:34,763 --> 00:14:42,776 To live and remain healthy, you would have to spend almost all waking hours just like an animal, gathering food. 145 00:14:45,781 --> 00:14:51,791 Most of the plant life is edible if you can get it past your mouth. 146 00:14:51,791 --> 00:14:55,797 There's palm hearts, which are very good, very tasty. 147 00:14:55,797 --> 00:15:01,807 There's a lot of lily-tight plants that have large roots that are very edible. 148 00:15:01,807 --> 00:15:05,814 It tastes a lot like radishes or turnips. 149 00:15:08,818 --> 00:15:14,828 If the swamp monster does exist, it must have had a long time to adapt to its environment. 150 00:15:14,828 --> 00:15:19,836 Major storter's experience suggests that the creature would be omnivorous, 151 00:15:19,836 --> 00:15:24,845 including everything from ants to leaves to large animals in its diet. 152 00:15:32,858 --> 00:15:39,869 It is clear that only with great cunning and strength could a large creature endure very long. 153 00:15:39,869 --> 00:15:47,882 As far as the insect life goes, there would be a lot of insects that could be eaten. 154 00:15:47,882 --> 00:15:59,902 And animals are in abundance, both turtles, snakes, possums, armadillas, that could be captured and eaten. 155 00:15:59,902 --> 00:16:06,913 Major storter teaches that a man's inhibitions can be overcome, 156 00:16:06,913 --> 00:16:12,923 that whatever he needs for basic survival is available to him in the swamp. 157 00:16:30,952 --> 00:16:34,959 The monster would have no problem with squeamishness. 158 00:16:34,959 --> 00:16:42,972 It would, however, have to roam the swamp almost constantly in search of its next meal and would be roaming even now. 159 00:16:44,975 --> 00:16:50,985 The incessant need to hunt might explain the creature's apparently aggressive behavior. 160 00:16:51,987 --> 00:16:56,995 There are other large predators with which the monster would have to compete for food. 161 00:16:56,995 --> 00:17:02,003 It is difficult to imagine, however, that a creature supposedly eight feet tall 162 00:17:02,003 --> 00:17:06,009 and cunning enough to outwit humans would have natural enemies. 163 00:17:09,014 --> 00:17:17,027 Man alone seems capable of posing a serious threat to a creature as clever and aggressive as this one is supposed to be. 164 00:17:17,027 --> 00:17:19,031 Men are clever and aggressive too. 165 00:17:19,031 --> 00:17:24,039 The threat becomes more real as interest in the swamp mystery increases. 166 00:17:28,045 --> 00:17:31,050 Nature's balance is delicate. 167 00:17:31,050 --> 00:17:36,058 So far, however, only a few men have penetrated deeply into Honey Island's swamp. 168 00:17:36,058 --> 00:17:40,065 Man and monster are not in direct competition for food. 169 00:17:46,075 --> 00:17:53,086 It is possible to assume that as men slowly encroach on the swamp, these legendary creatures will be in retreat. 170 00:17:58,094 --> 00:18:03,103 There are those who have reason to believe that someday someone will get hurt. 171 00:18:04,104 --> 00:18:09,112 My wife and I were going on a fishing trip about four years ago. 172 00:18:09,112 --> 00:18:20,130 At about nine o'clock that night, I heard this peculiar noise that screamed out down the river, I'd say, a half a mile away. 173 00:18:21,132 --> 00:18:26,140 Perry Ford and his wife were about to spend the most terrifying night of their lives. 174 00:18:26,140 --> 00:18:32,150 My wife wanted me to build a farm, so I was out gathering up wood to build a big farm. 175 00:18:32,150 --> 00:18:36,156 And it screamed again. This time it was closer. 176 00:18:36,156 --> 00:18:41,165 I'd say it was maybe 300 yards from us this time. 177 00:18:41,165 --> 00:18:44,169 It's really, really scary. 178 00:18:44,169 --> 00:18:53,184 It's really, really scary. It really scared me. I tried to let it know it scared me, you know, but so I went ahead and kept on building fires. 179 00:18:53,184 --> 00:18:57,191 And less than ten minutes later it squalled again. 180 00:18:57,191 --> 00:19:00,196 And this time it was right on top of us, you know. 181 00:19:06,205 --> 00:19:09,210 It almost shook the leaves off this reason. 182 00:19:14,218 --> 00:19:17,223 It was a very scary moment. 183 00:19:28,241 --> 00:19:34,251 Who or what was it that terrorized the Ford that night in the swamp? No one really knows. 184 00:19:36,254 --> 00:19:41,262 If we are on a collision course, man and monster, then it will be tragic for both. 185 00:19:41,262 --> 00:19:48,274 It would be a pity if it took such a tragedy to finally solve the mystery of the Honey Island monster. 186 00:19:53,282 --> 00:20:00,294 Mankind may have evolved from a swamp like this eons ago. Perhaps we left the part of ourselves behind. 187 00:20:00,294 --> 00:20:03,298 I know what I saw and I know what we got on. 188 00:20:03,298 --> 00:20:09,308 And since then we don't sleep in that camp without a nylon rope on the door without a loaded gun. 189 00:20:10,310 --> 00:20:17,321 From my standpoint, I'll relate it just like it is and if people believe it, they believe it. If they don't, they don't. 190 00:20:17,321 --> 00:20:20,326 We can't control what people think. 191 00:20:20,326 --> 00:20:23,331 But whatever it is, it's still in there. 192 00:20:24,333 --> 00:20:34,349 You can take and walk in there today and where you walk at today and there I would say that there are spots in there and no man has ever walked on before. 193 00:20:34,349 --> 00:20:42,362 It's that remote. And therefore that whatever this is that exists, I don't say it's a monster. I don't know what it is. 194 00:20:42,362 --> 00:20:54,382 But whatever this is, if it prowls and continues to prowl at night in a swamp area this huge, it could stay in there another 200 or 300 years and not be located. 195 00:20:55,383 --> 00:21:06,401 It is easier to explain the existence of a hitherto unknown creature in Honey Island Swamp than to understand the apparent indifference of scientists to evidence and eyewitness accounts. 196 00:21:07,403 --> 00:21:13,413 What is needed is a thorough, objective search for the man-like creature that has been reported here. 197 00:21:13,413 --> 00:21:19,422 It will not further our progress to turn our backs on what may well be our past. 198 00:21:19,422 --> 00:21:26,434 Up next, in Search of continues inside England's haunted castles. 199 00:21:26,434 --> 00:21:32,444 Then, pressure to be an instant hero takes a flyer towards a breakdown in the Black Sheep Squadron. 200 00:21:32,444 --> 00:21:37,452 But stay tuned now for in Search of, here on the History Channel, where the past comes alive.