Today, I want to bring you tales of a creature that goes by many names such as Sasquatch, Bigfoot, Skunk Ape, Yeti and such. Tales of this huge creature have been seen all over the world in remote places. In the southeast corner of Georgia, Okefenokee has it’s own creature. Here are some true reports from the Okefenokee X-Files. Are you brave enough to read them?
A SWAMP THING
The Okefenokee Swamp was truly a land of mystery in June 1829, when the Milledgeville Statesman published a bizarre story about it. The tale was related by a John Ostean, “residing on the borders of this swamp in Ware County,” and others who lived on the opposite side in Florida. Locals had long heard from Creek Indians of an enchanted island inhabited by “mortals of super-human dimensions and incomparable beauty.” The story goes that two men and a boy had taken advantage of a long dry spell and pushed deep into the swamp for two weeks to seek this island. However, “their progress suddenly arrested at the appearance of the print of a foot-step so unearthly in its dimensions, so ominous of power, and terrible in form,” that they paused. The print was eighteen inches long and nine inches across, the stride of this giant over six feet. The party hastily returned and spread the tale of the “Man Mountain.”
Hearing the story, nine Florida hunters ventured into the swamp. After several days’ journey, they found a similar print and others. The men followed the tracks for several days and had camped on a ridge when two of their members “simultaneously discharged at an advancing and ferocious wild beast” whose screams made the swamp “reverberate with a deafening roar.” The creature came “full in their view advancing upon them with a terrible look… Our little band instinctively gathered close in a body, and presented their rifles. The huge being, nothing daunted, bounded upon his victims, and in the same instant received the contents of seven rifles. But he did not die alone; nor until he had glutted his wrath with the death of five of them, which he effected by wringing off the head from the body.” The four surviving men examined the prostrate giant as it died, “wallowing and roaring. His length was thirteen feet, and his breadth and volume of just proportions.” Fearing the struggle might have alerted similar beings; the men gathered their comrades’ guns and fled for home.
A BOY AND HIS BIG FOOT
This report was forwarded to the Georgia Swamp Ape Research Center, GSARC and detailed an encounter in the Okefenokee Swamp. While a fourteen-year-old boy and his family were camping on the West side at Stephen Foster State Park in 1972, the boy was walking along a waterway when he heard footsteps behind him, drawing closer. He assumed it was his siblings. “I figured they were going to scare me, and I decided to let them sneak up and I would jump out and scare them.” Moments later “a thing that looked like a cross between a chimpanzee and a little man” approached along the path. “It saw me and let out a sound like from hell,” then crouched down and nimbly sprung on the boy. “It knocked me down and tried to get its teeth in (to) my neck. I screamed. I thought I was dead.”
Fortunately, the youngster’s parents heard the scream and shouted back. “It raised up real slow and sniffed the air for a few seconds,” he continued. “Then it just got up and walked into the canal and swam across to the other side,” disappearing into the woods.
THE PIG MAN A.K.A. SASQUATCH SIGHTINGS
It has been many years since a sighting, but old swampers would call him the South Georgia Pig Man. Over the years reported sightings have persisted in and around the South Georgia swamp areas, especially deep in the remote recesses of the Okefenokee swamp.
Reports describe the creature as a large ape like being, that walks upright, has abundant hair and a nose similar to a pig. Observers have commented on a skunk like odor that has accompanied the sightings. There have been no reports of hostility or aggression, in fact the creature was referred to as timid and shy with sad expressive eyes.
These Okefenokee area sightings have many details in common with creature sightings documented in the Everglades. A very similar missing link referred to as the Florida Skunk Ape. Could it be possible these beings are related genetically?
Before development transformed Florida, these man like creatures might have migrated. One of their routes could have been by way of the Kissimmee River Valley up along the Lake Wales Ridge to the extensive game rich swamps associated with the St. John’s River Basin.
The migration would have passed right by what is today the city of Jacksonville onward to the Okefenokee and beyond.
Who knows? Maybe I’m related somehow in some fashion or form to this Pig Man? It could happen… we could have matching snouts.
I want to send huge hogs and snout kisses to my friends Steve, Jo and their black cat Tequila at Okefenokee. They gave me special permission to use their stories and pictures from the Okefenokee Pastimes Inc
Hello sweet friends. Today we continue our Travels in the South series with our friends Fozziemom and Fozziedad who visited all the way from Australia. Now this little piggy is jealous over today’s adventure. I think I could have had a ball roaming the grounds with everyone exploring the way they did. You see, on this day everyone visited Ft. Pulaski National Monument which is a national park near Tybee Island in Chatham County.
This is an aerial view of Ft. Pulaski National Monument courtesy of Ft. Pulaski 🙂 Thank you Ft Pulaski! Ft. Pulaski was going strong in the days of the American Civil War. It is over 5,000 acres consisting of tidal marshes and mud flats. There are canon and musket reenactments throughout the day. The park is open daily from 9AM to 5PM.
You can go throughout the yards either on a guided tour or you can venture around by yourself.
Your tour really starts when you park your car. The grounds are absolutely beautiful! You start down paths walking to the entrance and you also see the moat. Now, go ahead and raise your hands my friends.
How many of you want a moat around your house? I’m raising my piggy hoof. I think it would be kind of cool for sure. I bet back in the day they didn’t have solicitors knocking on their drawbridges – snorts with piggy laughter!
Now when everyone first got there, they heard loud noises that sounded like cannon shots. But, upon further investigation, mom/dad found out that actually it was from muskets being fired at a kind of show and tell. Even the guy shooting the musket, was dressed in attire from the Civil War days. Cool huh?
But after the shots of the musket, things were silent. Mom said that you could close your eyes, smell the musket from when it was fired, you could feel the wind blowing around you, the water hitting the moat and you could almost visualize life as it was in the fort. Mom might have said a moan from a soldier could also be heard. Was the place haunted?
The fort was built in 1861 and is still in remarkable condition. You do see some of the stonework falling inside of the casemates as you can see in the picture with the fireplace. But overall, it is still an overwhelming fort.
Some people – like Fozziemom and Fozziedad – climbed onto of the fort to get a better view and to take some amazing pictures over the wall looking out over the water. If you look closely at the picture with the cannon, those two specks at the top – that would be Fozziemom and Fozziedad the adventurers.
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And as Fozziemom was taking pictures, mom captured her in a picture of her own. This is Fozziemom in her glory, aimed and ready to shoot something fantastic.
So the question remains. Is Fort Pulaski haunted? Is it spooky – yes. Do you pick up “feelings” of days gone – yes. Mom said they could close their eyes and hear and picture in their minds the activity that happened once upon a time.
Since mom/dad have been back home, I’ve done a lot of research on Fort Pulaski. To my amazement, there have been many encounters with the unknown at the Fort over the years. There was a story about a mother and son visiting the fort that were crossing over the draw bridge to enter into the fort. They met a Confederate sentry dressed in uniform with his sword. They spoke to him about his outfit and the fort. The mother then inquired about a restroom and he advised that he could not leave his position to show her. She thanked the man and with her son she continued into the fort to ask about the restrooms. There she was advised that the restrooms were at the entrance. She became upset and told the man about the soldier she spoke to at the drawbridge. The man advised her that they had no soldiers dressed in Confederate uniforms at the fort.
Then there was a time that a group of Confederate reenactors placed a wreath at the graves in 1994. They then settled down for the night and camped out. During the night, a young 12 year old boy couldn’t sleep and was walking around the fort. Nearing the graves, he saw a figure of a Confederate soldier in uniform on his knees near the grave they had put the wreath. The soldier had his hat in his hand, then stood and faded away into the air.
Then during further research, I learned that an actor that you might have heard of did a movie at Fort Pulaski back in 2009. The movie was called The Conspirator and the actor was Robert Redford.
It’s up to you to decide if it’s haunted or not. Maybe someone needs to let the worker at the shop know that there has been some cases of mysterious sightings. It was definitely an adventure!
Yawns my friends – it’s been a LONG weekend. If you remember, last weekend I was suppose to go for my spa day. But due to the Snowmageddon weather, it got cancelled. I need my spa day desperately. Mom keeps calling me a street dog – I don’t get that. Do I look like a street dog in this picture?
I mean heck I’m fluffy and on and yeah my hair might be in my eyes and yeah I might need a bubble bath but a street dog? Really mom? So keep your fingers crossed for me dear friends that tomorrow I get to go and meet my friends at the Spa – and hopefully Fifi the cute little poodle will be there too. She’s adorable!
This week, I leave you with a spectacular toy that I got at Christmas. It was a fun toy. I say was because I’ve been taking lessons from my buddy Easy across the pond in toy destruction. I’m still in training and I have a long way to go but I’m getting there. Have fun with the video. Make sure you turn your sound up. The noise is fabulous. Even my mom LOVES that sounds constantly for hours. She always tells me, “Seriously Houdini?” I think I should get her one to play with too. What do you think?
Well that’s all for me my friends – yawns – I hope you had a wonderful week as well. Happy weekend!
Hello my dear friends – BARKS! Welcome to another week of my Paw Time with Houdini. This week has been exciting here at the Hotel Thompson. First up – I got a new bed – and who doesn’t like a new bed huh? You see I had a bed shaped like a crab but one night I had a dream and that bed miraculously exploded. Yep, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. This is my new bed. Looks kind of familiar huh? I already have a HUGE Kong size bed for my bedroom but this poochie bed is for the living room in front of the fireplace. Don’t all anipals have two beds for taking naps? BARKS – and let me tell you – it’s so comfy! The purr things have *tried* sleeping in it but I remind them really quick that they have beds and this one is mine and I marked it as such by rolling all over it and licking it.
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Tomorrow I have an appointment with my groomer. I haven’t been in a couple of months because of all of the holidays and mom/dad running around. So trust me, it is much, MUCH needed. I feel like Cousin Itt from the Adams Family – BARKS – don’t you just love that show? Bacon has been watching it on DVD and we just snort and bark at it all day long.
Hopefully next week you will see much better groomed. Mommy says that she can barely see my eyes – I hate that! And hopefully, FiFi the sweet poodle I met last time will be there too.
And yes, this is one of my new shirts. It says, “Yeah, I work out!” Barks! Too funny huh?
Well that’s all for me my friends – yawns – I hope you had a wonderful week as well. Happy weekend!
Well my friends, it’s been a tough week. I’ve seen mom more than last week and it is getting better but sometimes her nights are spent at work instead of where she belongs – with us anipals here at the Hotel Thompson. Doesn’t she know her priorities? Of course, she reminds us gently that she is working to keep us in kibbles and treats… so we tend to forgive her *some*.
With mom being AWOL, me and Bacon have been pounding the keyboards ourselves taking care of our blogging. I’ll tell you something my friends – this is hard work. Really think about it. Humans have fingers that are made for typing. I have paws and it’s hard – talking about typo’s – thank goodness for spellcheck. And my poor brother Bacon, he has hooves! But on the other paw, he has been doing this for so long that he has gotten kind of used to the pounding. And trust me when his creative juices get flowing, you don’t want to be around him – he’s a BEAR not a pig during those times – barks with puppy laughter.
In fact, during one of his water breaks he took this picture of me pounding on my keyboard working on some replies. A dogs job is just never done!
Well that’s all for me my friends – yawns – I hope you had a wonderful week as well. Happy weekend!
Barks! Oh my friends – what a busy two weeks we have had here at the Hotel Thompson and in blogville. Christmas is now behind us and the New Year has today started. The New Year with lots of great new beginnings and lots of memories to make and share.
There are so many things that we have coming up here at the Hotel Thompson. Me and Bacon have a new series coming up called Spotlight Thursday that you can’t miss. It’s where we interview friends – some you may know and some you will meet to make new friends. We hope you enjoy it!
Mom is also going to be highlighting a travel series that my cousins went on overseas. That way we can *all* live through them and their pictures – barks! And I’ve seen some pictures – OMD – they are fantastic for sure.
I want to leave you with a photograph that my mom did of me. She took the picture and used an app to ‘paint’ me from the picture. We all think it came out marvelous! In fact, I think my mommy is going to get it printed on canvas to hang in my bedroom. What do you think of it?
Mom was so impressed with the app that she did a ‘painting’ of our friends Shoko and Kali as well. Go check it out when you get a chance. It’s an amazing app and it was FREE – those are the words that my daddy seems to absolutely LOVE to hear these days. He mumbles about something about being broke after the holidays. I don’t know what that word broke means – it’s not in my puppy vocabulary – barks.
So my friends I leave you with a picture of me doing what I do best – sleeping on mom’s new fuzzy blankie. My mom/dad said that blanket would be comfortable and I’m hear to tell you – it really is! I cuddled up in it and passed out asleep.
So all I gotta say is that the pig can have his king sized Egyptian cotton sheet. I got mom’s new full sized fuzzy blankie – barks with puppy laughter!
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Well that’s all for me my friends – yawns – I hope you had a wonderful week as well. Happy weekend!
Oh our dear friends – MERRY CHRISTMAS!! At this time, all of us here at the Hotel Thompson would like to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas holiday. May your day be surrounded by the love of your family and friends. We love you all and wish you all of the happiness in the world!
Oh sweet friends – it’s almost Christmas – barks and runs around freaking out. Can you believe that? Santa is going to be here next week. I’m beyond excited for several reasons. One – gifts!! BARKS BARKS BARKS. Second – that pesky Don Juan will be GONE for another year. He has been really up to no good this year here at the Hotel Thompson.
But last night, I had a dream about him. It wasn’t bad – it was a happy dream. I dreamed that I finally caught him! Okay maybe not all by myself. But he was caught. Okay let me tell you about my dream.
My dream might have had something to do with the fact that we watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer last night. And it might have had something to do with the beef barbeque that mom fixed for dinner. Okay, Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself.
In my dream, it was me and Bumble the Abominable Snow Monster – see I have a special place in my heart for Bigfoot and Snow Monsters. We are super friends. There we were in the woods and it was snowing because hey that’s where Bumble the Abominable Snow Monster lives right. Well, we had a fire going and we were telling stories and having a grand time. That’s when that Don Juan showed up wanting to bash the party. Snorts – yeah he was the highlight of the party all right – barks with puppy laughter! How do you like your barbeque elf – rare, medium or well done?
Well that’s all for me my friends – yawns – I hope you had a wonderful week as well. Happy weekend!
Barks and squeals was what was happening this week here at the Hotel Thompson. In fact, we were *all* so excited. We received a package from the other side of the world – barks! It came from our friend Fozzie and the gang – Dinnermintz, Pickles, Forrest and Doc. Of course, daddy made us all wait until mom got home from the worky place to open the huge box.
But when we did – I think mommy squealed almost louder than any of us. Look at that beautiful picture in the upper right hand corner and the stunning post cards – oh my puppy heavens – mommy actually jumped for joy and danced around the kitchen. Aren’t humans weird?
Then all of us anipals got things from the package and we took off to explore with them – Bacon got some delicious apple chips (daddy says they were good – he ate one you know for product control review). I got a delicious chew stick – barks! It was delicious!! The purr things got some treats. And daddy got a cookie from that awesome Yorkie tin – beautiful!! Then afterwards, we all played with squeaky pig – not Bacon my silly friends – the pink piggy in the picture.
Fozzie you did way too much! We thank you so very much and now mommy can work on the project she has planned for those beautiful post cards 🙂
Oh and I told you we played with the pink pig – here’s proof that we LOVE it.
Well that’s all for me my friends – yawns – I hope you had a wonderful week as well. Happy weekend!
Oh my friends – I’ve heard of something new here this week at the Hotel Thompson. Okay, it may not be ‘new’ per say but we were having a conversation about it here. What is it? FRUITCAKE. We all got involved about fruitcake. Let me show you a picture I found:
Look delicious? This is how we feel about here at the Hotel Thompson.
Hemi: I wouldn’t bury it in my litter box.
Mouse Girl: Whatever – it means nothing to me.
Bacon: I’ll eat it. I love it!
Mom: Unless it’s been soaking in alcohol, nope not interested.
Dad: It makes a great door stopper.
Me: Look at all the pretty colors!
Now your thoughts about fruitcake. Yay or Nay?
Well that’s all for me my friends – yawns – I hope you had a wonderful week as well. Happy weekend!
Miniature pot bellied pig and friends - Bacon, Houdini, Hemi and all of the Rock Clan with Journalist Rocky the Squirrel all out looking for adventures from the Hotel Thompson.
en everyone first got there, they heard loud noises that sounded like cannon shots. But, upon further investigation, mom/dad found out that actually it was from muskets being fired at a kind of show and tell. Even the guy shooting the musket, was dressed in attire from the Civil War days. Cool huh? 
Piglove 
