The Honey Island Swamp Monster
The lore of Louisiana has always included reference to the swamps. These humid, soggy environments are interspersed throughout much of the southeastern United States. They host many beasts—snakes, alligators, bugs, you name it—and, according to the lore, are home to mysterious monsters.
The Honey Island Swamp Monster is one such myth. Legend says a giant primate-like creature with gray hair and yellow eyes haunts this area of the bayou. The creature is supposedly the offspring of escaped circus chimpanzees that mated with the local alligators. Thankfully, its supposed victims have all been non-human, the primary casualty being a wild boar.
Cryptozoology aside, Honey Island Swamp does have an otherworldly ambiance. Somehow, the marshy surroundings feel both very earthy (you are, after all, surrounded by muddy water) and ethereal, especially when the light flickers through the trees while the silence swells and pulses over the water, interrupted only by the soft humming from bugs and the occasional splash of an oar.