As the state of Louisiana is suffering from another hurricane, please donate what you can, and also tourism helps, so give Louisiana a visit sometime.
New Orleans is known for ghost tours , voodoo folklore and the spirit of the city, but a trip to the big easy could also include werewolf and Sasquatch watching.
There have been numerous bigfoot sightings throughout the state of Louisiana through the years, and you can even search for it (“The Thing, or “Wookie” as nicknamed by the locals) at the Honey Island Swamp Tour. In fact, mention sasquatch sightings during any swamp tour, and your tour guide may have a story or two.
There have also been reported sightings at Cotton Island in Northern Rapides Parish , near Goldonna in Natchitoches Parish, and also in Alexandria, which was reported by the local paper Alexandria Daily Town Talk in 2001. These sightings date back to the 1960s. Another “cryptid” in the area dates back to the 1880s with the “Wild Girl of Catahoula.”
Meet the Rougarou, Louisiana’s mythical werewolf. The Rougarou origin story dates back to medieval France, and is the subject of Seth Breedlove and Small Town Monsters latest film “Skinwalker: The Howl of the Rougarou,” which comes out Sept. 14. Now what residents have seen through the years is debatable, but could they have mistaken bigfoot for a wolf, or a werewolf?
“We spoke to one witness in particular who said that what he’d encountered was a Bigfoot, but he didn’t realize it at that time because he’d never heard of Sasquatch,” said Breedlove. “He had heard of the Rougarou, so when he told people about his encounters, he told them that he’d had a brush with Rougarou.”
If you aren’t werewolf hunting, and need a refreshing drink that comes with a ghostly, glowing collector’s cup, stop by Bourbon Street and try the “Resurrection” at “Spirits In Bourbon.” If cryptid investigating isn’t your cup of tea, there’s always plenty to do in the state, but watch out for the wild life.
“Alligators, snakes, water , other than those three elements there’s nothing particularly spookier about Louisiana than any of the other locations we shoot, “Breedlove said. “When you’ve got 12 foot long alligators waiting to annihilate you in every swamp you step foot in it changes the game. Seriously, though, just the history of the area and the fact that some of the outlying coastal areas are disappearing adds a unique layer of spookiness. A lot of those places almost seem like giant ghost forests, such as the area around the infamous Bayou Sale road; the most haunted road in Louisiana.”
-By MIKE DAMANTE
If you are a fan of Small Town Monsters, check out Mike Damante’s latest book “Punk rock and UFOs: Stranger Than Fiction” that features interviews with Seth Breedlove, folklorists, and others., as well as Leslie Kean, Kevin Day, Tom DeLonge, Sean Cahill and many more. Order here.