Creepy Legends From The Swamps Of Louisiana
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Voodoo Priestess Julia Brown Wrought Havoc With A Hurricane
Photo: JamesDeMers / Pixabay / Public DomainLess than an hour northwest of New Orleans lies the Manchac wetlands, known for eerie stories about its residents. The most legendary of these locals is the ghost of Julia Brown, sometimes called Julia Black or Julia White. Records indicate a woman named Julia Brown did live in the area after moving from New Orleans, but her legend may have been embellished by the addition of stories about her work as an alleged voodoo priestess.
Since she lived in a small, remote town, Brown most likely used her voodoo knowledge to provide medical and midwife services to the residents, and stories claim she had experience with curses and all kinds of charms. Townsfolk noted Brown often sat on her porch and sang, sometimes singing the line, "One day I'm going to die and take the whole town with me." It was reportedly on the day of her funeral in 1915 that a powerful hurricane struck Louisiana that swept away around 300 people and wiped out several towns. Legends attribute this storm to a curse from Brown's song and claim she now haunts the swamp where she met her end.
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Many Consider Bayou Sale Road To Be The Most Haunted Street In The State
Photo: Pxhere / Pxhere / Public DomainBayou Sale Road, AKA LA-57, runs from Dulac to Cocodrie and passes through a wide area of swamp. In addition to scary twists and turns in the road, stories claim many ghosts and even rougarou reveal themselves to those passing through. Wrecks on the dangerous road may account for the abundance of ghosts in the area.
One of the most famous stories to come out of Bayou Sale Road is about a hitchhiker who refuses to leave the car that gives him a ride until the owners give him treasure or their souls. Other witnesses have claimed the hitchhiker had a transparent appearance or disappeared before he got in the car. Drivers passing through have also witnessed a ghostly woman holding out her hand, seen faces of spirits, and felt an engulfing presence that made their skin crawl.
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The Vengeful Fifolet Guard Buried Pirate Treasure
Photo: Pxhere / Pxhere / Public DomainAccording to legends, pirates often used the dark, murky swamps of Louisiana to safely bury their treasure where no one would find it. Famed pirate Jean Lafitte used this method of saving his booty, but stories add he also slew one of his men and buried the body with the treasure. This ensured the man's soul bound itself to the area and the hole's valuable contents. Stories claim such a spirit turns into a floating light called a fifolet; certainly a spooky sight in the middle of a dark swamp. Those who claimed to have witnessed a fifolet said it emitted a blue glow, a vengeful presence, and sometimes led swamp visitors off to parts unknown so they couldn't find their way back.
One famous fifolet story involves two men who saw one and decided to follow it and dig up the treasure it guarded. One man grew greedy and knocked his companion out to take the treasure for himself. Unfortunately, he suddenly began to sink along with the treasure and woke his friend up with his screaming. The other man ran off and later returned to find the ground hardened and no trace of his friend.
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The Ghostly Residents Of Devil's Swamp Go After Cars
Photo: Max Pixel / Max Pixel / Public DomainThe area known as Devil's Swamp near the town of Thibodaux allegedly contains some ghostly residents. Whether they were once people trying to cross the area's train tracks and a train hit them or they are the spirits of enslaved people who perished in the surrounding plantations, stories claim many paranormal happenings occur around the area. According to legends, people who park their cars on the train tracks will be targeted by ghosts that hit and rock the vehicle.
Some witnesses said handprints appeared on their windows after they mysteriously fogged. Cars don't even have to intentionally park since stories also claim vehicles stall once they reach the middle of the train tracks. However, considering the area is currently a Superfund site and deemed extremely hazardous thanks to chemicals, the toxic sludge in the ground may be scarier than the ghosts.
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The Frenchtown Road Devil Cult May Have Claimed A Railroad Overpass
Photo: Patrick Feller / Flickr / CC BY 2.0Many enthusiasts of all things spooky around Baton Rouge know about Frenchtown Road. It's now part of the Frenchtown Road Conservation Area, but at one point, people used to travel there at night just to be scared. As the road goes deeper into the forest, trees are all that drivers will see; trees that grow close together and become almost like a wall, making the road even darker. In the middle of the forest, extending over the road, lies a train trestle that visitors have covered with graffiti.
Satanic symbols, like pentagrams, adorn the sides of the trestle, leading to rumors Satanic groups gather together in surrounding areas. Visitors have claimed to see people watching them along the side of the road and feared being taken and possibly slain if they continued to follow the road. Other stories claimed Satanic groups hung their targets from the trestle and might do so again, adding their souls to the ghostly beings allegedly haunting the area.
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Giant Water Creatures Like The Altamaha-ha May Lurk Below The Swamps
Photo: Max Pixel / Max Pixel / Public DomainStories about the Altamaha-ha, AKA "Altie," date back to at least the 1800s, mostly stemming from the folklore of Georgia and the Lower Muskogee Creek Tribe. According to legend, the body of the Altamaha-ha resembles a sturgeon with a head like an alligator, with sharp teeth and large front flippers. Witnesses claimed it measured from 20 to 30 feet long, leading them to first assume the creature was a giant snake.
People have been reporting Altamaha-ha sightings ever since. Some creature enthusiasts believe Altamaha-ha may have traveled to Louisiana at some point and might be hanging out in the bayous. According to a vacationing family, an Altamaha-ha-like creature paid them a visit while jet skiing in the southeastern part of the state. If that's not creepy enough, it's also possible a 50-foot-long alligator known as a DinoGator lurks in the bayou waters as well.
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Medieval Werewolves Called Rougarou Take Children And Enforce Lent
Photo: Patrick hutton / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0Adapted from the French word for werewolf, "loup-garou," rougarou roam the southeastern Louisiana bayous. These fearsome creatures resemble a wolf or dog and, according to French legend, enjoy kidnapping children, terrorizing homes, and committing other vile acts. People who moved from France to America brought the story of this creature with them, and it became part of Cajun legend. Stories claim people turn into rougarou due to a curse that can pass from person to person once blood is drawn.
Although some locals believed rougarou were real, others took advantage of the terrifying story to scare their neighbors, especially children. Parents sometimes told children a rougarou would come carry them off if they didn't behave or mind their elders. Religious people also used the idea of rougarou to scare Catholics into observing Lent. Stories claimed those who failed to abstain from temptations or fast during Lent would turn into rougarou themselves. According to stories, people can fend off rougarou by placing 13 objects outside their home since the creatures can't count to 13 and become confused.
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Skunk Apes Are The Bigfoots Of The South
Photo: Pxhere / Pxhere / Public DomainAlthough most reports of skunk apes come from Florida, these cousins to Bigfoot allegedly live all over the southern states, including Louisiana. As indicated by their name, skunk apes emit an offensive odor and are covered in brown fur with large, ape-like feet. Witnesses claim these creatures average about 6 feet in height, sometimes have glowing red eyes, allegedly go after animals, and have reportedly never harmed a human.
Local Louisiana skunk ape stories claim residents of Cotton Island in the central area of the state found hair and tracks that may have come from a skunk ape. A man driving near Trout in 2000 allegedly hit a large furry creature that damaged his car, but it vanished after being struck. Skunk ape sightings supposedly go all the way back to the 1850s, when a Louisiana newspaper article reported a tall, hairy wild man in the area.
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Alligator Children Known As Letiche Flip Over Boats
Photo: ivabalk / Pixabay / Public DomainAccording to Cajun folklore, the bayou creatures known as letiche could be many things. Some stories claim letiche are spirits of babies who passed before being baptized, similar to lutins. Stories stemming from Native American legends say these creatures are actually human children who, for some reason, separated from their families and were raised by alligators in the swamps. Without human parents to teach the children the ways of humans, letiche adapted to be more like alligators. Legends claim letiche live in the waters of the bayou and enjoy making mischief by flipping over the boats of those who pass by.
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Lutins Are Childlike Pranksters Who Tease Animals And Spoil Milk
Photo: logan1126 / Pixabay / Public DomainLike some other Cajun folklore creatures, lutins come from beliefs that originated in France. They are mischievous folk, often compared to imps or fairies, who like to play pranks and trick unsuspecting people. Legends claim they can control the weather, become invisible, and turn into animals. Lutins might cause property damage as they run through the bayous, hide objects and place them in different locations, and spoil perishable foods like cheese and milk. Stories claim a telltale sign a lutin has visited is waking to find your hair, or your horse's mane, braided.
As the stories of lutins passed from French into Cajun culture, people adapted them slightly. According to Cajun legend, lutins are actually the souls of children who passed before being baptized, forced to wander the Earth in limbo. This accounts for lutins' childish prankster tendencies, but it also makes them seem a lot darker and more sinister than their impish French counterparts.
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The Elusive Parlangua Is Half Man, Half Alligator
Photo: Pxhere / Pxhere / Public DomainIn the 1960s, Louisiana bayou residents discovered they were neighbors with yet another strange creature. After people pulled a car out of a swamp in Rapides Parish, they found something had devoured half the driver's body. Suspicion immediately turned towards an unknown swamp creature and rumors circulated about a half-man half-alligator monster roaming the area.
Locals named the creature the Parlangua, and according to stories, it soon made its way across the state. Fishermen and trappers claimed to see it hanging out in the southern part of Louisiana, and farmers blamed the creature for going after their livestock. What the difference is between a regular alligator causing chaos and eating cows and a man-shaped alligator doing to same isn't clear, but it's still pretty terrifying.
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The Louisiana Wookie Is A Yellow-Eyed Swamp Monster
Photo: 3005398 / Pixabay / Public DomainIn 1963, Harlan Ford became the first person to spot the creature that came to be known as the Honey Island Swamp Monster. Ford and a hunting buddy encountered the tall, hairy beast in a swamp as it stood over a boar carcass. They also noted large footprints around the area that featured three webbed toes with claws. Sightings of the alleged relative to Bigfoot continued to pop up and people gave the beast the nickname "Louisiana Wookie" thanks to its resemblance of the famous Star Wars character.
According to one story that tried to explain the creature's existence, a group of chimpanzees escaped from a circus train after it wrecked and bred with alligators to create an entirely new species. Considering witnesses have claimed the creature emitted a horrible odor, it's possible they mistook a skunk ape for the Honey Island Swamp Monster.
