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| Lyle at Twelve Mile Bayou |
Whether you've seen him on Monsters & Mysteries in America, heard him on Coast to Coast AM, or read one of his previous books on the subject, odds are you've ran across cryptid hunter Lyle Blackburn. We asked Lyle what he thinks may be going unseen in southwest Louisiana.
O7: First of all, Lyle,
you're a Texas native, correct?
LB: Correct. I was born
in Fort Worth and I’ve lived in the Fort Worth or Dallas areas all my life. My father’s family is from a town in far East
Texas, so we often had family reunions near Louisiana. I was also fortunate to have a family that
like hunting and camping so I was able to experience much of the outdoors in
Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.
O7: We are always
interested in takes on cryptids in southwest Louisiana from the vantage point
of cryptid researchers. Have you had the opportunity to investigate this kind
of phenomena in our area? Do any Louisiana sightings make it into your new
book, Beyond Boggy Creek?
LB: I have several sections in the book which cover the history
and modern sightings of bigfoot-like creatures in Louisiana. Some of the more prominent areas include the eastern
portion along the Sabine River, eastern Caddo Lake, bayous near Alexandria,
Zwolle, St. Martin and Rapides Parishes, Atchafalaya Swamp, and Honey Island
Swamp, among others. The reports come
from a variety of people such as average citizens, loggers, truckers, hunters,
and even a police officer. With the vast
amount of wooded areas, boggy bottoms, rivers, and inland swamps, Louisiana seems
to be a perfect place to hide unknown creatures, and not surprisingly, there’s
lots of credible reports coming from there.
I’ve personally investigated parts of Louisiana myself, such
as the southern Sabine River, Caddo Lake, Twelve Mile Bayou, and Honey Island
Swamp. In these cases I’ve interviewed
witnesses and gone into the deep bayous or remote woods to have a look for
myself. The Honey Island Swamp Monster
is perhaps the most famous of cryptid tales from Louisiana, but there’s many
other dramatic creature sightings which have taken place in the Bayou State
over the years.
O7: A couple years ago,
we had a gentleman in Vernon Parish send us a picture of what he described as a
Sasquatch ducking out of sight as he was hunting along a pipeline. Do the
majority of your reports seem to come from hunters, campers, or people simply
carrying out their lives at the peripheral of the woods?
LB: Reports generally come from people who are driving through
rural areas, working or living in rural areas, along with hunters, hikers, and
campers. In other words, people who are
closest to the areas where creatures such as these would presumably live.
O7: We've talked to
researchers in the past (Ken Gerhard, Chester Moore, and Michael Mayes, another
native Texan about to put out a book on mysterious big cat populations) who
believe that Sasquatch is, for the most part, an undiscovered biological
creature that has found a way to elude study. Over time, have you come to this
same conclusion? Or do you believe Sasquatch is something else entirely
(something interdimensional or possibly extraterrestrial)?
LB: Like my colleagues you mention here, I also operate under
the premise that these are flesh and blood creatures who have thus far managed
to remain elusive.
O7: In the past, we've
published old articles and stories we've found related to what appears to be
reptilian creature sightings associated with the Sabine River area between
Texas and Louisiana. Have you had a chance to look into any sort of high
strangeness occurring at our border?
LB: I’ve heard a few reports of reptilian humanoids - or
“lizardmen” as they’re often referred to - in the Sabine River area. I recall one from the 1980s in which a
witness reportedly saw a creature like this in a swamp between Phoenix Lake and
the Sabine. I wrote a book about the
famous Bishopville Lizard Man case of South Carolina, so I’ve looked into these
sort of cases at length. To me, they are
even more difficult to rectify due to the bizarre nature of a humanoid with
reptilian features. I’m not quite sure
what these creatures are, but there’s no doubt people believe to have seen such
things. The lizardmen type cryptids are
really fascinating to me, maybe because I’m such a big fan of the movie Creature From the Black Lagoon. It’s like a real life version of the monster
stalking the swamps of modern day America.
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| Beyond Boggy Creek |
O7: Finally, Beyond Boggy
Creek is available at Amazon and other online retailers, including your site,
lyleblackburn.com. Is there anything else the southwest Louisiana audience
needs to know about your work?
LB: I think anyone who’s interested in sightings of unknown
creatures in the South will appreciate Beyond
Boggy Creek. It takes in-depth look
at the history of bigfoot sightings all across the Southern U.S., with
sightings that date back to the 1800s all the way up to modern day. I think people in Southwest Louisiana will
find the sections on the “Sabine Thing” and “Monster Central” particularly
intriguing since those deal with that exact area.
