The Nondescript

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
It was a hot summer day in 1868, when hunters and dogs chased a quarry through a southern swamp. The tracks were those of a human foot, but the toes were turned backward. 

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The hunting party had heard stories of strange creature seen in the swamps at twilight

Life in the village of Meadville, Mississippi was slow and boring, and the last thing hunters expected to come across was a creature reportedly seen in Vicksburg during the fall of the year before.

​The setting was the same, the dogs followed a trail a few miles from the Mississippi River. They started to bay, and when the hunters caught up with them, what they found was incredible. It was a man of average height, but well muscled. He had long, coarse hair hanging from his head to his knees, and long, large tusks protruding from its upper jaw. The hunting party gave chase once more as it ran towards the river. It killed one of the dogs with its tusk. The hunters shot at it, and then it jumped in the water, thrashed about calling out in a horrible bellow until it reached the Louisiana shore and disappeared. 

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The Vicksburg Story

Twenty-five miles from Vicksburg, near a small stream that emptied into the Mississippi River was an overgrown swamp that was filled with all kinds of game. It was a peculiar animal that left tracks that seemed to be going both ways at once. One foot pointed to the front and the other to the rear. More strange was the fact that the track measured 23 inches in length. The animal, if that is what it was, would been seen at twilight. It was described as:

​The being is about 8 feet high each eye as large as a hen's egg, with no nose and no upper lip, his two eye teeth as large as a man's thumb, extending down over his chin about 8 inches, his right foot points directly to the front and the left to the rear, and the measurement of the track is just 23 inches in length, his finger nails are perfectly hard and solid, and are about six inches long; the hair on his head, which is stiff and wiry, sweeps the ground as he walks and is parted in the rear and brought down in front on each side of his singularly-formed chest, which is not round or flat, but is angular like that of a fowl. The hair on the body of this singular being is very still and grows to the rear, parting at the angle of the breast bone, growing back and uniting with a long stiff growth on his spine which extends back about one foot like the spinal fin of a fish, or the bristles on the back of a boar, the hair on his arms is parted and grows in the same way, making a long thick brush on the back of the arms, extending from the shoulders to the point of his middle finger; the same peculiarity is observable on his legs.

New Orleans Republican 1868

What was the creature seen slogging through Mississippi swamps just after the Civil War?

​The people in the area said they had seen this unknown animal for several months, and that it would howl hideously. A bear hunting party, that brought 15 dogs went into the swamps mounted on horses. Soon they came upon the creature they called The Nondescript. It appeared human but a monster as well. It jumped into the river and swam across to the opposite bank where the party could not follow. 

Could this be the creature that would later be named the Honey Island Swamp Monster after it was sighted in 1963? It's described as being over 7 feet tall and weighing about 400 pounds. It has glowing yellow or red eyes and large webbed feet and reptilian hands with long claws.

There is also the Chatawa Monster, an ape-like creature sighted in the swamps around the town. It is tall and covered in shaggy, dark hair. Its odor can be detected from far off. It also has a piercing scream, and like the Honey Island Swamp Monster leaves a 3-toed print.

Prior to the Civil War, New Orleans' best families built their summer homes at Chatawa, which is located at the border of Mississippi and Louisiana. Many who came here to escape the threat of yellow fever in New Orleans, were officials of the Illinois Central Railroad. Another attraction was an artesian well that exists today.

After the end of the war Redemptorist priests bought land at Chatawa to establish a seminary and prep college. A portion of it was sold to the School Sisters of Notre Dame in 1879. They  established St. Mary of the Pines, which operated as a boarding school from 1884 to 1975.

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St. Mary's Institute at Chatawa, MS

The daughters of New Orleans families were sent to the school, and they told stories of seeing a large creature lurking at the edge of the school property.

There's a tale that after a circus train wrecked near the swamps, students at St. Mary saw an ape-like man swinging from the tree branches on the edge of the swamp. Authorities were called, and hunters searched the Tanipahoa  swamp, but found no sign of the creature.

Sam McKinney, a Chatawa historian said: "But in doing my research I find that similar legends exist all along the rail road track in areas north of here where they have a nearby swamp. In Canton, as far north as Cairo, Illinois."

According to McKinney he thinks the reports from the nuns and the students of seeing monkeys near the school are traced back to a place known as Kramer Lodge, named by the mayor of McComb, Xavier A. Kramer which had a wildlife preserve on the land. Among the exotic animals he kept were monkeys. During its heyday in the 1930s Huey Long, the president of Illinois Central, and the Red Cross among others would hold meetings and outings at the lodge.

In 1941, actress Maureen O'Hara married Will Price at the Chapel of St. Teresa at St. Mary's Institute in Chatawa.

There was another report of a highway patrolman who owned land in the area, and was plowing a field as twilight was fading. The tractor headlights caught a fleeting image of an upright, hairy creature ducking at the edge of his field into the wood. He never worked that field again by himself.

Others believe the story of the ape-man was invented by the older students at St. Mary's in order to scare the new students who were homesick, and had thoughts of running away back to New Orleans, however even the nuns had seen the creature.

Chatawa which was always rural, is now only composed of less than 100 people (as of 2000 census), with a post office and the artesian well across the tracks from the post office.

​In 2022, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge purchased the property that was once St. Mary's School and began operating it as Our Lady of Hope Retreat Center.

This leaves plenty of land and solitude for the Chatawa Monster to live peacefully in the swamps.

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