Georgia

1Bigfoot in Georgia Investigated report

Ape-like · Statewide; north Georgia mountains lead · first reported BFRO database

Georgia's upright ape reports belong to the main Bigfoot dossier. The BFRO lists about 144 Georgia reports, led by White County with 11 and Paulding with 9. Below are investigated accounts from the far northwest corner and the mountains above Helen.

Full story: Bigfoot →

• February 2020Investigated report Wesley Morris and his wife, driving Highway 11 south of Trenton in Dade County, nearly hit something that rose out of the roadside ditch twenty or thirty feet ahead. Its head was level with the roof of their SUV, and he said its chest alone filled the window. BFRO's founder investigated. Source: bfro.net
• October 2003 to 2006Investigated report A deer hunter and a friend on Pigeon Mountain near LaFayette reported repeated high-pitched screams, wood knocks and thrown sticks, always in early fall. The hunter blamed a nearby clearcut for pushing something onto his land. An investigator found the activity still going three years later. Source: bfro.net
• 1990, revisited 2006Investigated report Five friends camping near Helen saw a silhouette stand on a ridge and cross a huge distance in one silent leap. The witness, who judges livestock weight for a living, put it at eight feet and about 550 pounds. In 2006 he found a strange smell and a sapling twisted at ten feet. Source: bfro.net

Visiting: Expedition: Bigfoot! The Sasquatch Museum, Cherry Log, GA.

2Elkins Creek Footprint Cast On the record

Ape-like · Elkins Creek near Zebulon, Pike County · first reported February 1997

In February 1997 a farmer near Zebulon showed a Pike County deputy five footprints pressed into fine silt beside Elkins Creek. The deputy first suspected local moonshiners trying to scare the farmer off his land, but he cast the clearest print. It measured seventeen and a half inches long and eight and a half across the ball, with well-defined, deeply curled toes. A latent print examiner who studied primate skin ridges later said it was one of a small number of casts showing ridge detail he could not match to a known animal. A university anatomist separately noted ape-like features. Footprint casts as a class have a mixed record; Florida's giant penguin tracks, for example, were made with iron feet.

• February 1997On the record A Pike County deputy cast one of five prints in creek silt on a farm near Zebulon. The cast, about seventeen and a half inches long, was later studied by a dermal-ridge examiner and an anatomist, who each reported features they found hard to explain. Source: cliffbarackman.com

3Bigfoot in the Freezer Proven hoax

Ape-like · Clayton County area; body claimed from the north Georgia mountains · first reported August 2008

In August 2008 a Clayton County police officer and a used-car salesman announced that they had found a dead Bigfoot in the north Georgia mountains. They claimed it was seven feet seven inches tall and over five hundred pounds, and said it was in a chest freezer. They promoted it on national radio and held a press conference, sticking to the story under tough questions. Then an investigator thawed the block. The hair melted into a ball and a rubber foot appeared near the bottom. It was a Halloween gorilla costume stuffed with roadkill and animal parts, and the costume's maker recognized his product. The story collapsed within about a week.

• August 2008Proven hoax After the body was thawed, the investigator found a rubber foot inside. CNN reported that the supposed Bigfoot was a costume, ending a claim that had drawn national attention for days. The two promoters had insisted it was real until the thaw. Source: cnn.com

4Altamaha-ha Told story

Water monster · Mouth of the Altamaha River, Darien, McIntosh County · first reported Muscogee tradition; modern sightings · also called Altie

Georgia's river serpent, nicknamed Altie, is said to live in the tidal creeks and old rice fields where the Altamaha River meets the sea near Darien. The town presents it as a legend that predates English colonists, rooted in Lower Muscogee Creek tradition. Modern witnesses describe a long, dark body in the water. Others mention strange hissing near Fort King George. Some researchers suggest alligator gar, which grow large and look odd at the surface. Darien embraces the legend, and a sculpture by paleoartist Rick Spears greets visitors at the welcome center.

• March 2018Proven hoax A strange carcass on Wolf Island near Darien was widely reported as a dead Altamaha-ha. Performance artist Zardulu later said it was a stuffed shark with a papier-mache head. The episode shows how easily carcass photos can be faked, and it says nothing either way about the older river stories. Source: en.wikipedia.org

Visiting: Altie sculpture at the Darien Welcome Center, 1074 Magnolia Bluff Way, Darien.

5Wog of Nodoroc Told story

Beast · Nodoroc, east of Winder, Barrow County · first reported Settler accounts; printed 1914

Nodoroc was a real oddity: a bubbling mud bog east of Winder that gave off foul gas and sometimes caught fire, sending up black smoke. Settlers called it a lake of hell, and tradition says the Creeks used it for executions. Its guardian was the Wog. G.J.N. Wilson described it in his 1914 Early History of Jackson County from old settlers' accounts. It was jet black and about the size of a small horse, with front legs longer than the hind ones, so it moved in a hunch. It had red eyes, a forked tongue and white teeth its lips never covered. Its heavy, white-tipped tail swished so hard it could be heard in the dark. The bog later blew out and went quiet.

Visiting: The Nodoroc site is on private land with no marker.

6Old Green Eyes Told story

Humanoid · Chickamauga Battlefield, Fort Oglethorpe, Catoosa and Walker counties · first reported Associated with the battle of September 1863 · also called Green Eyes

Chickamauga, one of the bloodiest battlefields of the Civil War, has a guardian with glowing green eyes. Two versions run side by side. In one, Green Eyes is a beheaded soldier still searching the field for his body. In the older and darker one, he is something that lived on that ground long before the battle and was woken by it. That version gives him long, dirty hair, a mangled jaw and fangs. The most-repeated modern story has a driver on the park road at night who sees two green lights floating like headlights. He runs his truck into the ditch. Park staff and neighbors reportedly told of encounters in the 1970s. Chattanooga's tourism office still features him.

7Fort Mountain and the Moon-Eyed People Told story

Humanoid · Fort Mountain State Park, Chatsworth, Murray County · first reported 1797 (legend in print); marker 1968

On top of Fort Mountain runs a long, old stone wall whose builders are not known for certain. A 1968 historical marker in the state park mentions one old explanation: the moon-eyed people, a light-skinned folk said to see poorly by day, whom Cherokee tradition reportedly placed in the mountains before the Cherokee. The legend was first printed by Benjamin Smith Barton in 1797. Historians say much of its racial detail was added by European writers rather than coming from the Cherokee. Others have proposed that the story recalls an earlier people, such as the Adena culture. The museum in Murphy, North Carolina, holds the famous moon-eyed statue.

Visiting: Fort Mountain State Park, Chatsworth, GA: the wall and marker are on a public trail.

8Hogzilla On the record

Beast · Alapaha, Berrien County · first reported June 17, 2004

On June 17, 2004, Chris Griffin shot a huge hog on Ken Holyoak's property near Alapaha in south Georgia. Early claims said it was twelve feet long and over a thousand pounds, and a photo made it famous. Many people assumed it was exaggerated or faked. In 2005 National Geographic exhumed the remains for a forensic study. The scientists found a real but smaller animal, about 800 pounds and between seven and eight and a half feet long. DNA showed a cross between a wild boar and a domestic Hampshire pig. The tusks measured about 28 and 19 inches. It is the rare case where a monster was real but smaller than claimed. Experts still called it exceptionally large.

• 2005On the record A National Geographic team dug up the buried hog. Measurements put it at about 800 pounds and seven to eight and a half feet long, and DNA showed it was a wild boar and Hampshire hog hybrid. The result trimmed the legend but confirmed the animal. Source: en.wikipedia.org