Louisiana

1Rougarou Told story

Humanoid · Acadiana and the bayous of south Louisiana · first reported French colonial era · also called Loup-garou, Roux-ga-roux, Rugaroo

The rougarou is Louisiana's werewolf. The name is a local form of the French loup-garou, and it is spelled many ways, including roux-ga-roux and rugaroo. Most tellers give it a human body and the head of a wolf or dog, prowling swamps, cane fields and woods at night. Folklorists stress that it is rarely a plain villain. In Cajun tradition it is a cursed person trying to pass the curse on by drawing someone's blood, often said to last 101 days. One version hunts Catholics who break Lent. Another says you can protect a house with thirteen small objects by the door, because it cannot count past twelve. Elders used it to keep children close to home after dark.

Visiting: Rougarou Fest, a free October festival run by the South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center in Houma, supports coastal conservation.

2Honey Island Swamp Monster On the record

Ape-like · Honey Island Swamp, St. Tammany Parish · first reported 1963

The Honey Island Swamp lies along the Pearl River on the Mississippi line. Its monster entered the record in 1963, when Harlan Ford, a retired air traffic controller who had turned to wildlife photography, said he saw it. Witnesses describe a seven-foot, upright creature with grey hair, yellow or red eyes and a terrible smell. In 1974 Ford and Billy Mills reported odd tracks and a wild boar with its throat torn open. The plaster casts are unusual because they show four toes, not five like a primate. After Ford died in 1980, Super 8 film was found among his things. Local lore blames chimps that escaped a circus train wreck. Ecologist Paul Wagner found only anecdotes and possible forgeries.

• 1974On the record Harlan Ford and Billy Mills said they found strange footprints in the swamp along with a wild boar whose throat had been gashed. Casts from the period show four toes, which supporters see as unique and critics see as a sign of fakery. Source: en.wikipedia.org

Visiting: Several swamp tour companies on the Pearl River offer themed Honey Island tours.

3Letiche Told story

Humanoid · Bayous of south Louisiana, especially the Atchafalaya Basin · first reported Recorded by 1941

The letiche is one of the saddest figures in Cajun lore. It is described in two ways. In one, it is the spirit of an unbaptized child born outside marriage. In the other, it is a human child raised by alligators in the swamp. Either way, it lurks in the bayous, tips over boats and attacks travelers. Some modern retellings give it pale skin, webbed fingers and gill slits, but the older sources are much simpler. The 1941 guidebook Louisiana: A Guide to the State mentions it, and later monster guides repeat the story. Folklorists connect it with Catholic beliefs about unbaptized children, the same root as the feu follet. No sightings are attached to it.

4Feu Follet Told story

Lights · Swamps and marshes of south Louisiana · first reported French colonial era · also called Fifolet, Fool's Fire

Feu follet means fool's fire, the Louisiana name for a will-o'-the-wisp. People crossing marshes at night reported small floating lights that drifted ahead of them, darted around passersby and led them off the path. Folklorists record many beliefs about them. The most widespread holds that feux follets are the souls of unbaptized children, held on earth in a kind of limbo by Catholic teaching. They are often described as childlike and mischievous rather than evil, though they can get a person badly lost. The scientific explanation, also noted by Louisiana folklorists, is gas from rotting swamp plants catching fire. Many families still treat the lights as a warning sign.

5Cauchemar Told story

Other · Southwest Louisiana around Lafayette, St. Martinville and Sunset · first reported French colonial era; documented 1998 · also called Kooshma, Couchemal

The cauchemar, often written Kooshma, is the night visitor who sits on a sleeper's chest. People describe waking unable to move or cry out, sensing or seeing a presence holding them down or riding them. Witnesses have called it the devil, a ghost, an evil spirit or a witch, and it is often pictured as a woman. Morning signs include bridle marks on the face, exhaustion and leg cramps from being ridden. Folklorist Katherine Roberts documented living belief around Lafayette in 1998. Remedies include salt under the pillow, a broom in the corner, beans in a circle under the mattress and a fan in the window, because the visitor must count every hole. Medical writers link the experience to sleep paralysis.

6Lutin Told story

Humanoid · Southeastern Louisiana · first reported French colonial era

The lutin is a small, impish being from French Louisiana tradition. The word roughly means elf. Lutins show up in personal experience stories rather than long fairy tales. People say they braid horses' manes and ride the animals through the night, leaving them tired and tangled by morning. They also steal small things from barns and houses. Folklorists note that lutin stories cluster in southeastern Louisiana. They suggest the lutin may have blended with Choctaw traditions about the bohpoli, small forest beings of that region. The lutin is a prankster, not a monster. It is one of the older beliefs carried over from France and reshaped in the bayou country.

7Madame Grands-Doigts Told story

Humanoid · Cajun and Creole south Louisiana · first reported Traditional · also called Lady Long Fingers

Madame Grands-Doigts, Lady Long Fingers, is a Louisiana holiday figure. She belongs to the Christmas and New Year season. In some households she was a warning: behave, or the long-fingered lady would come for you. In others she was kind and left fruit and small gifts for children on New Year's Eve. Louisiana folklorists list her alongside La Christine, another gift-bringer whose name comes from the German Christkind. She shows how French Louisiana mixed bogey figures and gift-givers. The same character could scare children into good behavior and then reward them. She is a household tradition rather than something anyone reports seeing in the swamp.

8Grunch of Grunch Road Told story

Humanoid · Grunch Road area, Little Woods, New Orleans East · first reported Undated urban legend · also called Grunch Road Monster

New Orleans East has a monster with a wonderful name. Grunch Road was a shell-and-sand road off Hayne Boulevard in Little Woods. Teenagers dared each other to drive it at night. The Grunch is usually a small creature, three or four feet tall, with goat-like features, horns, leathery grey-black skin and glowing eyes. Some tellers say there is a pack of them and that they drain animals of blood. Origin stories range from a failed experiment to a creature tied to Marie Laveau. Some locals say the road is gone, while others say it can still be found. It is a classic local dare legend, and no dated sighting has been verified.

9Bigfoot in Louisiana Investigated report

Ape-like · Statewide; Rapides Parish and the Kisatchie country lead · first reported BFRO database

Louisiana's upright ape reports belong to the main Bigfoot dossier; the Honey Island creature has its own entry. The BFRO lists about 46 Louisiana reports, with Rapides Parish leading at 9. Recent Class A reports came from Calcasieu, Natchitoches and Sabine parishes.

Full story: Bigfoot →

• June 2023Investigated report The BFRO lists a close-range daylight road-crossing sighting by a local resident about eight miles west of Natchitoches, rated Class A. It is one of the most recent investigated sightings in the state and sits in the piney-woods region where Louisiana reports cluster. Source: bfro.net
• 1978Told story A reader writing to Country Roads Magazine described a sighting near Krotz Springs that was reported to police and covered by KATC. He said a Texas research team took footprint casts and hair that a lab could not match. We found no independent record of the case. Source: countryroadsmagazine.com

10Sea Serpents off the Mississippi Delta On the record

Water monster · Gulf of Mexico off the Mississippi River mouth, Plaquemines Parish · first reported 1889

The waters off the Mississippi River mouth produced two remarkable serpent reports in the age of steam. In 1889 Captain James P. Hare and the crew of the Trinity Shoal lightship reported a huge animal, rusty-black above and yellowish-white below, with large tusk-like teeth. They put its visible length at forty to fifty feet and said they killed it and cut off the head, though nothing more was recorded. In November 1901 Henry Neligan, third officer of the steamer Irada, reported a creature about a hundred feet long. It had a blunt square nose, spouts from its nostrils, fins and camel-like humps. He filed a report with the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office. Neither animal was ever identified.

• November 1889On the record The Los Angeles Daily Herald carried Captain James Hare's account from the Trinity Shoal lightship: a long, two-toned animal with tusk-like teeth, killed by the crew. The severed head was mentioned, but no specimen was ever reported to scientists or kept for study. Source: countryroadsmagazine.com
• November 23, 1901On the record Third officer Henry Neligan of the steamer Irada reported a serpent about one hundred feet long, some 120 miles southwest of South Pass, moving slowly east. He submitted an official report to the Navy Hydrographic Office. What came of it is unknown. Source: countryroadsmagazine.com

11Wild Girl of Catahoula On the record

Humanoid · Catahoula Parish · first reported Late 1800s

In the late nineteenth century newspapers repeatedly reported a mysterious wild girl living in the woods of Catahoula Parish in central Louisiana. Her footprints suggested a club foot, which became one of the few concrete details in the story. Some writers of the time guessed she was the abandoned child of a passing Romani woman. Her identity was never settled. The Wild Girl belongs to the same family of stories as Florida's Wild Man of Ocheesee Pond and Arkansas's Wild Man of the Woods. In such stories a hairy or feral figure may have been a real, lost person, and the press turned the person into a legend.

12Tainted Keitre Told story

Winged · Swamps and bayous of Louisiana · first reported Undated

The Tainted Keitre is one of the more obscure creatures on Louisiana monster lists. It is described as a large bird-like animal with bat-like wings and a long beak. Stories say it carries off livestock, frightens farmers and cannot be stopped by bullets. Unlike the rougarou or feu follet, it does not appear in the folklore collections of 64 Parishes or Louisiana Folklife that we checked. We found it only in one modern online guide to Louisiana creatures, with no dates, places or witnesses. It is included here so readers can recognize the name, but it should be treated as thinly sourced. A firm origin for the legend has not been established.