Bigfoot… The name immediately conjures images in our mind’s eye of tall, hairy beasts as much man as they are ape. If you are reading this, the chances are high that you, or someone you know, believe that they exist. According to recent polls, more than a quarter of Americans believe in the legendary, 7-foot-tall ape-man, but it isn’t just Americans who believe. There are over 50 variations of Bigfoot worldwide.
The Canadians call them Sasquash; Australians call them Yowie. In South America, the name is Mapinquari and Malaysians call them Orang Minyak. To the Russians, they are called Yeti and the Russian government has even funded expeditions to find them. The stories of Bigfoot vary slightly according to the culture and country, but the fact remains that people everywhere believe they exist. What makes the Bigfoot legend even more believable is that the stories seem to originate in individual cultures instead of from travelers swapping tales.
In the 1950s, an explorer named Eric Shipton took pictures of what he labeled as Yeti footprints and those photos went worldwide, not as a creation of the beast, but as validation to people around the globe who already told tales of their existence.
Chatawa is a small southwestern Mississippi community, first settled in 1817. It lies on 1-55South, in Pike County. The name Chatawa comes from the Choctaw language and means“hunting ground”. Over the years, this aptly named community has become the hunting ground for their very own Bigfoot, complete with unique origin story.
The legend states that several decades ago, a circus train rolled into the area on the Old IllinoisCentral Railroad, bound for New Orleans. This circus train supposedly boasted many strange andexotic creatures, but none as strange as what the circus billed as “the ape-man”. This ape man is said to have been very tall and hairy. He was such an angry and aggressive creature that they carted him from one destination to another in his own private train car encircled with heavy iron bars. As the story is told, this circus train mysteriously derailed close to nearby Tangipahoa swamps. Most of the animals perished, with the only survivors being a few monkeys and the ape-man who escaped his iron cell after the crash. A couple of weeks after the accident, stories began to circulate throughout the area about the monkeys and the ape man wandering noisily through the swampland.
According to life-long resident and local historian, Sam McKinney, the railway is infamous for mythical circus train wrecks along its route, especially in places where the tracks run close to swamps. I did some research of my own and although there are many places, such as Canton,Mississippi, who also laid claim to circus train derailments, no such incidents occurred, at leastnot documented ones. Debunking the train wrecks should disprove the existence of this big-footed ape-man, but it isn’t so easily dismissed, and there is another story that could account for the Chatawa monster’s existence.
There was a nearby residence called Kramer Lodge that reportedly had an animal sanctuary on its premises at some point. It contained monkeys and apes among its occupants. The primates could have escaped or may have been released into the swamp when the sanctuary closed, giving rise to the stories. No matter which origin story you believe, the fact remains that many people in and around Chatawa have seen or heard something unusual in their woods and swamps.
St. Mary’s school is one place that helped spread the legend. St. Mary’s is a religious retreat near Osyaka, but decades ago it was a prominent private school that was popular with New Orleans families as a place to send their children to receive a better education, but not have them be too far away from home. Upperclassmen often terrified the freshmen when they arrived at school, with stories about what lurked in the woods. The children were told to never wander off or try to run away, or they would surely never be heard from again. Even the nuns who taught at the school claimed to have seen monkeys in the woods and who am I to accuse nuns of making up untruths?
In September of 1985, The Enterprise Journal posted an article about the Chatawa monster. The article states that Sister Patrick Powers, who went to St. Mary’s school from 1918 to 1921 and in 1985 resided in the retirement center there, believes that some kids she went to school with may have made it up to scare the smaller children. She recalled having summer camp at the school and seeing kids put signs up saying “Beware of the Chatawa monster.”
Another local who was interviewed by the paper at the time claimed to have participated inbringing the monster back to life in the 80’s. He told reporters how he made a “go devil” fromstretching cowhide across both ends of a hollow log, poking a hole through each end andrunning string through the cowhides. After putting some resin on the string and sliding the stringthrough the log it makes a terrible sound to “terrorize the fearful, make your dogs leave home and make your cow’s tear out.” A third local recounted a tale of being tracked in the woods by the monster, claiming to have never seen it, only hearing the footfalls as it moved closer.
Some experts say that the existence of multiple, separate myths does not count as actual evidence of existence, but stems from the same aspect of the human psyche. People the world over have a desire to believe that we as humans do not exist alone on this Earth, but co-exist with creatures that have yet to be discovered and studied. Regardless of whether or not Bigfoot exists, the legends are alive and well, even in small Mississippi towns like Chatawa.
The chance that they may exist has fuelled the imaginations of countless people and has become the subject of numerous documentaries, movies, and books the world over. It is a mystery that may never be solved, but will certainly continue to enthrall people for many years to come.
If you happen to be on the fence about whether Bigfoot-type creatures exist and you are in Mississippi, take a drive to Chatawa. Find a local who can tell you stories about the monster or maybe go out to the swamp’s edge and have a listen. You might hear the monkeys or the Ape man (or their descendants). Perhaps you will even catch a glimpse of one from the corner of your eye when you least expect it. There is only one way to find out.
Note: Check out this YouTube link from WJTV and Focused on Mississippi with Walt Grayson
for his Chatawa Monster news story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf0HUQbXHEE
You can read the 1985 newspaper article at http://www.newspapers.com Enterprise-Journal
(McComb, Mississippi) 18 Sep. 1985 page 19
(Information in this article was researched from the video above as well as “The Chatawa
Monster- Paranormal Mississippi Case Files” and http://www.phantomsandmonsters.com and public
information about the town of Chatawa and Pike County)
Baughman. She grew up with a vivid imagination and devoured everything she could
concerning ghosts, cryptids, and unsolved mysteries. She currently lives in Queensland, Australia, with her Aussie husband, Dave.
Mississippi Folklore 
One thought on “The Chatawa Monster”