July 3, 2015
From Mysterious Universe:
Georgia, named after King George II of England, is one of the original thirteen colonies. It was the birthplace of civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., singer Ray Charles, “Gone with the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell, and wrestler Hulk Hogan. Yes, THE Hulk Hogan. Of the 37 million acres of land in Georgia, 24.8 million acres of that is forestland. The Peach State is the fourth largest state east of the Mississippi River, and is home to mountains, rivers, and monsters.
Altamaha-ha
The Altamaha River stretches 137 miles through the centre of the state until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean near Brunswick, Georgia. It pours the third largest amount of fresh water into the Atlantic from the United States. It’s also home to a beast known as the Altamaha-ha.
Looking like a cross between a sturgeon, crocodile, and seal, this thirty-foot-long monster is often seen near the city of Darien by fishermen, and swimmers (why would you swim in a river with a monster?). Darien was founded in 1736 by people who have their own stories of a water monster, Scotsmen from Inverness.
Although part of the local Indian legend, the Altamaha-ha gained national notice in 1981 when a newspaper publisher saw the beast while fishing. He reported it as two humps five feet apart that were moving as fast as a speedboat. After that, other stories of monster sightings began hitting the press, such as a 1970s tale of a twenty-foot-long creature with a head of a snake, and another of an underwater creature that caused boats to bob in its wake. But these sightings were not the first. Where the Altamaha River dumps into the ocean, a sea captain saw a seventy-foot-long creature, “its circumference about that of a sugar hogshead,” according to the 18 April 1830 Savannah Georgian newspaper. The creature held its alligator-like head eight feet out of water before it sank back into the depths.
Read about the other monsters from Georgia like Hogzilla, the Beavershark and the Wog here.
See also:
Exploring American Monsters: Florida
Exploring American Monsters: Delaware
Exploring American Monsters: Connecticut
Exploring American Monsters: Colorado
Exploring American Monsters: California
Exploring American Monsters: Arkansas
Exploring American Monsters: Arizona
Exploring American Monsters: Alaska
Exploring American Monsters: Alabama
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Filed under Bigfoot Report, Cryptid Canids, Cryptozoology, Eyewitness Accounts, Folklore, Pop Culture, River Monsters