STATE FILE · GA
Cryptids of Georgia
What cryptids are in Georgia? The best-known are Altamaha-ha, Bigfoot and Skunk Ape.
Georgia’s coastal marshes are home to one of the South’s best-loved water monsters. The Altamaha-ha, or “Altie,” is said to swim the tidal channels at the mouth of the Altamaha River near Darien in McIntosh County – a long, dark, finned creature with a snout like a crocodile or dolphin. Local stories reach back generations, and Darien has adopted Altie as a mascot: visitors can pose with a replica at the Darien–McIntosh Regional Visitor Information Center off I-95.
Cryptids reported in Georgia
LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1830
Altamaha-ha
Mouth of the Altamaha River, near Darien, Georgia
“Altie,” the sea serpent of coastal Georgia, said to swim the marshes and old rice canals at the mouth of the Altamaha River near Darien.
REGIONAL LEGEND
HOMINID · 1958
Bigfoot
Pacific Northwest forests, reported across North America
North America’s most famous cryptid: a huge, hairy, upright ape-like being reported from the Pacific Northwest to Florida since the 1958 “Bigfoot” tracks.
WIDELY REPORTED
HOMINID · 1818
Skunk Ape
Big Cypress Swamp and the Everglades, Florida
Florida’s answer to Bigfoot: a shaggy, foul-smelling ape-man said to roam the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp, reported since the 1970s and before.
WIDELY REPORTEDThe legends of Georgia
Inland, the Okefenokee Swamp in the south and the Chattahoochee National Forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains supply most of the state’s Bigfoot and Skunk Ape stories. In Cherry Log, between Ellijay and Blue Ridge, the Expedition Bigfoot museum opened in 2016 with footprint casts, sighting maps and life-size models, and has become a popular stop for road-trippers. Georgia is also remembered for the most notorious Bigfoot hoax of the century: in August 2008, two men announced they had a Bigfoot body in a freezer, and it was soon revealed to be a rubber costume.
Scientists suggest that Altie sightings may involve sturgeon (Atlantic sturgeon can top eight feet), dolphins, alligators or floating logs, and that Georgia’s Bigfoot reports likely involve black bears. But between its sea islands, river deltas and mountain forests, the state offers enthusiasts a wide range of terrain to explore.
Hotspots
Tidal marshes and old rice canals where “Altie” has been reported for generations.
A huge blackwater swamp on the Florida line with Skunk Ape and swamp-creature lore.
A Bigfoot museum in the north Georgia mountains with casts, maps and exhibits.
Blue Ridge forests that generate many of Georgia’s Bigfoot reports.
Sightings timeline
- April 1830Captain Delano’s sea serpent Altamaha-ha
The Savannah Georgian printed a Darien dispatch describing a creature about 70 feet long with an alligator-shaped head, seen by the captain and crew of the schooner Eagle. Delano insisted it was no whale; island planters reported a strange animal in St. Simons Sound that spring.
- 1981The Gwin–Wilson sighting Altamaha-ha
Larry Gwin, a former newspaper publisher, and Steven Wilson reported a creature with two large humps about five feet apart that left a powerful wake. The story ran nationwide and prompted other locals to share older sightings.
- 2010Video near Fort King George Altamaha-ha
An amateur photographer filmed something swimming in the channel off the Fort King George Historic Site. Like most such clips, it shows a distant, ambiguous shape in the water.
- March 2018The Wolf Island carcass Altamaha-ha
A father and son photographed a decomposed, long-snouted carcass on a beach near Darien, and the images went viral as a possible Altie. Marine biologists suggested a rotted shark or other known animal; later that year the artist Zardulu claimed to have made it from a stuffed shark and papier-mâché.
Latest from Georgia
No recent cryptid headlines from Georgia. See all the latest cryptid news.
Videos
ARCHIVE.ORG3:07
Patterson–Gimlin film (unedited)
Roger Patterson and Bob GimlinThe original 1967 Bluff Creek footage – the most famous and most debated minute in Bigfoot history. Marked public domain on archive.org.
ARCHIVE.ORG4:59
The Film That Made Bigfoot A Star
Oregon Public BroadcastingOPB’s short documentary on how the Patterson–Gimlin film turned a regional legend into a global icon – and the hoax claims around it.
▶ VIDEO
Sts’ailes Sasquatch Days in Harrison Hot Springs
Tourism Harrison River ValleyShows the festival celebrating the Sts’ailes people’s Sásq’ets, the being behind the word “Sasquatch” (no archive.org equivalent).
ARCHIVE.ORG1:31
Police Search for Ape-Like Creature (1974 news segment)
Associated PressOriginal January 1974 footage of the search in the Miami-area swamps during the 1970s wave of sightings. (Associated Press newsreel archived on archive.org.)
ARCHIVE.ORG2:16
Dave Shealy Skunk Ape Footage (2000)
Dave ShealyThe famous July 2000 video from the Big Cypress – judge for yourself whether it shows an animal or a costume.
▶ VIDEO
Altamaha-Ha
tdparmelAmateur footage of a disturbance in the water near Darien, featured by Explore Southern History in its article on the legend.