{"id":606,"date":"2011-06-05T23:12:32","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T03:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/?p=606"},"modified":"2011-06-05T23:12:32","modified_gmt":"2011-06-06T03:12:32","slug":"an-unknown-sea-creature-in-the-altamaha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2011\/06\/05\/an-unknown-sea-creature-in-the-altamaha\/","title":{"rendered":"An unknown sea creature in the Altamaha?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Medium Rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8584504377\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"269\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2011\/03\/06\/savannah-stopover-preview-7-sanders-bohlke\/window-17\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/window6-e1299440530555.jpg?fit=67%2C77\" data-orig-size=\"67,77\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;4.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;NIKON D40&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1244646881&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;38&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;200&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.033333333333333&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"window\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/window6-e1299440530555.jpg?fit=67%2C77\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/window6-e1299440530555.jpg?fit=67%2C77\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/window6-e1299440530555.jpg?resize=67%2C77\" alt=\"\" title=\"window\" width=\"67\" height=\"77\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-269\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/>I&#8217;ve always been fascinated by cryptids (animals that have not been proven to exist), so how did I live in South Georgia for 15 years without hearing of Altamaha-ha (known as Altie), the legendary creature down near Darien?<\/p>\n<p>Altie is the subject of a fun and well-written cover story in Creative Loafing Atlanta: <a href=\"http:\/\/clatl.com\/gyrobase\/stalking-altie-does-georgia-have-its-own-loch-ness-monster\/Content?oid=3283993&#038;showFullText=true\">Stalking Georgia&#8217;s Loch Ness Monster, Altamaha-Ha<\/a>. Writer Curt Holman takes us on an entertaining tour of the creature&#8217;s history: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Altamaha-ha, known more casually as &#8220;Altie,&#8221; defies scientific explanation. Even before European settlement, the Tama tribes people told stories of a giant, snake-like river animal that hissed and bellowed. Over the past century, fishermen, lumberjacks and boy scouts have reported sightings of a creature in the tributaries and marshes of the Altamaha River, which feeds one of the largest river basins on the Atlantic Coast. The eyewitness consensus holds that the Altamaha-ha has a dark, smooth hide, apart from the tire-tread-like ridges on its back, as well as a narrow neck, prominent snout and flat, porpoise-like tail.<\/p>\n<p>Could it be a sturgeon on steroids? A throwback to marine reptiles like the toothy plesiosaur? Maybe the Loch Ness Monster&#8217;s cousin from across the pond? I&#8217;m skeptical about cryptids, the kind of famous beings like Bigfoot unrecognized by the scientific establishment, but the Altamaha-ha called me with a siren song, despite the likelihood of a search turning into a snipe hunt. But even if the Altamaha-ha isn&#8217;t real, it could still have significance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There&#8217;s this completely unhelpful but provocative cell phone video:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"480\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LNEfs1u0OMY\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And here&#8217;s part one (7 mins.) of a documentary on YouTube:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"480\" height=\"303\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kqy0lGizXV4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Cryptozoology.com <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cryptozoology.com\/glossary\/glossary_topic.php?id=4\">describes<\/a> the creature as having various features similar to dolphins, alligators, and eels.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve had any Altamaha-ha encounters, let me know.<\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve always been fascinated by cryptids (animals that have not been proven to exist), so how did I live in South Georgia for 15 years without hearing of Altamaha-ha (known as Altie), the legendary creature down near Darien? Altie is&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2011\/06\/05\/an-unknown-sea-creature-in-the-altamaha\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[46],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oddrandom","tag-cryptozoology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1gN9R-9M","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}