05-28-2012, 04:05 PM
(05-28-2012, 11:17 AM)koko Wrote: Thank you zero for your shot of the map, made it so much easier for me to pull it up myself. I was looking at the area on google earth (satellite view for any who aren't familiar), fucking desolate. Such a bad feeling in my gut.
(05-27-2012, 10:22 PM)shitstorm Wrote: NightOwl, some peeps in the area said it's 27 miles. Other stories about that area are pretty scary. Most say they wouldn't dream of getting off there. There's NOTHING there. It leads into those places where there are swamp people who live off the grid. Serious backwoods shit where no regular person should wander and outsiders are not welcome. It's also full of alligators and snakes.
I'd take my chances with the Toledo hoodrats before ever venturing into a place like that.
just curious SS, any more details you could provide on the stories about the area? I've read up a little about the serial killer who dumped the body near the same bridge (derrick todd lee, right?) and after checking that area out on google earth i'm kind of intrigued to know more.
Just that even locals say it creeps them out. I-10 is a 19 mile long bridge or raised highway there because of the swamps/basin. That exit has nothing at it - no gas station, no bathrooms, nothing. IOW, you don't get off there unless you have a reason like fishing or hunting. There's a gravel levy road that runs for many miles along the river. I saw a post by a women who said she got lost and ended up on that road. I think she said she drove for 18 miles of nothing and that she was really scared. Another woman said she was driving on I-10, with her husband, and she had a bathroom emergency - like have to go NOW. They got off on that exit and she squatted off the gravel road. She was it was just piled with tall weeds and trash and she and her husband completely creeped out and beat it out of these. My best friend lives in Houston and her father was born and raised in Houston bayou country. He's a real southerner, in his 70s. His career was laying cable for off shore rigs. He went into the basin because there was supposed to be good eating. He found some bar that was a shack on stilts and served whatever the hell it is they catch and eat down there. He said those cajun boys looked at him like he was from Mars. Fortunately, he was scruffy from getting back from the Gulf and he IS a good ole boy, himself, so they ended up being cool with him. Unless you've been around like he has and you know the ways of those folks, I don't think you have any business in there. My girl friend said it may as well be another country. I think that places like that conjure up a huge fear of the unknown. It's difficult terrain that the locals know the back of their hand and outsiders don't, which puts them at a huge disadvantage. It's like any vast and remote place, I suppose, but with water all over and alligators *shudder* I'm not sure if other dead bodies, besides Lee's victims, have been found in there but it has that reputation as a dumping ground. All that said, it's probably the kind of place that National Geographic would do a spread on. Unique ecology and amazing wildlife. I've read that bird watchers go there. There's a southern writer of crime fiction whose detective stories are set in that area in a town called New Iberia. He's know for giving a real feel of what the place and people are like. I'll see if I can find his name for you. Anyway, I'm a huge chicken who is easily spooked so places like that creep me out. I'm sure that lots of southern Louisiana people would get a chuckle out of those of us who find it spooky. Or not. My Texas friend said "think Deliverance, only worse" and I believe her.
Here's the wiki on the basin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atchafalaya_Basin