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Audie had wanted to learn how to play but he lost it in the swamp.

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Bingo describes all of the five senses he used to describe the unfamiliar object (the camera).

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"Blinkle", the star that Bingo discovered in the sky. 

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"Blinkle", the star that Bingo discovered in the sky. 

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The car that has lived in the swamp forever. Belonged to Audie Brayburn.

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Chap pulled the old pirogue out of the boat shed. He wanted to get it ready to fill it up with cash.

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Chap's mother would send him out to chop sugar came for the family cafe. His grandfather taught him how to do it.

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This is where Audie would sketch the birds he saw. He passed it down to Chap and he cherished the book so dearly.

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Chap and his mom got his grandfather this mug as a present. Now Chap uses it as a present.

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The "Sugar Man" was taller than a Barmanou.

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It seems like the only media coverage Afghanistan gets these days is about war, terrorism and heroin, but this beautiful and ancient country has many wonderful stories to tell. Two popped up recently about little-known cryptid creatures of Afghanistan - a deer with fangs and a Bigfoot cousin known as the Barmanou.

According to an article in the November edition of the journal Oryx, the Wildlife Conservation Society says the last confirmed sighting anywhere in Afghanistan of the endangered Kashmir musk deer was over 60 years ago in 1948. The fangs or tusks were only found in males and, not surprisingly, were used to compete for females. As their name suggests, they also had musk glands which they were hunted for to extinction in Afghanistan - until a survey team spotted a male, female and juvenile in a mountainous area.

The fanged deer rediscovery brought out another cryptid story about a U.S. soldier stationed in Afghanistan in 2011 who spotted what he described as a "big monkey or ape" through an infrared scope. That sounds like a Barmanou, the "Man of the Forest" or Bigfoot believed to live in the same mountainous area on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In his interview with a Bigfoot Field Research Organization representative in 2013, the soldier said the heat signature was of a gorilla-sized bipedal creature not wearing any clothes. The Barmanou has been described as a half man and half ape, possibly related to the Neanderthal, that walks upright, makes guttural noises and emits the odor of rotting garbage. However, unlike Bigfoot or Yeti, the Barmanou is said to sometimes wear animal skin clothing and hats and kidnap human women for breeding.

In the early 1990s, Spanish zoologist Jordi Magraner and his partner, Dr. Anne Mallasseand, researched the Barmanou, collecting eyewitness accounts (Magraner's drawing above is based on one) and seeing possible footprints. When shown images of similar cryptids, witnesses thought the Barmanou most resembled the Minnesota Iceman rather than Bigfoot or Yeti. Magraner's research ended in 2002 when he was murdered by one of his guides.

The Barmanou and the fanged Kashmir musk deer - one rumored and one rediscovered. It would be a shame if, like their beautiful country, both were destroyed by human conflict.

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It seems like the only media coverage Afghanistan gets these days is about war, terrorism and heroin, but this beautiful and ancient country has many wonderful stories to tell. Two popped up recently about little-known cryptid creatures of Afghanistan - a deer with fangs and a Bigfoot cousin known as the Barmanou.

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Gertrude's skin shed off.

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The location/setting of where the story took place.

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This was the can that Audie kept his pictures in so they could stay dry.

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They are the special raccoon brothers that patrolled the swamp. They also live inside the DeSoto. Largest members of the Procyonidae family

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Soto was a Spanish conquistador that discovered the Mississippi River. He was also the inspiration for Audie's 1949 DeSoto.

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Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who participated in the conquests of Central America and Peru and discovered the Mississippi River.

Who Was Hernando de Soto?

In the early 1530s, while on Francisco Pizarro's expedition, Hernando de Soto helped conquer Peru. In 1539 he set out for North America, where he discovered the Mississippi River. De Soto died of fever on May 21, 1542, in Ferriday, Louisiana. In his will, de Soto named Luis de Moscoso Alvarado the new leader of the expedition.

Early Life

De Soto was born c. 1500 to a noble but poor family in Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain. He was raised at the family manor. A generous patron named Pedro Arias Dávila funded de Soto's education at the University of Salamanca. De Soto's family hoped he would become a lawyer, but he told his father he would rather explore the West Indies.

In accordance with his wish, the young de Soto was invited to join Dávila, governor of Darién, on his 1514 expedition to the West Indies. An excellent horseman, de Soto was appointed captain of a cavalry exploration troop. Setting out from Panama to Nicaragua and later Honduras, de Soto quickly proved his worth as an explorer and trader, reaping large profits through his bold and commanding exchanges with the natives.

Conquest of Peru

In 1532, explorer Pizarro made de Soto second in command on Pizarro's expedition to explore and conquer Peru. While exploring the country's highlands in 1533, de Soto came upon a road leading to Cuzco, the capital of Peru's Incan Empire. De Soto played a fundamental role in organizing the conquest of Peru and engaged in a successful battle to capture Cuzco.

In 1536 de Soto returned to Spain a wealthy man. His share of the Incan Empire's fortune amounted to no less than 18,000 ounces of gold. De Soto settled into a comfortable life in Seville and married the daughter of his old patron Dávila a year after returning from Peru.

Exploring North America

Despite having a new wife and home in Spain, de Soto grew restless when he heard stories about Cabeza de Vaca's exploration of Florida and the other Gulf Coast states. Enticed by the riches and fertile land de Vaca had allegedly encountered there, de Soto sold all his belongings and used the money to prepare for an expedition to North America. He assembled a fleet of 10 ships and selected a crew of 700 men based on their fighting prowess.

On April 6, 1538, de Soto and his fleet departed Sanlúcar. On their way to the United States, de Soto and his fleet stopped in Cuba. While there, they were delayed by helping the city of Havana recover after the French sacked and burned it. By May 18, 1539, de Soto and his fleet at last set out for Florida. On May 25 they landed at Tampa Bay. For the next three years, de Soto and his men explored the southeastern United States, facing ambushes and enslaving natives along the way. After Florida came Georgia and then Alabama. In Alabama, de Soto encountered his worst battle yet, against Indians in Tuscaloosa. Victorious, de Soto and his men next headed westward, serendipitously discovering the mouth of the Mississippi River in the process. De Soto's voyage would, in fact, mark the first time that a European team of explorers had traveled via the Mississippi River.

Death

After crossing the Mississippi de Soto was struck with fever. He died on May 21, 1542, in Ferriday, Louisiana. Members of his crew sank his body in the river that he had discovered. By that time, almost half of de Soto's men had been taken out by disease or in battle against the Indians. In his will, de Soto named Luis de Moscoso Alvarado the new leader of the expedition.

Fact Check

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Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who participated in the conquests of Central America and Peru and discovered the Mississippi River. In the early 1530s, while on Francisco Pizarro's expedition, Hernando de Soto helped conquer Peru. In 1539 he set out for North America, where he discovered the Mississippi River.

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Best selling pie.

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The bird that Grandpa Audie spent his life looking for in the swamp.     "Ghost bird"/IBWO

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In 1947 a scientist named Edwin Land introduced a camera that could take instant photographs . This was the camera that Audie Brayburn loved. He lost it in the swamp.

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Fact: When alligators are flipped onto their backs, they fall asleep.

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Fact: When alligators are flipped onto their backs, they fall asleep.

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Tony puts an alligator to sleep by laying it on its back and stroking it's belly.

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The type of sugar the family cut the cane from.