From 'The Advocate Online (http://br.theadvocate.com/enter/story.asp?storyid=1690)

Mysterious legends of Louisiana The Louisiana woods and swamps are home to a number of spooky myths and legends. By CHERÉ COEN Newsfeatures staff writer Published in FUN on Oct. 31, 1997 They're out there. The woods and swamps are full of them. There's the spirit of the Indian maiden who haunts the woods of the Longfellow State Commemorative Area in St. Martinville. Or Lafourche Parish's famed Coon Road, now submerged due to wetlands erosion, where an unseen force mysteriously moved anything placed in its path. In nearby Port Hudson National Cemetery, strange images have appeared, from giant bird-like apparitions and UFOs, to phantoms driving Civil War-era buggies. Call them myths, legends or superstitions, south Louisiana abounds with unexplained phenomena. And some of the weirdest creatures are right in our own back yards. Les Feu Follet It's natural for teen-agers to concoct stories about aggressive monsters or ghostly apparitions living in the darkest reaches or outskirts of town. For the guys, it's an excuse to get a girl in a car on a dark road at night. For the couple, the ogre might represent their parents, who may indeed turn into werewolves if they caught their children unsupervised on a deserted back road. These teen legends have existed for decades. Take Mona Lisa, for instance. She's irate at having been murdered by her boyfriend Johnny and stalks "Mona Lisa Lane" in New Orleans' City Park looking for someone to harass. Necking teen-agers in parked cars are her personal favorites, goes the legend.

In Louisiana, these eerie, illusive swamp lights are known as feu follets. In other parts of the world, they are called will-o'-the-wisps. Cajuns believe they are the souls of unbaptised babies, infants who departed this world before being blessed. Follow them and they will lead you deep into the swamp where you will remain lost until daybreak - if you survive the night. The only way to outsmart the feu follet is to stick a knife into the ground or a fence post so the light will dance around the blade instead of bothering you. Some Cajuns insist upon using a needle, coaxing the mysterious light to pass through the eye of the needle.

In Grosse Tete, between the Bank of Maringouin and Midway Grocery, on a lane (NB I think this is now called Frontage 3000 Road see my maps and map below..SO) ironically nicknamed "Dump Road," an unexplained light flickers in the bean fields. Teens frequented the area, including Mary Sue Romig, now 54, who has seen its brilliance many times. "I've seen it," Romig said. "It starts out small and it grows." Even though a visiting LSU professor insisted the light was caused by swamp gases, releases of methane and other gases by rotting vegetation, Romig has her own theory of the light's origin, courtesy of her mother. Years ago, when the road contained railroad tracks for the Texas and Pacific lines, a man routinely visited the area to manually switch the tracks. One night his lantern failed and he was hit by the train. His head was severed. "That's (the light) his lantern," Romig said. "He's looking for his head." Whatever the explanation, the light has drawn quite a following. "Half the town used to go back there," Romig continued. "Teens drove out there with friends. Scared one of them half to death. He won't go back there, day or night." The light usually appears at "the hump in the road," Romig said, and sometimes becomes quite large. "We had it come out between us one night, between the cars," she said. "It's weird. That night it was as big as a basketball." Swamp lights don't hold the attraction they once held for teens, perhaps because now they compete with television and computer games. Encroaching developments in rural areas could be another reason for their demise. Still, it was merely a few years ago when hikers spotted a glowing tree stump in the woods near Pond, Miss., just over the border from West Feliciana Parish and the Tunica Trace. The rotting log radiated like a fluorescent light bulb, they said. The woods literally glowed that night with the log's soft light after hikers broke off pieces and placed them up and down the trail.

Note..Mapquest shows that Frontage 3000 Road ( the thin line to the north of the highway) parallels Highway 10 for a very long stretch! In fact, at the upper right end above Caney Bayou , it will see oncoming lights!!!