A very tall figure in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana

My stepbrother had a friend who he considered a brother, and was considered a son to my stepfather. He and his dad hunted frequently in Honey Island Swamp. I'm told their were very few who knew the area as they did. They were hunting one day, it was cloudy and misting. They were walking up to the river when they heard a splash. They turned to see a dark hairy creature, very muscular, standing with its back to them at the rivers edge. The creature then pulled a cypress stump out of the mud and threw it into the river. They froze and were dumb-struck. They guessed it caught wind of them because it turned to look directly at them and then walked briskly away down the rivers edge. They went to the spot where the creature was standing and saw large human like footprints, much larger than a mans print. They were about 75 yards away from the creature. The discription of the creature was what I've written plus they said they could tell when it turned around that it had parts of the face with no hair around the nose and mouth area. They stated it was between 6 to 7 feet tall and very heavy. The thing that stood out to them was the fact that it pulled the stump from the mud. They said it had to be very strong to do that. The father is a very stoic person. I have met this family on several occasions since my stepbrother is so close to them. The son of course was glad to verify the story, but the father didn't want to talk much about it other than to say "I know what I saw." The story did not waiver one bit from when my stepbrother told me and his friend told me several months later