One of the hidden treasures located within East St. Tammany Parish is the town of Pearl River. Located near the junction of State Highways 11 and 41, Pearl River is a booming town determined to retain their small town atmosphere. It is also home of the Honey Island Swamp and miles of beautiful hunting grounds and scenic waterways along the Pearl River and its tributaries.

The community that is today Pearl River was originally known as Halloo, a name it garnered from loggers yelling to one another as they traversed the nearby Pearl River. A small railroad town soon grew and town changed its name to Pearl, later to Pearlville, and eventually Pearl River in 1888 after the train station serving the town.

On July 13, 1898, the 200 citizens of Pearl River voted to petition the state of Louisiana for incorporation as the "Village of Pearl River." Nearly a decade later, Governor Newton Crain Blanchard granted the request on May 24, 1906 with G.W. Fuller as the first mayor.Slowly the village grew over the course of the next half century, building a courthouse and town hall. In 1964, the village became a "town" and laid claim to 1,500 residents.

One of the last truly wild places in Louisiana is The Honey Island Swamp.

In 1999, while huting deep in The Honey Island Swamp, LSU student David Kulivan spotted a pair of "extinct" Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers. The news rocked the worldwide scientific community and spromted the creation of an all-professional birding team. Six scientists from North America and Indonesia explored 6,000 of the 35,000 acre southeastern hardwood swamp. They found nothing but the gnats, mosquitos, spiders, snakes, giant snapping turtles, and alligators that inhabit the bottomlands.

Legends of the Honey Island Swamp Monster abound. Described as everything from a bigfoot type creature to scary moonshiners, the monster's presence is more than enough reason to take an exciting swamp tour of this beautiful area.