<p>Residents of this small farming town celebrated Saturday the legend of Hogzilla, a prodigious porker purportedly killed on a nearby plantation _ a claim that has evoked amazement and a fair amount of skepticism throughout the world.</p><p>"Everybody is happy, smiling, excited," said Becky Davis, an organizer of the annual Alapaha Station Celebration in the south-central Georgia town of 682. "We're going hog wild."</p><p>Visitors competed in a hog-calling contest and a greased pig chase.</p><p>The festival also featured a float with a life-size replica of Hogzilla, a Hogzilla sausage almost the length of a football field and a "shootout" to rescue purloined pink pigs. Vendors sold keepsakes of the event _ Hogzilla T-shirts, baseball caps and foods ranging from barbecue (pork, of course) to alligator-ka-bobs.</p><p>Ken Holyoak, owner of Ken's Farms, a fish hatchery and hunting plantation near Alapaha, says one of his guides shot the 1,000-pound feral hog in June after it wandered up from the swamps along the nearby Alapaha River, a haven for swine that leave the farms and start living off the land. The hairy heavyweight measured 12-feet long and had 9-inch tusks, Holyoak says.</p><p>Besides a few witnesses, few have actually seen Hogzilla. Holyoak's only proof is a photo showing the guide with the beast dangling from a rope. Holyoak says Hogzilla was too old to butcher and too big to mount, so he buried the carcass in a grave marked by a white cross.</p><p>Festival organizers were initially skeptical of adopting a theme that confirmed Hogzilla's existence, so they choose instead to focus on the Hogzilla legend, Davis said.</p><p>Hogzilla has propelled Chris Griffin, the guide who supposedly shot Hogzilla, from relative obscurity to celebrity status.</p><p>"They ask for my autograph," he said. "I've gotten used to it, but before it kind of freaked me out. I wasn't used that much attention. My picture has been sent around the world and that's a trip by itself."</p><p>Holyoak said he's been interviewed by 200 newspapers, at least 24 television stations and numerous radio stations.</p><p>"It's been on the radio from Canada to Russia," he said. "I didn't know people would go that crazy over a hog."</p><p>Asked if there could be more giant hogs in the swamp _ perhaps a Hogzilla heir _ Holyoak replied, "If there's one, there's a possibility of more."</p><p>Even the town's churches got in the spirit of the day. The Baptist float had a sign that read, "Hog wild for Jesus," while the Catholic congregation opted for "Rootin' for Jesus."</p><p>Bobby and Cynthia Mathis, visitors from the nearby town of Fitzgerald, said they remain skeptical about Hogzilla, but keep it to themselves.</p><p>"People around here resent skepticism," she said. "They get ready to fight."</p><p>Lisa Whitley, an Alapaha native who now lives in Waycross, said friends in Atlanta and elsewhere hounded her to get them Hogzilla T-shirts when the story broke.</p><p>"They were wondering if it was really that big," she said. "But it really doesn't matter. Alapaha is famous. It's great for the area to have something to celebrate."</p>
