Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating the World's Most Elusive Creatures

4. Silver Lake

4 SILVER LAKE On the night of July 13, 1855, in Wyoming County, New York, two boys and five men were fishing from a boat on Silver Lake near the village of Perry. After several minutes ofwatching a floating log, one man exclaimed, "Boys, that thing is moving!" Indeed, according to the \\yoming Times, after bobbing in and out of sight, suddenly, "the SERPENT, for now there was no mistaking its character, darted from the water about four feet from the stern of the boat, close by the rudder-paddle, the head and forward part ofthe monster rising above the surface ofthe water.... All in the boat had a fair view of the creature, and concur in representing it as a most horrid and repulsive looking monster" (Silver Lake serpent 1855). Soon, others were reporting sightings, and excitement spread far and wide. As reported in an 1880 pamphlet, "People came on foot, by carriage, on horseback, and in fact, by any means of locomotion in their power, to see if even a glimpse of the monster could be obtained, and the hotels found they had 'struck a bonanza.'" Several expeditions were launched-ranging from a whaler with a harpoon to a vigilance society of men armed with guns to a company with $1,000 worth of capital stock and bent on capturing the creature (Silver Lake serpent 1880, 3-21). This was all to no avail, and the excitement eventually died down. Then, according to a modern account: "Several years later [1857] a fire broke out in the Walker Hotel. Firemen rushed to the scene to put out the blaze. When they worked their way into the attic they came upon a strange sight. In the midst of the flames they saw a great green 79 LAKE MONSTER MYSTERIES serpent made of canvas and coiled wire" (Legend [1984], II). States another source: "The truth was then revealed by Mr. Walker himself," who "built that monster serpent with his friends to pick up the business at the Walker House Hotel" (quoted in Legend [1984], I). Mr. Walker was Artemus B. Walker (1813-1889), and the earliest version of the hoax attributed to him and his friends appeared in the December 12, 1860, Wyoming County Mirror. "Everyone remembers," stated the brief article, "that during the Silver Lake snake excitement, at Perry, the hotel there reaped a rich harvest of visitors. A correspondent of the Buffolo Commercial says that when about two years and a half ago, the hotel was partially burned, a certain man discovered the serpent in the hotel," constructed "of India rubber." According to the reporter, the man who uncovered the rubber fake "has just got mad at the landlord and divulged the secret." The newspaper story ended on a skeptical note: "We suppose this last game is just about as much of a 'sell' as the original snake." The hoax was described in more detail in 1915, in a local history by Frank D. Roberts: The serpent was to be constructed ofa body about 60 feet long, covered with a waterproof canvas supported on the inside by coiled wire. A trench was to be dug and gas pipe laid from the basement of a shanty situated on the west side of the lake, to the lake shore. A large pair of bellows such as were used in a blacksmith shop, secreted in the basement of the shanty connected to that end of the pipe, and a small light rubber hose from the lake end to the serpent. The body was to be painted a deep green color, with bright yellow spots added to give it a more hideous appearance. Eyes and mouth were to be colored a bright red. The plan of manipulating the serpent was simple. It was to be taken out and sunk in the lake, and then when everything was ready, the bellows were to be operated and air forced into the serpent, which naturally would cause it to rise to the surface. Weights were to be attached to different portions of the body to insure its 80 SILVER LAKE sinking as the air was allowed to escape. Three ropes were to be attached to the forward portion of the body, one extending to the shore where the ice house now stands; one across the lake, and the other to the marsh at the north end; the serpent to be propelled in any direction...