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

Foreword

Foreword There are always two sides to a story. The book you are about to read is the best version to date of a skeptical look at the entities known as lake monsters. The formal examination oflake monsters has been a subfield of cryptozoological research for more than two centuries. During the fifry years that I have been studying these freshwater cryptids, I have learned much about them. According to surveys and research that I and other cryptozoologists have conducted, more than a thousand lakes around the world harbor large, unknown animals unrecognized by conventional zoology. Such claims have a long history and a rich representation in the world's mythology and folklore. The term "lake monsters" is a relatively recent appellation; traditionally, such creatures have gone by a variery of names, including great serpents, dragons, water horses, worms, and others. They share the landscape with other legendary entities, such as Sasquatch, sea serpents, and black panthers. Some of the long-ago sightings are remembered in fantastic fashion , which is often what happens when people have real encounters with new animals in new lands. In "Water-Monsters ofAmerican Aborigines " (Journal ofAmerican Folklore, r889), Albert S. Gatschet surveyed stories of peculiar aquatic monsters, including the great horned reptile of the Ohio River region and the horned snake. The Creeks, when they lived in Tennessee, spoke ofa large, horned snakelike animal that frequented water holes. The creature could be brought to the shore by the magical singing of Creek elders, and when it showed its horn, the Indians would cut it off. The horn was then taken as a fetish and carried into war, to ensure success in battle. xi FOREWORD An account from the Oneida branch of the Tuscaroras, collected by David Cusick and published in I828, tells of the "Mosqueto," which rose from Lake Onondaga (near Syracuse, New York) and slew a number of people. The natives also said that 2,200 years before the time of Columbus (approximately 700 Be), a great horned serpent appeared on Lake Ontario and killed onlookers with its overpowering stench. The strikingly similar horned beast of Alkali Lake (now known as Walgren Lake) near Hay Springs, Nebraska, was the subject of tales by the local Indians. These native Nebraskans told the first white settlers in the area to be on the lookout for the monsters. The legend seems to have had some truth, for more modern sightings followed. The Omaha World-Herald ofJuly 24, I923, carried the testimony ofJ. A. Johnson, who stated, "I saw the monster myself while with two friends last fall. I could name 40 other people who have also seen the brute." Johnson claimed that the stubby, alligatorlike head had a projection like a horn on it between the eyes and nostrils. The gray-brown creature devoured livestock, uttered a dreadful roar, and smelled horrible. News of Alkali Lake's horned wonder spread around the world. Michel Meurger and Claude Gagnon underscore the importance of these legends in their book Lake Monster Traditions (I988): "From Alaska to New Mexico the belief in a horned serpent-shaped water beast ofenormous dimensions is widespread." They go on to place such creatures in a folkloric framework. Probably the issue of lake monsters would be of concern only to antiquarians were it not for a large body of modern reports from seemingly credible eyewitnesses, most prominently at Loch Ness in Scotland, Lake Champlain in Vermont-New York-Quebec, and Lake Okanagan, British Columbia. In addition, there are unexplained, instrumented observations oflarge, moving bodies under the water's surface, as well as a small number ofintriguing photographs that don't seem-at least from my cryptozoologist's point of view and examination-to be fraudulent or to depict mundane objects. In other words, the evidence isn't conclusive and probably won't be until incontrovertible physical evidence (a body-or at least a part ofone) is available. Nonetheless, it is suggestive enough to keep the issue very much alive. xu FOREWORD The scientific investigation oflake monsters initially occurred in the beginning of the nineteenth century, and it had much to do with the controversy surrounding sea serpents. During those early days, some journalists and theorists assumed that lake monsters were sea serpents that had either temporarily or permanently entered freshwater bodies from the ocean. It was further reasoned that a sea serpent would be more easily captured in an accessible place like a...