Other Lake Monsters

 
 

Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, is hardly alone in her ability to attract attention as there are dozens of other lakes in which monsters have been sighted. While not as well known as Nessie, monsters such as the New Brunswick Lake Utopia Monster, Manipogo of Lake Manitoba in Canada, the Lake Erie monster (the object of numerous recent sightings), and the Flathead Lake Monster in Montana have all attained a measure of regional fame, some of them long before Nessie came to the world's attention.

Many tourists around the popular Argentinian resort of Bariloche have sighted a lake monster that has been dubbed "Nahuelito." In the manner of Nessie, Nahuelito is named after the body of water that is her domain, Nahuel Huapi Lake, which covers 318 sq. miles at the foot of the Patagonian mountains.

Nahuelito has occasionally been visible for several minutes on the surface of the lake and has been sighted by scores of tourists and locals. Descriptions have varied from that of a giant water snake with humps and fish-like fins to a swan with a snake's head, the overturned hull of a boat, and the stump of a tree. Estimates of the creature's length range from 15 to 150 feet. Nahuelito is said to surface only in the summer, when the wind is still. Witnesses say that a sudden swell of water and a shooting spray precede the surfacing of the creature.

There are many resorts in the mountains of southern Argentina. Bariloche resort hosts 100,000 tourists in summer season and as many in winter. The largest group of Nahuelito sightings was at the beginning of March, coinciding with the tourist season. The population of the resort areas have taken to Nahuelito in expected ways. The possibilities for exploitation have not escaped the local's notice: Nahuelito T-shirts and posters are common sights around the resorts.

Nahuelito has become an Argentinian media star, as the summer vacation in Patagonia coincides with the slow news "silly season." The first films of the creature, showing little more than lines and ripples on the water, have been shown many times on news shows. They are said to provide little information as to Naheulito'a appearance. Patagonia, with its mountainous and desolate regions, has been home to many tales of monstrous animals, and the notion of a Patagonian lake monster is not a new one. Patagonian Indians told of a huge creature lake-dwelling creature without head, legs or tail. The Patagonian plesiosaur has been in the public consciousness since the early 1920s.

Peter Costello, in his book In Search of Lake Monsters (Granada Publishing Limited, St. Albans, Herts, 1975) points out that eleven years before Nessie came to the world's attention, the search for a Patagonian plesiosaur made international news. In 1922 Dr. Clementi Onelli (Director of the Buenos Aires Zoo) received a report of huge tracks and crushed bushes and undergrowth leading to an unnamed lake shore. And, according to the account, in the middle of the lake was a monster.

The well-regarded informant, an American gold prospector named Martin Sheffield, saw "an animal with a huge neck like a swan, and the movements made me suppose the beast to have a body like that of a crocodile." The swan-like neck mentioned here is an element of a number of contemporary Naheulito sightings as well. In Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, which was serialized in The Strand in 1912, one of the characters describes a lake monster he once sighted, as a "creature like a huge swan, with clumsy body and a high flexible neck." The inevitable circular question of whether life is imitating art or art imitating life (or some permutation thereof) comes to the forefront in cases such as this. Costello felt that The Lost World "inevitably colored popular ideas" and set the stage for the 1922 Patagonian plesiosaur debut.

Onelli had been receiving sporadic reports of an unknown creature since 1897 and with the information he now had as a result of the Sheffield sighting, he was determined to mount an expedition to find the monster. The expedition, which was led by JosÊ Cihagi, superintendent of the zoo, was unsuccessful, causing Leonard Matters in the July 1922 issue of Scientific American to conclude that the plesiosaur, "if it ever existed, appears to have fled to parts unknown."

One interesting aspect of the ill-fated expedition was the conservationist attitude some Argentinians had toward the monster, foreshadowing the efforts of Joseph W. Zarzynski and Jacques Boisvert with Champ and Memphre respectively, both of which are now protected by law. In 1922, Dr. Albarrin, President of the Society for the Protection of Animals, petitioned the Minister of the Interior to refuse permits to the expedition on the grounds that the creature in question came under laws forbidding the hunting of rare animals. The expedition was carrying dynamite (to mine the lake) and elephant rifles.

While the expedition permits were not refused, there was some question as to whether permits had been granted or not. There were crossed signals--the expedition, now far into the Patagonian lake region, stopped until the permit question was settled and this confusion and the press criticism surrounding it seriously damaged the image of the expedition.

Nahuelito sightings pre-dated both The Lost World and the 1922 Patagonian plesiosaur search. The George Garrett lake monster sighting is perhaps the best known historical Nahuelito sighting, the earlier sightings taking place in other lakes and rivers of Patagonia. Around 1910 Garrett was managing a company on Lake Nahuel Huapi when the brief incident supposedly occurred.

Garrett provided the following description to the Toronto Globe at the height of the 1922 Patagonian plesiosaur controversy: "...we were beating windward up an inlet called 'Pass Coytrue,' which bounded the peninsula. This inlet was about five miles in length, a mile or so in width, and of an unfathomable depth. Just as we were near the rocky shore of the peninsula, before tacking, I happened to look astern towards the centre of the inlet, and, to my great surprise, I saw about a quarter of a mile to leeward, an object which appeared to be 15 or 20 feet in diameter, and perhaps six feet above the water. "After a few minutes, the monster disappeared. "On mentioning my experience to my neighbours, Garrett continued, "they said the Indians often spoke of immense water animals they had seen from time to time." The news story recounting the Garrett sighting ran in the Globe on April 6, 1922. Thus, the story was told in retrospect, some 12 years after the event.

The plesiosaur theory is the main one being bandied about in the press and it is such a creature whose smiling countenance gazes out from the tourist posters. While the living dinosaur explanation is the most prevalent one, there are several other less popular theories making their rounds in Argentina. Of interest to those who have been following the "mystery submarine" phenomenon is the local belief that an unknown sub is prowling the lake's depths. For those readers unfamiliar with this phenomenon and its folkloric implications with regards to aquatic monsters, one of the essential notions expressed by its proponents is that the mystery submarine is a modern manifestation of the aquatic monster, a cultural variant on the water monster. (See Michel Meurger with Claude Gagnon, Lake Monster Traditions, Fortean Tomes, London, 1989; also Fortean Times #49).

Patagonia is no stranger to mystery subs--in February, 1960, the Argentine navy chased an "unidentified undersea object" for 18 days, never finding the strange intruder. The now-chic monster-mystery sub connection was not lost on the press at the time. Newsweek opened its February 22, 1960 feature on the mystery sub entitled "The Wily Whatzit?" thusly: "Was it a whale? Or an amphibious flying saucer? Or the Loch Ness monster gone astray?"

An article by William R. Rudy in the New York Post of February 17, 1960 was headlined "The Monster Rally Down Argentine Way," and describes the route that Nessie would have taken to get to Patagonia: "From Loch Ness in Northern Scotland the route lies down the Ness River, seven miles NNE into Moray Firth and the North Sea. Wind and weather conditions probably would dictate a serpent's next move--over the Orkney's into the North Atlantic, or the shorter route through treacherous Pentland Firth. Once in the North Atlantic it is virtually a straight run some 8,000 miles SSW to the cold waters of Golfo Nuevo on the lower Argentine coast." The article's illustration visually expresses the theme as it depicts a caricatured "sea serpent" monster on the surface of the water in proximity to a battleship dropping depth charges.

Also making the rounds is a third theory augmenting the growing body of strange lore surrounding nuclear power. Some Argentinians are wondering if Nahuelito could be the result of nuclear experimentation by German scientists during the Peron regime in the 1950s.

Those intrigued with almost any aspect of lake monster study will find something of interest in the case of Nahuelito. The Lake Nahuel Huapi monster and her Patagonian relations may have been the first possibly-real creatures linked in the public consciousness with the plesiosaur, an image that is as popular or more popular today in the public imagination than it was in 1922.

Whether fact, fiction, or some surreal combination of the two, one thing is certain--Nahuelito is here to stay and we will be hearing much more about her in the future.

 

In July 1883, Sheriff Nathan H. Mooney looked off to the northwest part of New York's Lake Champlain and saw a gigantic water serpent about 50 yards away. The creature, which rose about five feet out of the water, was 25 or 30 feet in length and was close enough for the eyewitness to clearly see that there were round white spots inside it's mouth. The dozens of sightings that comprised the monster flap that followed Mooney's sighting would predate the public Loch Ness controversy by 50 years.

Lake Champlain--which traverses New York, Vermont and Quebec--has been called "America's Loch Ness." Lake Champlain's monster is nicknamed "Champ," and has been sighted over 240 times. The 109-mile-long Lake Champlain is also similar to Loch Ness in that both are deep, freshwater lakes that were created some 10,000 years ago. While not as deep as Loch Ness, Lake Champlain's maximum depth of 400 feet is still quite impressive as a potential monster hiding place. Also, both bodies of water support enough fish to feed a small group of lake monsters.

Joseph W. Zarzynski, founder of Lake Champlain Phenomena Investigation, writes that "the evidence of 'Champ's' existence is scanty when compared to the wealth of eyewitness testimony, photographic and sonar evidence from Loch Ness, but he still feels that there is enough "impressive data" on Champ to support belief in its existence. Zarzynski, a Wilton, New York social studies teacher who has been researching Champ for over sixteen years, believes that Champ exists.

Around one-third of the sightings are of a creature with a "long sinuous neck" and a body with one or more humps, 15 to 25 feet long, and dark in color. The rest of the eyewitness sightings are of a creature with one or more humps, but with no visible head. The theories as to what type of animal Champ may be are identical to those suggested for the Loch Ness Monster, although Joseph Zarzynski favors the plesiosaur as the leading candidate.

There are some photographs and motion picture footage of Champ, but most of it--like that acquired at Loch Ness--is tantalizing but inconclusive. Perhaps the most significant photograph was taken on July 5, 1977 by Sandra Mansi of Connecticut. Mansi took a photo of what she thought was a "dinosaur" whose neck and head were some six feet out of the water. The Mansi photograph has been examined by scientists, who concluded that it was not retouched or tampered with. This photograph garnered much attention from the media, appearing in the New York Times and Time magazine in June and July, 1981.

Joseph W. Zarzynski and Jim Kennard of Rochester Engineering Laboratories have used high-tech sonar to search for Champ, and on June 3, 1979, they took readings indicating the presence of a 10 to 15 foot long moving object in the waters beneath them.

If Champ is ever found, it may well be due to the pioneering efforts of Joseph W. Zarzynski. Beginning over ten years ago with surface surveillance, he has evolved to using sonar and more recently underwater photography utilizing remotely operated vehicles such as those used to film the Titanic and find treasure in shipwrecks. Recently, Mr. Zarzynski has turned his attention to searching for a Champ carcass through scuba and sonar searches. He believes that such a carcass would prove the monster to be a real animal, without having to endanger a living Champ.

Fisheries officer Ragnar Björks, 78, was out checking fishing permits on Sweden's Lake Storsjön when he had the fright of his life. From the placid waters a huge tail suddenly broke the surface near Björk's 12 foot row boat. The colossal creature attached to the tail appeared to be 18 feet long, grey-brown on top with a yellow underbelly. When Björks was alongside the monster, he struck at it with his oar, hitting it on the back. Angered, the creature slapped the water with its tail and the rowboat was thrown nine to twelve feet into the air. "At first I didn't believe that there was any monster in the Storsjön...but now I am convinced."

Does Nessie have a relative in Lake Storsjön in the mountains of Northern Sweden? A large unknown creature has been seen in the lake for over 350 years. Since 1987 the Society for Investigating the Great Lake has collected some 400 reports of "Storsjöodjuret," as the Swedes call the monster.

There is no clear picture of the beastie. Some witnesses describe a large neck undulating back and forth that looks like a horse's mane; others observed a large wormlike creature with recognizable ears. Reports of the creature's size range from 10 to 42 feet in length.

Like the Loch Ness Monster, one of the numerous theories is that during the Ice Age 15,000 years ago, the monster may have become trapped in the Swedish Lake.

Loch Ness and Lake Storsjön are not isolated cases of lakes that are believed to harbor monsters. In Europe there are also reports of such creatures from Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Norway, Wales, and elsewhere. In fact, there are over 250 lakes around the world which are believed to be inhabited by monsters. There seems to be a common pattern in the lake monster puzzle: the animals all are found in lake and river systems that are either connected to the sea or have been in the past, and these systems all either harbor or once harbored migratory fish. In many cases, the lakes are deep and cold

There are a number of similarities between Lake Okanagan in British Columbia and Scotland's Loch Ness. They are both long and narrow and lie at about the same latitude. And they are each famous for their resident monsters.

The best-known Canadian lake Monster, Ogopogo, actually made its media debut long before the Loch Ness Monster. In 1926, seven years before Nessie's came to the public's attention, Roy W. Brown, editor of the Vancouver Sun, wrote, " Too many reputable people have seen [the monster] to ignore the seriousness of actual facts."

While there are serious questions about whether there are non-retroactive Nessie sightings before 1930, but there are archival records of Ogopogo's existence going back to 1872 and sightings have been reported regularly up to the present.

The creature is most often described as being one to two feet in diameter with a length of 15 to 20 feet. The head has been described variously as being horse or goat-like. One oft-mentioned characteristic of the monster is its resemblance to a log.

Cryptozoologist Roy P. Mackal believes that there is a "small population of aquatic fish-eating animals residing in Lake Okanagan." Mackal initially assumed that the type of animal in Lake Okanagan was the same creature that he believed is in Loch Ness, but after a careful examination of the available data, he determined that the creature must be a form of primitive whale, Basilosaurus cetoides. "The general appearance of Basilosaurus tallies almost exactly with the loglike descriptions of the [Ogopogos]. Mackal spells out a detailed case for Ogopogo being a primitive whale in his book Searching for Hidden Animals.

There are good size Indian reserves in the Okanagan Valley. The Indians believe that small, barren Rattlesnake Island is the home of the Okanagan Lake Monster. Indians called the Okanagan Lake Monster N'ha-a-tik, and there are pictographs that some feel depict the monster near the headwaters of Powers Creek. Other native references to the Okanagan Lake Monster include the Chinook wicked one and "great-beast-on-the-lake." In addition to the Salish N'ha-a-tik (or Na-ha-ha-itk), snake-in-the-lake was sometimes used.

The early inhabitants of the area saw the monster as a malevolent entity. Indians claimed that Monster Island's rocky beaches were sometimes covered with the parts of animals that they had attacked and ravaged. When crossing the lake during bad weather, the Indians always carried a small animal that they would toss overboard in the middle of the lake to appease the monster, according to material in the files of the Kelowna Archives.

Primrose Upton, in The History of Okanagan Mission, noted that no Indians would fish near Squally Point. When Europeans settled in the area, they too feared the aquatic monster and supposedly continued the custom of offering an animal to appease Ogopogo. According to Ogopogo expert Arlene Gaal, armed settlers patrolled the shoreline in case of attack by the monster.

In 1914 a group of Nicola Valley and Westbank Indians discovered the decomposing body of an unidentified creature across from Rattlesnake Island. Five-six feet long and estimated to weigh 400 pounds, it was blue-grey. It had a tail and flippers, and an amateur naturalist in the area felt that it was a manatee. No one knew how such a creature could have gotten into the lake, and Lake monster expert Peter Costello has hypothesized that the carcass was "actually an Ogopogo, as the details of this mammal with flippers and a broad tail and dark color are all that we would expect. But the carcass was mangled so much that the long neck was already gone."

Ogopogo footprints have also been found. Some have been irregularly shaped, others cup-like, some were like dinosaur tracks with three toes, and still others had a pad foot and eight toes! As Dr. Mackal has written, "The trouble with footprints is that anyone can fake them easily. Further, to assume that they were made by Naitaka is pure conjecture and supposition--certainly possible but without even a circumstantial link" to the few cases of Ogopogo land sightings that have been reported.

The name Ogopogo might suggest to some that it is an Indian word, but all evidence points to a modern origin. According to Mary Moon, author of Ogopogo: the Okanagan Mystery (1977), in 1924 a local named Bill Brimblecomb sang a song parodying a popular British music-hall tune at a Rotary Club luncheon in Vernon, a city in the northern Okanagan Valley. H.F. Beattie adapted the lyrics, which included the following:

I'm looking for the Ogopogo,
His mother was a mutton,
His father was a whale.
I'm going to put a little bit of salt on his tail.

Robert Columbo, in his book Mysterious Canada, notes that the Pogo Stick was a popular craze since its introduction in 1921 and this may have contributed to the name.

According to Arlene Gaal, author of Ogopogo: The True Story of the Okanagan Lake Million Dollar Monster, a Vancouver Province reporter named Ronald Kenvyn later parodied a popular British ditty and composed a song that included the following stanza:

His mother was an earwig;
His father was a whale;
A little bit of head And hardly any tail-
And Ogopogo was his name.

Thanks to these songs, the name Ogopogo stuck and the Indian name has been forgotten by all but monster buffs.

While Ogopogo has never attained the fame of Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, the creature of lake Okanagan has regularly caused quite a stir in the international press. Monster hunters from all over the world have been drawn to the area for research purposes, and many of the sightings have been as strong or stronger than those at Loch Ness. Multiple witness sightings of Ogopogo, so rare with many other controversial phenomena, have occurred on many occasions.

On September 16, 1926, Ogopogo was watched by some 30 cars of people along an Okanagan Mission beach. Not many monsters have been seen at one time by so many people. The Ogopogo sightings of 1925/26 deserve some in-depth study.

Consider the appearance of Ogopogo on July 2, 1947, when a number of boaters saw the monster simultaneously. One of the witnesses, a Mr. Kray, described the animal as having "a long sinuous body, 30 feet in length, consisting of about five undulations, apparently separated from each other by about a two-foot space, in which that part of the undulations would have been underwater...There appeared to be a forked tail, of which only one-half came above the water. From time to time the whole thing submerged and came up again."

On July 17, 1959, Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Miller and Mr. and Mrs. Pat Marten saw a tremendous creature with a snake-like head and a blunt nose swimming some 250 feet behind their motor boat on British Columbia's Okanagan Lake. The group watched the unknown animal for over three minutes, after which it submerged.

 

Recent Interest

More recently, in the summer of 1989, hunting guide Ernie Giroux and his wife were standing on the banks of Okanagan Lake when a bizarre animal emerged from the otherwise placid waters. "It was about 15 feet long and swam real gracefully and fast," Giroux told the press. The Girouxs claim to have see an animal with a round head "like a football;" at one point several feet of the creature's neck and body came up out of the water. The Girouxs saw the monster at the same spot where, in July 1989, British Columbian car salesman Ken Chaplin took a video of a what he described as a snake-like creature about 15 feet long and dark green in color. This columnist has viewed the Chaplin video and feels that it was probably a beaver.

"I've seen a lot of animals swimming in the wild and what we saw that night was definitely not a beaver," Ernie Giroux states emphatically.

Giroux is in good company. There have over 200 sightings by credible people including a priest, a sea captain, a surgeon, police officers, and so forth. The fact that the percipients are generally people of good repute is often mentioned in reports of sightings. Photos of Ogopogo are numerous and include the 1964 Parmenter photo; the 1976 Fletcher photo; the 1978, 1979 and 1981 Gaal photos, the 1981 Wachlin photo, the 1984 Svensson photograph.

There have now been half a dozen films and videos taken of an animate object in Lake Okanagan, but none of them are conclusive.

What would solve the Ogopogo enigma? Only the discovery of an actual beast or the carcass of one would admit these creatures into mainstream science. If Ogopogo exists, it is clearly an elusive creature. Ogopogo hunters have failed to come up with that piece of unimpeachable evidence that will prove to the world that the aquatic monster exists. Until that evidence is found, Canada's premiere lake monster will remain a classic mystery.