Lake Monsters & Forest Creatures

[Just Jeans]

So I'm sure we all have heard tales of crazy monsters that linger in the lakes and forests near us. Some of those tales have gotten huge -- Big Foot, the Lochness Monster -- and some haven't. Let's talk about those here, won't we?

To get started, I present the Nahuelito (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuelito). In 2006, an anonymous man claimed to have taken pictures of the Nahuelito.

The article is here. (http://meta-religion.com/Paranormale/Cryptozoology/lake_monsters/Nahuelito_photographed.htm)

Looking at those pictures, I say it's an obvious fake. The perspective is all wrong. The camera is close to the water, yet the photographer managed to capture that much of the serpent? I don't think so. It look like a very obvious miniature to me.

[NETRA]

I am fascinated by lake monsters. Even if those pictures are fake, they still stir my imagination.

When I was a little girl, I read every book about Nessie that the library had in its kids section. Then my family took a trip to Loch Ness and I felt like I was on the set of a horror movie! The clouds come in low at night and fog rolls over the loch. And with the dark castle standing on its shore and you can see why the area has a long history of creepy stories.

As for sea serpents in particular, have you seen images of the Queensland serpent? It's great! http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=41874

[Just Jeans]

I read a book when I was a kid called Loch (http://www.amazon.com/Loch-Paul-Zindel/dp/0060245425/ref=ed_oe_h/105-3578695-9773239?ie=UTF8&qid=1188096764&sr=8-1). It's a work of fiction by Paul Zindel. I suggest it. The book was meant to be for kids, but it had some pretty brutal deaths in it, and it was just an over-all enjoyable read.

[Rick]

There's also Ogopogo reported to live in Lake Okanagan on British Columbia, Canada.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogopogo
And Manipogo in Lake Manitoba, in Manitoba Canada.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manipogo

[Lance Lives]

Wow, I had that book called Loch, got it from a book order at school (holy shit, remember book orders?). Never read it though.

I've always been very afraid of any creatures under the water, regardless of size really. But it would be really bad if I ran into a relative of Nessie, I wouldn't do too hot I don't think.

[NETRA]

I just looked up LOCH on Amazon and see there's a used copy available for $2.44! Not bad. I also see that Steve Alten (author of MEG, a killer shark book) wrote a book called "The Loch". Has anyone read that one? It sounds pretty lame but I like the author.

[Just Jeans]

I provided a link in my last post for the hardback version of Loch, NETRA. Here it is again (http://www.amazon.com/Loch-Paul-Zindel/dp/0060245425/ref=ed_oe_h/105-3578695-9773239?ie=UTF8&qid=1188096764&sr=8-1). You can get the hardback for as little as $0.01 (that's $4.00 total after shipping). I got MEG and Cell both for that price, and in really good condition. I'll be getting Loch next.

I've never read Alten's version of The Loch, but I've been told it's decent. Zindel's version of Loch is set in America, but I still think it is a really good book.

[NETRA]

Alten's MEG was one of my favorite books when I read it a few years ago. I've forgotten precisely why. But I know it was fast paced and had a LOT of shark attacks. It's a shame the movie never got made. They were planning one but it fell through.

Zindel's version of Loch is set in America

How's that? It's not about Nessie?

[Just Jeans]

How's that? It's not about Nessie?

It's about the "fanged cousin" of Nessie. The book follows 15-year-old Loch (nicknamed such after claiming to have seen the Lochness Monster when he was a child), his sister, his father and his girlfriend. They discover a Plesiosaurus family in a remote Vermont lake.

It really is a pretty good read.

[NETRA]

It sounds cool. And you said it has some brutal deaths in it too, eh? I will definitely read it a.s.a.p. and let you know what I think. Thanks! :D

As for movies . . . I have yet to see a truly good movie about a lake monster. Don't even get me started on the terrible Loch Ness movies I've had the displeasure of sitting through over the years.

[Just Jeans]

It sounds cool. And you said it has some brutal deaths in it too, eh?

Well, I say they're brutal deaths, but really they may have just been brutal at the time. I was only 13 or 14 when I originally read it.

I do recall that the violence in the book was graphic enough that our school debated removing it from the library, and I think other schools did the same, as they weren't sure whether or not it crossed the line for "teenage" age group literature.

As for movies . . . I have yet to see a truly good movie about a lake monster. Don't even get me started on the terrible Loch Ness movies I've had the displeasure of sitting through over the years.

Indeed. It's hard to find any films/tv shows about monsters in lakes (or even oceans) that are worth a damn. Surface was a good series that involved huge creatures in the ocean, but it only lasted one season (and ended on a cliffhanger to boot).

[NETRA]

The movie LOCH NESS was pretty good at times. It's a corny romance and feels very made-for-TV but at least it was actually shot on location at Loch Ness which is more than I can say most Nessie movies.

[Spade]

Indeed. It's hard to find any films/tv shows about monsters in lakes (or even oceans) that are worth a damn. Surface was a good series that involved huge creatures in the ocean, but it only lasted one season (and ended on a cliffhanger to boot).

I liked the show Surface.

Why do the good shows have to die young:p?

[NETRA]

Why do the good shows have to die young:p?

Like Manimal.

[Spade]

Isn't that the show where the college professor could change himself into different animals?

[NETRA]

Yes, I believe so. .

[Merf]

There's a town sort of near where I reside; apparently, way back when, the town was flooded for no other reason than to flood it. A man-made lake, as it were. Anyhow, the water in this "lake" can, in some parts, reach two-hundred feet. According to some people I've spoken to, there are catfish and other assorted bottom-feeders that have reached sizes up to and surpassing ten feet in length.

One particularly suspicious story I've heard involves a family picnicking along the banks of this "lake". Apparently one of these gargantuan catfish beached itself long enough to devour their puppy, then he hightailed it back to the depths.

[Lance Lives]

So, is the town still at the bottom of the "lake"?

[Toejam]

The Bear Lake Monster
First reported: 1868
Last sighted: 2002

Bear Lake is a natural freshwater lake divided by the Utah-Idaho border in the Western United States.
It is the second largest natural freshwater lake in Utah.
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x216/toejam67/BearLake2.jpg
The story of the last sighting(by Brian Hirschi):

It happened, he insists, one night in June 2002 as he was anchoring his large pontoon boat -- shaped like
a sea monster -- after a day of ferrying tourists around the 20-mile long, 8-mile wide and 208-foot deep crystal blue lake.
After throwing the anchor, he saw "these two humps in the water" about 100 yards from the boat.
At first he thought they were lost water skis, but they disappeared. Then, his boat lifted up.
"I started to get scared," said Hirschi, "The next thing I know, a serpent-like creature shot up out of the water."
He said it had "really dark, slimy green skin and deep beet-red eyes."
It went back under water and made a sound like a roaring bull before taking off.

Hirschi said he debated whether to tell anyone about his experience, fearing they would "think I was
crazy or on the lake too much." But a year later, he decided to break his silence.

To scoffers who claim this is nothing more than a publicity stunt to boost tourist trade, he replies:
"Once you've seen the monster, you really don't care what other people say."


Short funny discription/Story (http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/ut2.html)

very short wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Lake_Monster)


I grew up near Preston, ID and I remember my Dad telling Ghost stories when we would go camping. One of his stories was about the BLM.
Years later I remember being out by the lake, late at night. It was dark with only moonlight and the stars shining on the lake, it was really beautiful,
but I couldn't get rid of this creepy feeling like someone or something was watching me.



*I found the original story*
The story was written in 1868 by Joseph C. Rich and was sent to the Deseret News Newspaper. It goes as follow:

"The Indians have a tradition concerning a strange, serpent-like creature inhabiting the waters of Bear Lake, which they say carried off some of their braves many moons ago. Since then, they will not sleep close to the lake. Neither will they swim in it, nor let their squaws and papooses bathe in it.
Now, it seems this water devil, as the Indians called it, has again made an appearance. A number of our white settlers declare they have seen it with their own eyes. This Bear Lake Monster, they now call it, is causing a great deal of excitement up here. S. M. Johnson at South Eden was riding along near the Lake the other day when he saw something a number of yards out in the lake which he thought was the body of a man. He waited for the waves to wash it in, but to his surprise, found the water washed over it without causing it to move. Then he saw it had a head and neck like some strange animal. On each side of the head were ears, or bunches the size of a pint cup. He concluded the body must be touching the bottom of the lake. By this time, however, Johnson seems to have been leaving the place so rapidly he failed to observe other details.
The next day three women and a man saw a monstrous animal in the lake near the same place, but this time it was swimming at an incredible speed. According to their statement, it was moving faster than a horse could run.
On Sunday last, N. C. Davis and Allen Davis of St. Charles; Thomas Sleight and James Collings of Paris, with six women were returning from Fish Haven when about midway from the latter place to St. Charles, their attention was suddenly attracted to a peculiar motion of waves on the water about three miles distant. The lake was not rough, only a little disturbed by the wind. Mr. Sleight ways he distinctly saw the sides of a very large animal that he would suppose to be not less than 90 feet in length. Mr. Davis doesn't think he was any part of the body, but is positive it must not have been less than forty feet in length, judging by the waves it rolled up on both sides of it as it swam, and the wave it left in the rear. It was going south, and all agreed it swam with a speed almost incredible to their senses. Mr. Davis says he never saw a locomotive travel faster, and thinks it made a mile a minute. In a few minutes after the discovery of the first, a second followed in its wake, but seemed much smaller, appearing to Mr. Sleight about the size of a horse. A larger one followed this, and so on until before disappearing, made a sudden turn to the west a short distance, then back to its former track. At this turn Mr. Sleight says he could distinctly see it was of a brown color. They could judge somewhat of the speed by observing known distances on the opposite side of the lake; and all agree that the velocity with which these monsters propelled themselves, was astounding. They represent the waves rolling up on each side as about three feet high. This is substantially their statement as they told me. Messengers Davis and Sleight are prominent men, well known in the country, and all of them are reliable persons, whose veracity is undoubted. I have no doubt they would be willing to make affidavits to their statements.
Was it fish, flesh. or serpent? Amphibious, of just a big fib, or what is it? I give up, but live in hopes of some day seeing it.

The Deseret News ran the story July 31, 1868. Great excitement followed. A news staff member during the next month quizzed many Bear Lake people and found hardly a person who doubted it.
However, the inevitable skeptics did appear on the scene.
The Indians had taken a great deal of interest in stories of the monster and claimed that their ancestors told them about a monster. They were telling some pretty good-sized stories about the creatures.
In 1874, a traveler named John Goodman came through the Bear Lake Valley. He described an Indian legend about two lovers whom, upon being pursued by some of their fellow tribesmen, plunged into the lake and were changed by the Great Spirit into two large serpents. However, this is just a legend.
The description of the Monster was the following: A creature with a brown-colored body, somewhat bigger in circumference than a man, anywhere from 40 to 200 feet long. Its head was shaped like a walrus without tusks or like an alligator's, and the eyes were very large and about a foot apart. It had ears like bunches, about the size of a pint cup. It had an unknown number of legs, approximately eighteen inches long, and it was awkward on land, but swam with a serpent-like motion at a speed of at least sixty miles an hour. No one ever described the back part of the animal since the head and forepart was all that was ever seen. The rest was always under water.
Make believe? No one knows for sure. Come on up to Bear Lake and find out for yourself.



Joseph C. Rich, later admitted to making up the story, but people continue to report sightings of the monster.

[Merf]

So, is the town still at the bottom of the "lake"?

Oh, yes, definitely. It's called Raystown... it's in ... well, I suppose South-central Pennsylvania. I believe it's near Huntingdon, if you'd like to look it up.

[Patrick]

I have always been fascinated by these kinds of stories too. I always wanted to catch a glimpse of Bigfoot in the woods while driving at night. I still, every now and then, catch myself looking at the edge of the woods at night while going somewhere (I don't stare at the woods while driving, of course---only while riding).

[The One and Only]

In a recent issue of G-Fan (http://www.g-fan.com/). A Canadian published fanzine which deals with all things kaiju, especially with those involving the King of the Monsters himself, Godzilla. There was an article written by contributor, John LeMay, entitled, Up From The Depths, which detailed several encounters with lake monsters andd sea-monsters. One account that really stuck out was the final one. Which was actually the most frightening and tragic of tales shared in the article.

The encounter happened in back in 1962 in Pensacola, Florida when Edward McClearly and four of his friends decided to go scuba diving near a sunken ship, the USS Massachusettes. Setting out on an army raft McClearly ,and his chums ended up going off course due to running due to a storm. The five buds managed to get back on track, and on thier way back to thier destination. By the time they got to the wreck the five friends found the location covered in fog. That's when they started hearing splashing ,and other unusual noises. Just then they spotted in the fog what they thought for a moment was a telephone pole floating through the water. They realized that it was really the snake-like neck of a seas creature. As it got closer the five friend realized that they could put more distance between them ,and the creature by diving off the raft ,and swimming for the wreck(part of which was sticking out of the water). Only Edward McClearly was able to make it to the wreckage, and had to listen as one by one, the monster caught up to his friends. He said he turned in time to see the last one of his friends scream as the creature dragged him under. McClearly spent quite awhile quivering in terror on the highest part of the wreckage, waiting until he felt safe enough to swim to shore. He eventually swam to shore and told the authorities what happened.. None of the other boys were found but one, who washed ashore drowned.
ADDED:
Also has anyone ever heard of Bloop. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloop)

[Freddy-Fan]

Not trying to hijack this thread. . .just thought you all might be interested in the new History Channel Show Monsterquest (I made a thread about it in the TV forum). ;)

So far they've done shows on Champ and Bigfoot. Both were pretty good.