Wednesday 14 August 2019

The Monsters of Devil's Lake


Devils Lake Monster
Devil's Lake is a lake in the South  of the Baraboo Range in Sauk County, Wisconsin, USA. It was originally a gorge of the Wisconsin River prior to the last ice age where a glacier had been, leaving a portion of the river gorge between the moraines filled with water. (A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris, rock etc).
The  legend of Devil’s Lake starts with a Native American chief who took  a group of young warriors on a late night hunting trip  across the lake. The  moon was out as they put the canoe into the water. Suddenly there was a disturbance in the water. Tentacles appeared on the surface and capsized the canoe. The warriors were pulled under the water .No one survived but the cacophony of screams brought others rushing to the lake who saw the tragedy in the moonlight. The natives  held an event every year after this during which animals were sacrificed to the lake monster. These days it’s a festival and picnic celebrating tribal traditions. The Nakota Sioux and Ho-Chunk tribes have  used Devil’s Lake and Devil’s Lake State Park area, as a gathering place for centuries.
To date science has no record of freshwater Octopi but it is not the first one to be reported .The Oklahoma Lakes Monster being the most famous (see Link below).This does not mean they do not exist but they have not been found or discovered yet so it is a possibility that Octopi either in the past or in the modern world have evolved to live  in fresh water.

It is not the only reported monster in Devils Lake. When early  Christian missionaries arrived in the area of Devil’s Lake they were greeted by the Nakota tribe who told them about yet another creature .There was  year of a great drought but the Natkota tribe  remained near the lake, despite it being in the process of drying out ,because it was a fertile hunting ground. Being the only water source for miles all the local wildlife came to drink and were easily hunted . It eventually became two lakes, separated  by a shallow strip of mud. One morning the tribe found   a huge, fish-like creature, which they referred to as “Hokuwa,” trapped on the narrow, muddy strip. The tribe watched terrified as the  amphibious animal thrashed about  in an effort to free itself. The tribes people believed the creature,  to be an Unktizina ,the product  of the mating of of the evil spirit Unk and the lizard beast known as Unkcegi . Eventually the animal was able to free itself and disappeared into the lake. The Missionaries reported the description the creature as being plesiosaur like.
The story does not end there.
On March 4, 1950 Marybell Allum, a teenager and  daughter of the local marshal came across a strange carcass that had washed ashore near Devil's Lake. The carcass which was named    "Old Hairy" was described as weighing  a thousand pounds and  over twenty feet long  with "the body of a cow, approximately nine tails and hair all over the body and legs". It's identity  remains a mystery. Was this strange carcass one of the monsters from Devil's Lake ?
NB I have since discovered a new type of hairy boar/pig was introduced to the area .I do wonder if this was in fact a bloated corpse of one or two of the animals washed ashore after drowning.

Then more recently someone claimed to have photographed the monster in the lake.

So is there still a monster in Devil’s Lake?

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