Wednesday, 23 February 2022

Silver Lakes and Their Creatures.

 

On the subject of places with the same name having fortean activity ,I came across the Silver Lakes.

Silver Lake Massachusetts

Silver Lake is  in Plympton, Massachusetts. The Pembroke/Plympton town line is within the lake, and a portion of the western shoreline of the lake is the town line with Halifax. The inflow of the pond is Tubbs Meadow Brook Access to the pond is through Silver Lake Sanctuary.

In the 1940s and 1950s there were reports of a “lake monster” – believed to be a “giant frog” or a “frogman”  in the Lake. It was mentioned in old newspaper articles. Locals believed it but little else is known.

Loren Coleman did write about it in article on October 25, 2013 Boston Globe article titled "Monsters of New England” However it had no more information.

 

Silver Lake Saugus Massachusetts

Breakheart Reservation is a public recreation area covering 652 acres in the towns of Saugus and Wakefield, Massachusetts. A creature was reported there that looked like an alligator.In 2011 wildlife officials hunted for it fearing it had taken up residence there. Officials from the Department of Conservation and Recreation searched Silver Lake in the Breakheart Reservation Park in Saugus on July 28, 2011, after sighting two alligators. No alligator was found.

Read story here:

https://www.boston.com/uncategorized/noprimarytagmatch/2011/07/28/my-what-a-big-smile-you-have-officials-on-lookout-for-alligator-at-saugus-park/

 

Silver Lake New York

Silver Lake originated several thousand years ago when retreating glaciers left western New York.It has a maximum depth of 37 feet(12 metres).

According to the indigenous people The Seneca, the lake was home to a slug-like creature. That monster  of the Silver Lake creature was killed , according to folklore, after a thunderstorm drew it from the lake. John John, the elder in the Squawkie Hill Indian Reservation said  that the Seneca used to avoid Silver Lake because of big, foul-smelling snake that lived beneath its waters. They had left the lake in 1820 just to get away from the beast.

Then in the 1880s : an unknown mysterious animal was  sighted in Perry, New York. The Serpent of Silver Lake was first seen on July 13th, 1885 by four fishermen who saw what they thought was a huge log – until it moved in a serpentine manner. Over a hundred people saw the serpent during the next several weeks. Hoards of people travelled to Silver Lake, hoping to see or kill it. The creature’s last appearance was in the late summer of 1885.

It was however a hoax :

In 1857, there was a fire at A. B. Walker's hotel. Firemen found a contraption, about 60 feet long, made of waterproof canvas with coils inside with weights attached to it, a hose and large bellows to inflate it and ropes to move it, in the attic – the remains of the Silver Lake serpent.

Walker wanted to increase his hotel business, so he and friends created the serpent. After they were almost discovered with their contraption, they stored it in the hotel’s attic. Walker left Perry after the hoax was discovered. The townspeople of enjoyed the hoax. They decided to hold an annual Sea Serpent Balloon Festival that commemorates the “serpent.”

Source:

https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2011/04/serpent-of-silver-lake-hoax.html

The Hotelier used the local legend to his own advantage ,but it was another Silver Lake that had a lake monster in folklore .So maybe there is something in a name ,what do you think?

No comments: