Saturday 5 February 2022

Two Lake Walkers and Lake Monsters

 

Two Lake Walkers and their Monsters

This Walker Lake is a natural lake, in  western Nevada in the USA. It is 11 miles (17 km) long and 5 miles  (8 km) wide The lake is fed by the Walker River .The lakebed is a remainder of prehistoric Lake Lahontan that covered part  of Nevada during the ice age.

There is a legend of a monster in its depths. The lake was the home of the  Paiute tribe who told the settlers stories of a giant snake-like creature that lived in the lake, and was known to have eaten humans . They refused to go fishing on the lake because of the legend.

In 1868, it was reported to the to the editor of the Esmerelda Union ,Aurora, a man called Reuben Strathers said he and a friend had killed one of the monsters. The creature was described as having a head similar to a crocodile, with its front feet near its neck, with a long tail and covered in scales .

In 1907  The Washington Herald reported  that Don Cornelison and his friend John McCorry had been fishing in a boat  when they spotted the something strange .

The report stated: “Cornelison says that at first sight he took the serpent for a man in a skiff, and when it disappeared for a moment he thought the boat had capsized, and rowed toward the spot, when it suddenly reappeared, giving them a good view of its proportions, which they estimated to be about thirty feet in length and six feet across the back.”

In 1909, the Reno Evening Gazette reported that a Japanese railroad worker had attempted to swim ashore from a boat but was drown and the monster was thought to be responsible as no remains were found.

In  July 1915, the Walker River Bulletin printed a piece that  monsters had disrupted the lake into a large wave like a Tsunami. There had been a violent disturbance in  the water near Dutch Creek. It was so large  that some people believed it to be a volcanic eruption underwater.Others blamed the monsters. The story said, “After the outburst or upheaval of water, which sent white horses in every direction, white smoke or fog arose to the crest of Mountain Grant.”

(Which sounds to me like an explosion or eruption)

In 1934 the Mineral County Independent reported that underground springs fed into Walker Lake and there was an underground passage to Pyramid Lake,enabling the creatures to pass theough.

There are also legends of a serpent in Pyramid lake .It was reported to Major Henry Douglas in the 1870s that “The Pyramid Lake Paiutes tell of their ancestors seeing a large snake or serpent in the lake some two or three hundred feet long.” Again it was said to eat humans .

Sightings are still reported sometimes today by campers and hikers.The serpent is nicknamed Cecil.

  The  Second Walker Lake.

Walker Lake is the source of the Kobuk River in northwestern Alaska. The lake is located deep in the remote interior of northern Alaska. Explored during an expedition led by John C. Cantwell in 1885. Locally known as "Big Fish Lake". The indigenous people ,the Inupiaq have a legend which tells of giant, ferocious fish that lives in  the lake . An attempt was made by a member of  the Cantwell expedition to catch one of these giant fish using  a hook made of an entire set of reindeer antlers baited with a whole goose.However it was unsuccessful and giant man eating fish are still said to be living in the waters .

There is another Alaskan lake with giant fish  Read about it here :

https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2009/05/alaskan-lake-monster.html

 

What I find interesting is there are two lake Murrays both supposed to have monsters.Is there something in a name?Are some names linked to Fortean activity? There is a Bridgewater in the UK and one in the USA ,both areas of strange phenomena

Read about the Lake Murrays here: https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2009/09/two-lake-murray-monsters.html

 

 

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