The Alkali Lake Monster, fact or fiction?

The Alkali Lake, known now as Walgren Lake, is a large body of water in the Sandhills area of Northwestern Nebraska. The indigenous natives of the area told the white settlers of a monster that dwelled in the lake. The lake is said to be home to a lake monster which is described as a 40 foot long alligator like creature with rough, greyish brown skin and a horn like appendage located between its eyes and nostrils.

Reports of the Alkali Lake Monster started in August of 1921, and the first written account of the monster appeared in a 1922 printing of the Hay Springs News.

Then in 1923 another report appeared in the Omaha World Herald. According to this report J.A. Johnson claimed that he and two friends saw the creature while camping on the shores of Alkali Lake. The three men reported that they saw the creature from a distance of 60 feet . They said it looked similar to an alligator but was bigger and heavier and had a rhinoceros like horn. When the creature noticed them it began to violently thrash its tail and disappeared beneath the churning surface. He also stated that he knew of 40 others who had also seen the animal.

See the original news report here dated 1923 July 24^th :

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19230724&id=uKkLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=21QDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3974,1214487

There seems to have been no more sightings since the 1920’s , so unless the creature died out or it was a hoax, there is no more evidence. One thing I did come across was that there had been a drought in the 1880’s/90’s that almost completely dried up the lake so any large creature in it could only have appeared after that time. Maybe an escaped crocodile from a circus ? Unless there are other appearances we will never know