More on the Moolyewonk, said to be Australia's living plesiosaur

Panther old news, Hawkesbury now has a dinosaur problem

JANE BOLER13 Aug, 2009

COULD there be prehistoric creatures living in the Hawkesbury River swimming around playing with the fish, frolicking with friends under the water? ‘The Hawkesbury Monster’ was discovered by local cryptozoologist and author Rex Gilroy in the 1965, although the origins of the creature lie in the Jurassic period alongside the dinosaurs. According to Mr Gilroy, the monster is thought to be a plesiosaur, a long necked marine reptile with four flippers apparently rendered extinct over 65 million years ago. During his research, Mr Gilroy has uncovered several fascinating accounts. Indigenous settlers of the1880s told stories of women and children being attacked by the ‘Moolyewonk’ or ‘Mirreeular’ meaning giant water serpent.

The legend next surfaced soon after WWII, when Douglas Bradburyn went fishing with a group of friends at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River in Broken when a creature rose six metres above the water. Startled, the men dropped their rods and rowed frantically towards the shore. A similar creature was seen one August afternoon in 1979 by bushwalker Rosemary Turner a few kilometres west of the Hawkesbury River Bridge. Through her binoculars, Ms Turner clearly saw a pair of humps rise out of the water and flippers move below the surface. Later that year a ‘monster’ became trapped in the Nepean River at Yarramundi not far from the junction with the Hawkesbury following a period of severe flooding. Similar tales emerged in the 1980s involving fishing boats found mysteriously overturned after reportedly being thrown through the air with the occupants nowhere to be found. Throughout the decade ‘slide marks’ were found on the riverbanks, possibly created by the plesiosaurs when entering and exiting water. Plesiosaurs were a species of reptile that laid eggs and the banks of the Hawkesbury would have provided a safe location for them to hatch. Sightings of the monster were reported even a few weeks ago by residents of Windsor and St Albans involving a 25-30 foot creature emerging from the water. Recent witness accounts match those of the European sightings from Wisemans Ferry last century, identifying a creature with a large grayish black body, two sets of flippers, a serpent-like head supported by a long neck and an eel-like tail. Historically, plesiosaurs were slow swimmers preferring to cruise along below the surface of the Pacific Ocean with sightings of the creatures off the Australian and New Zealand coasts spanning centuries. In the past 22 years, the fossils of three plesiosaurs have been found in Australia, two in Queensland and one in South Australia.

“There is definitely more than one of them,” Mr Gillroy said. “A reasonable population could be around and I think they are breeding offshore.” Aboriginal cave drawings and rock art depicting the creature can be seen etched into the sandstone walls of the Hawkesbury River. Some of the 4000-year-old drawings have faded with time but are visible, with the most significant art displayed on a cliff at Wisemans Ferry. The three images, ranging from quite small to two metres long show the distinct features of the monster and in particular, the flippers. Researchers have confirmed Aboriginal art found on sandstone cliffs in Woy Woy to be that of a plesiosaur. It is also alleged that there are cave drawings resembling a monster of this type at Muogamarra Sanctuary near Berowra.

Researchers were recently able to get an underwater photo of what they believe to be one of the creatures in the Hawkesbury River. The photo depicts a dark shape underwater with a long neck and flippers consistent with the description of a plesiosaur. The photo, accompanied with years of research, means Mr Gillroy and his research team have collected enough information on the Hawkesbury Monster to release a substantial publication. Although sounding like a character from a Japanese horror film, the modern day existence of a sea monster is plausible. A water creature could have quite easily avoided the apocalypse that killed the dinosaurs. Theories surrounding the extinction of dinosaurs include ice age, acid rain, asteroid collision, flooding, ozone depletion, epidemic diseases, and galactic dust. Using the water as shelter, a plesiosaur would have been able to survive whatever killed the dinosaurs, especially with the Hawkesbury River as its home. “The land surface had an ecological change, oceans didn’t. There is no reason they don’t exist and are moving between here and New Zealand,” Mr Gillroy said.

So why isn’t the plesiosaur seen more frequently? Consider the enormous width, depth, length and many branches of the River making it easy for the creatures to breed and survive undetected. If you have seen a creature matching this description, or for more details, contact Rex at ‘Hawkesbury River Monster Survey’ by mail at PO Box 202 Katoomba 2780 or call 4782 3441

Source: http://www.hawkesburygazette.com.au/news/local/news/general/panther-old-news-hawkesbury-now-has-a-dinosaur-problem/1595097.aspx

I am afraid I am sceptical of a dinosaur surviving this long. The marine creatures of the Jurassic lived in clear warmer waters , though the fact some did survive in colder waters for a while before extinction has been theorised from finds in the Antarctic. There may be some evolved marine creature that resembles a dinosaur, the leopard seal for instance is very dinosaur- like looking in the water, so some other unknown creature could look dinosaur like from a distance. Still I am always open to be proved wrong so will await developments with interest.

Fairies and Homo floresiensis

The bones of Homo floresiensis, said to be a species of dwarf human, were discovered at the Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003. Homo floresiensis was about 1 meter( 3 feet) in height and walked upright. The skull has human-like teeth with a receding forehead and no chin. Archaeological evidence suggests this species lived at Liang Bua between at least 95,000 and 13,000 years ago. They used stone tools, and hunted small mammals .The discoverers believe that floresiensis is a dwarf form of Homo erectus based on the evidence that it is not unknown for dwarf forms of large mammals to evolve on islands.

Could this species be behind the tales of fairies and “little people” that have been told for generations? From leprechauns to pixies there are tales of little people from all over the world, could these stories have started with encounters with the species Homo floresiensis? There is often some truth in folk tales and this would be an explanation for some stories, if people had encountered these little people in the past and the stories were then passed down through generations by oral history. An intriguing thought for a Sunday.

For more on the Hobbit (lots of different articles here)

http://www.nature.com/news/specials/flores/index.html

Lots of different reports of little people and fairies:

http://www.paranormaldatabase.com/reports/fairydata.php

Nessie re branded says academic

The Loch Ness Monster has been "rebranded" by the film industry during the last decade, according to an expert on cinema. Dr David Martin-Jones, of the University of St Andrews, said Nessie had changed from a beast feared by locals to a "family-friendly" creature. He said the 1996 film Loch Ness and 2007's The Water Horse show the monster and Scotland in a positive light. Dr Martin-Jones said the productions could be linked to growth in tourism. According to the researcher, the first British movie to cash in the myth of Nessie was 1934's The Secret of the Loch. He said it depicted Scotland as "a stereotypical land of monster-fearing locals" yet also as a modern nation connected to England by railway, road, radio, telephone, newspaper and cinema. Dr Martin-Jones, a senior lecturer at the university's department of film studies, said: "Nessie became a movie celebrity by uniting Britain in its imagination of itself as a union of two distinct nations. "Both were joined by modernity, even whilst Scotland - by virtue of the existence of its pre-historic monster - remained primitive in comparison to its southern neighbour." But in the last decade, he said the Loch Ness Monster had gained global appeal in terms of cinema. He said: "What is so distinctive about Nessie's cinematic incarnations since the 1990s is that the kelpie has been rebranded as a welcoming, and on occasion, a family-friendly monster, who negotiates Scotland's national position globally." A kelpie, or water horse, is a shape changing creature from Scottish mythology. Nessie is one of ten genres of Scottish film examined by Dr Martin-Jones in his new book Scotland: Global Cinema. The others include comedy, Bollywood, horror, costume drama and gangster flicks. Last month, a 1936 film that claimed to show the first evidence of the monster was among rarely-seen archive footage set to be shown in Scotland. The material was shown at the Glasgow Film Theatre and the National Library of Scotland (NLS) as part of Unesco's World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. A year ago, outstanding qualities that could earn Unesco World Heritage status for Loch Ness and the Great Glen were set out - but with no mention of Nessie. Destination Loch Ness, a not-for-profit group campaigning for the designation, had secured a £25,000 sponsorship package to progress the bid. Tourism expert Prof Terry Stevens said it was important to broaden knowledge of the area beyond "the myth". Securing World Heritage status for Loch Ness and the Great Glen could generate £25m for the economy and 250 jobs within three years, according to research commissioned by DLN.
source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8382986.stm

The recent furore over the Bear Lake creature- myth or Monster

There has been a lot of discussion online about the Bear lake monster so I thought I would look it up.

The first reported story of the monster came from articles written by Joseph C. Rich, a Mormon living in the area in 1868.

Here is a copy of the original article in the Deseret News Newspaper July 31, 1868 :

"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.

More recently a Captain Hirschi reported in 2002 (see article below)that he saw a sixty-five foot long monster from about two-hundred yards:

Bear Lake serpent sighting

GARDEN CITY -- Brian Hirschi may have doubted the existence of the legendary Bear Lake Monster when he purchased a pontoon-boat replica of the creature three years ago.

But all that changed one evening in the summer of 2002. After a long day of giving tours aboard the vessel, Hirschi was anchoring for the night a few hundred yards offshore when he had a haunting rendezvous with the slimy serpent. Now, he's convinced that the scores of other eyewitness accounts of the monster, which date back to American Indian times, are true. And he shrugs off naysayers who suggest that the legendary creature is just a tall tale or marketing ploy. "When you join the elite group of people who've seen it, you don't care what everybody else thinks," the 29-year-old Hirschi said Thursday. That elite group reportedly includes LDS Church presidents Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow and Joseph F. Smith. Even Brigham Young is said to have once supplied a rope to a local resident who wanted to snare the creature. Hirschi's encounter, one of the more recent sightings, occurred at about sunset as he was drifting backward to make the boat's anchor lines tight. About a hundred feet off the stern of the vessel, he noticed two small humps three feet apart in the water. His first thought was that somebody had left behind a water ski, but suddenly the humps disappeared beneath the surface. "I thought this was strange, but I had seen stranger things on the lake," Hirschi said in a written account of the encounter he posted on the Internet last year. About 30 seconds later, he felt something scrape the bottom of the boat and then lift it out of the water about six inches. "This grabbed my attention because I knew there were no underwater rocks or obstacles that could have caused this, plus the 80,000-pound boat doesn't just get lifted out of the water easily." A few moments later, less than 50 feet from the side of the boat, the monster shot out of the lake. When it landed, it made enormous waves that rocked the boat violently. Hirschi clung to the rail to keep his balance, all the while trying to keep his eyes on "whatever had just come out of the water." The monster resurfaced about 200 yards away as it swam toward the middle of the lake at a high rate of speed. Hirschi stood on the boat for 20 minutes in shock before deciding he'd better get to shore before dark. He hopped on his Sea Doo and drove back to his business, Performance Rental, as fast as he could, almost beaching the watercraft with the engine still running. "I wondered if I should tell anybody," Hirschi said. "After some thought, I finally decided I wouldn't tell anybody because they might think I had gone crazy from spending too much time on the monster boat. Plus, there were no other witnesses to verify the sighting. ... It is not until now (a year later) that I have finally decided to tell my story and let people know to be on the lookout for the Bear Lake Monster because it is still alive and lurking." Hirschi said he believes the monster approached his boat to determine whether it was a similar species. Conrad Nebeker, the Indian Creek resident who constructed the boat in 1996 to entertain his grandkids, modeled it as closely as possible after eyewitness accounts of the monster, which is said to be a green, slimy, serpent-like creature with red eyes, fangs and bunchy ears. Hirschi said the creature he saw was also about the same length as the boat. However, based on his encounter, he's decided to add red lights to replicate the monster's glowing eyes, a smoke machine to emanate mist from the replicas nostrils and an audio device to play a roaring sound. Hirschi, a Cache Valley native who graduated from Logan High School and Utah State University, said his father and grandfather were both from the Bear Lake Valley, and he spent summers there during his childhood. He has maintained that living arrangement as an adult, offering 45-minute tours of the lake aboard the monster boat seven days a week beginning in mid-June. During the tours, Hirschi recounts some of the folklore about the monster. He said he always carries a camera, just in case his passengers are lucky enough to catch a glimpse. "We tell them there's always a chance," he said. "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."

Story published by The Herald Journal / UT | John Wright - May 22.04

So a myth or is there something in Bear Lake? The descriptions of the creature vary between a walrus like animal and a sort of prehistoric crocodile and a large brown snake. Surely all three cannot be living in the lake? I think it may be an alligator gar again but anyone reading this has any suggestions or knows more about this, please post a comment. It could of course be simply a myth that has grown over time as these things do and mistaken identity of natural phenomena in the lake, fuelled by the myth. Anyone out there know different?.

The folktale:

http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/ut2.html

The article that caused the discussion:

http://www.pamil-visions.net/bear-lake-monster-story/28144/

Cleaner water for Nessie-but less sightings

Looking back at some archives of nessie news I came across these items:

Monster spotter applauds £2m Ness clean-up By Claire Doughty

Published: 02 November, 2006

NESSIE will have clearer water to swim in after millions of pounds was invested in cleaning up her ‘home’. And, it is hoped, the improvements to the Loch Ness Monster’s surroundings will lead to more sightings. Scottish Water have just completed two projects worth over £2 million in the world famous stretch of water. Modern waste water treatment works have been installed at Foyers on the south shore of the loch, and at Balnain, near Drumnadrochit, on the north shore. Both works discharge a cleaner effluent into the rivers Foyers and Enrick, which flow into Nessie’s abode .Gary Campbell, president of The Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club, welcomed the news. He said: ‘It is great to see this improvement in the quality of Nessie’s habitat. There have only been a few sightings this year and I’m sure that cleaner water will mean Nessie is seen more .

‘Seriously, this is good news for the many Nessie hunters who visit the area. A cleaner environment will encourage them to return.’ Nessie fan club president Gary Campbell is hopeful the cleaner water will make for more sightings.Sheila Campbell-Lloyd, Scottish Water’s regional manager in the Highlands, added: ‘This is a brilliant example of Scottish Water investing to ensure that the Highlands remains a great place to live and visit. A cleaner environment makes for a better experience and that in turn should benefit the important tourist trade in the area.’The £1.8 million treatment works located in Lower Foyers, near the lochside, has two septic tanks and filters which provide secondary treatment, which separates solid and liquid waste and is filtered down to produce a high quality effluent. It replaces a number of outdated septic tanks around Lower and Upper Foyers. By reducing the number of discharges to just one, the environment is now much more pleasant and the river and the loch are now much cleaner. At Balnain, the £300,000 project involves a new septic tank and reed bed system which protects the environment and boosts the water quality in the River Enrick. Scottish Water says reed beds use natural methods to break down sewage and recycle it into clean water. They don’t use any chemicals and reduce the risk of flooding, minimise odours, blend in well with the environment and provide habitats for wildlife. The most recent Nessie sighting was last month when a young English couple holidaying in the Highlands claimed they encountered Nessie twice during their stay. Nick Thurston and his fiance Emma Louise Jones won a holiday to the Highland capital and spotted the monster whilst on a cruise. Their second sighting was a week later whilst driving near to Urquhart Castle. Source:http://www.north-star-news.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/728/Monster_spotter_applauds__A32m_Ness_clean-up.html

Here is a sighting from 2007:

Sidney Wilson was in the city with his wife Janet when they decided on a cruise down the loch to take in the sights. And it was as they approached Urquhart Castle that he ended up taking this intriguing photograph. Sidney, who comes from Nottingham, said: "I was just taking pictures of everything as we sailed down the loch. "As we approached the castle, two power boats appeared and circled us at speed, leaving a large wash in their wake. "Thinking that it would make a good photograph, I fired off two quick shots and on the second, there appeared to be something in the water." After enlarging the image, Sidney could swear he could see a head and fin in the boat's wash. "After showing the image to staff at the National Hotel in Dingwall, they advised us to contact the Highland News," he added. The sighting took place on Tuesday, March 27. The earliest claimed reference to Nessie is taken from the history of St Columba in which it is said he saved the life of a Pict who was being attacked by the monster. The first modern sighting occurred on May 2, 1933. A report in a local newspaper claimed a Mr and Mrs John Mackay saw "an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface".

Source:http://www.north-star-news.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/1596/Is_this_Nessie_.html

Well the clean water doesn’t seem to have done the trick are there seem to have been less sightings since this was done. The sighting from 2007 looks like a seal as there is no indication of size, I think that is what it would be put down to. I wonder if there have been fewer sightings or if people are just reluctant to report them?

The $1,000,000.00 Hunt for Bigfoot

A bigfoot hunt for money:

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Registration is through this website. The $1,000,000.00 Hunt for Bigfoot is limited to the first (400) entries and Registration will close when available entries are filled. Entry Fee is $250. for (1) Designated Hunter. Additional T-Shirt/Museum/Party tickets are available for Family Members/Friends at $75. per person. Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover Card are accepted through our secure Google Check-Out.

Recent Bigfoot Sightings in The San Juan Region

March 2009- Bigfoot sighting and photographic evidence of footprints in the snow reported by a BLM Ranger 14 miles from Durango Mountain Resort on the backside of Purgurtory.

May 2009- Bigfoot sighting with photograph reported by a vacationing couple en-route to Silverton, CO. on Hwy. #550 that witnessed a Bigfoot crossing the highway.

April 2009- Bigfoot lean-to found approximately 8 miles from Silverton, CO. Structure was built from branches broken-off of trees at a height of 8'+.

June 2009- Bigfoot activity reported by family camping at Navajo Lake. Creature was vocalizing and tossing small stones at campsite tents.

August 2009- Bigfoot sighting and evidence of broke-off branches on a tree reported by an elderly couple to a U.S. Forest Service Agent who surveyed the site and confirmed footprints and broken branches. Location in La Platte Canyon at Lil Olga Campsite.

August 2009- Bigfoot sighting on the banks of the San Juan River at Farmington, NM reported by a BLM Ranger.

August 2009- Bigfoot sighting along the Animas River approximately 9 miles from Silverton, CO. Reported by Crew and Passengers on the Durango/Silverton Narrow Guage Railroad Train. Contact Us INFO@HUNT4BIGFOOT.COM

RULES: Bigfoot Central will offer the first authenticated winner $1,000,000.00 (payable in a 20-year annuity of $50,000 per year) for an unaltered photograph of a live Bigfoot taken within the Designated Hunt Area during the Designated Hunt Period, using a camera provided by the Hunter that has been registered by the Promoter during Check-In. In the event a Hunter sees and photographs a Bigfoot, you are required to immediately take (2) more consecutive photographs from the same location and note the GPS coordinates of the sighting. A submitted photograph must be verified and substantiated by a panel of independent scientific experts, approved and assigned by Bigfoot Central, as the evidence required to prove a live Bigfoot has been photographed by you. A Bigfoot must be alive at the time the photograph was taken. Entries must be from the camera provided by the Hunter that was registered during Check-In with the images inside un-retouched, unaltered and not changed in anyway, or the Designated Hunter will be disqualified. A submitted photo will be reviewed by a panel of experts for authenticity. Panelists will include, but are not limited to, an assigned zoologist, biologist and a photo expert. The winner must be a unanimous decision from all participating expert judges. All entries become the sole possession of Bigfoot Central, and will not be returned. Winner will be contacted via registered mail and announced on the website. For more info go here: http://www.hunt4bigfoot.com/

Am I the only person with doubts about this? Please post any comments.

Cressie of Crescent lake- a monster eel?

Cressie is the name given to a creature , most described as a large eel, that is said to inhabit Lake Crescent. It was cited in ancient Native American legends, in which it was referred to as "Woodum Haoot" (Pond Devil) or "Haoot Tuwedyee" (Swimming Demon). It was feared by the local residents of the lakeside, but reports of it by the settlers only began in the early 20th century.

This article from 1999 gives the history of sightings and some eye witness testimony:

Sea creature may lead to new eel species

By E. Randall Floyd Sunday, March 21, 1999

Pierce Rideout had heard stories about "Cressie," a monster that supposedly inhabited Crescent Lake in Newfoundland. But it would take more than legends and old wives' tales to spook this hearty Newfoundland farmer whose family had lived on the lake for generations. He became a believer on Sept. 5, 1991. "I was driving along the road, minding my own business, when I looked out the open window and noticed a disturbance on the lake," Mr. Rideout told newspaper reporters. He said he saw what seemed to be a bow wave of a small boat about 150 yards offshore. "From what I could tell, it was moving slow but steady," Mr. Rideout said. "It was black and about 15 feet long, and it was pitching forward in a rolling motion much as a whale does." The startled Newfoundlander saw no sign of a fin, sail or fluke. Nor did he see a head or neck. A few seconds later the thing sank and did not reappear. "I knew what it was," he said. "It had to be Cressie." The sighting so rattled the part-time mail carrier that he started carrying a gun along when traveling near the lake. For centuries, folks living along Crescent Lake had told stories about Cressie, a snakelike creature that supposedly lives near the southern end of the lake. Indian myths contained references to woodum haoot, the "pond devil," or the "swimming demon," haoot tuwedyee. Early French and English explorers also chronicled accounts of such creatures inhabiting a number of Canadian lakes, including Ogopogo of British Columbia, Lake Champlain's Champ, Igopogo of Lake Simcoe and Manipogo of Lake Manitoba. Like Nessie of Scotland's Loch Ness and Chessie of Chesapeake Bay, these lake monsters rarely harmed anyone, and none has ever been captured or properly photographed. Yet people continue to believe. Cressie sightings increased significantly after the turn of the century, when one of the first residents of the village of Robert's Arm, remembered today as "Grandmother Anthony," was startled from her berry-picking by a giant serpent on the lake. Armed farmers and fishermen patrolled the shores for weeks. Encounters also were reported in the 1930s and '40s. In the early '50s, two woodsmen reported seeing a "huge, black and rounded" snake slip beneath the waters of the lake. This sighting was followed by several more over the following years. In the late spring of 1990, another resident of Robert's Arm said he saw a "slim, black shape" rise five feet from a patch of churning water before sinking out of sight. That report made front page in several local newspapers. On July 9, 1991, one of the most respected citizens of Robert's Arm spotted Cressie. Fred Parsons, a retired schoolteacher, newspaper correspondent and 1991 winner of "Citizen of the Year Award," swore he watched a "dark serpent- shaped creature" undulate across the lake. The creature appeared to be "in excess" of 20 feet long.

Skeptics scoff at such suggestions. They claim that public relations stunts and outright fraud account for 90 percent of the sightings, while the rest can be attributed to mistaken observations. One doubter insists that the frothing disturbances commonly associated with sightings are actually gas bubbles from decomposing pulpwood littering the lake bottom. But Royal Canadian Mounted Police divers have found compelling evidence that "monsters" inhabit Crescent Lake. Giant eels thicker than a man's thigh were photographed churning through the depths of the lake. Several of these "giants" were killed and brought to the surface for examination. One such specimen measured almost 5 feet long. Adult eels have been known to reach 20 feet. But in the early 1930s, Danish marine biologists discovered a deep-sea eel larva 6 feet long. Fully grown, the eel could be expected to exceed 60 feet in length -- a true "sea monster." Some investigators theorize that Cressie, Nessie, Ogopogo and all the other fabled lake monsters are actually nothing more than unknown species of giant eel. From the Sunday, March 21, 1999 edition of the Augusta Chronicle.

Source:http://chat.augustachronicle.com/stories/1999/03/21/ent_256821.shtml

N.B. the deep sea larva turned out to be an egg sac from something else I believe not an eel larva.

In the summer of 2003 Cressie was seen again when a woman saw the creature swimming. Vivian Short of Roberts Arm rounded a corner while driving with a friend along the lake side. "I was just a screamin', 'We saw Cressie, we saw Cressie!' Excited, eh," she said. She described a snake-like creature with a fish-like head. "Well, I said to my friend, 'Oh my that's big. That could eat four or five people if they were swimming, like.'" Ada Rowsell, the town's clerk said she’d had several reports of sightings. People reported sighting some kind of a huge monster or sea serpent or some kind of a fish this year.

So another giant eel? Sounds a distinct possibility in this case, in view of what the divers found. I am not sure how deep the lake actually is but came across one report saying 30 0 feet. Eels tend to be bottom dwellers who only surface occasionally but also tend to swim side to side rather than undulate up and down as witnesses described. Of course with a giant eel it maybe has to change it’s way of moving because of it’s great size. Until one is caught we will not know.

Paddler -lake creature, submarine or fish?

Paddler is the name of the lake creature that supposedly inhabits Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho. The lake is said to be Idaho's deepest lake at almost 1200 feet and is 43miles long and just over six miles wide at it’s widest point. The creature has been described as over 20 feet long and that it moves up and down in the water as it swims(undulates).

The first sighting was said to be in 1944, however there were also rumours that the navy were testing submarines in the lake.

In the 1970’s more stories appeared about a monster in the lake .In September 1977 a young girl was reportedly attacked by a strange creature near the Sandpoint City Beach.

Journalists called the creature the "Pend Oreille Paddler".

In 1984, an expedition to the lake by a North Idaho College professor , James R. McLeod, concluded that the creature was most likely to be a giant sturgeon.. While collecting testimonies McLeod noted that many people had reported seeing strange things on the lake possibly submarines.

The US Navy admitted to using the deep end of the lake for submarine research, albeit many years later . The International Submarine Engineering group (ISE) of Canada also used the lake to test the Pisces I minisub in the 1960's.

However the story doesn’t end there:

On Memorial Day, 1985, Julie Green and her friends set out for an afternoon on the Lake In the mid afternoon sun , the teacher from Coeur d'Alene reports, a large V-shaped wave crossed about 200 yards in front of her boat. "There was clearly something in the water ahead of us that was undulating, coming in and out of the water," she recalls. Green dropped her engine and gave chase, but the gunmetal-gray object, which rivalled the length of her 22-foot boat, soon outdistanced her.

So does the paddler really exist? There was speculation it was a story put about by the navy to cover their activities. A sturgeon is of course a possibility but in such a deep lake could there be something else lurking? Maybe the navy should use a minisub to find out.

There is a book on the creature by James R. McLeod, “Mysterious Lake Pend Oreille and its Monster”, 1984

Robert Rines and Loch Ness

This is an article from 2003 the year when I last saw Robert Rines at Loch Ness. It is from the The Press and Journal which is a newspaper from the area (mainly Aberdeen I think)
It should be possible to click on it and make it bigger so it is readable. I never thought at the time when I clipped it from the paper that it would be a part of the history of Loch Ness and it's investigators.
RIP Mr Rines. I hope you found your Nessie.

Thunderbird sighting reported.

This is from Dallas Tanner's blog:

Hello Mr. Tanner,

I emailed you from you web site also. At the top of the Contact form you ask people to select Email CC to send you a copy... I couldn't find that on the form so I'm sending my story in a separate email, I hope you don't mind.

My sighting was many years ago but I remember it like it was a few minutes ago, it's not every day one sees a giant bird and is afraid to tell anyone because you know what the story will sound like (campfire ghost tales). I'm not sure what compelled me to contact you. Maybe just finally having someone to tell who won't think I'm nuts and/or maybe after reading about the more recent sightings I feel that this information will be useful in mapping the movements of these magnificent raptors. If you compare the other email I sent you today you'll notice that I have made a few changes in this one. These changes don't change the story or the facts of my sighting, they have been added to better describe the event of that morning.

So, here goes...

I've been reading the stories of Thunderbird sightings and I believe I saw one of these birds in central Nevada in January, 1981. I have only told a couple of people this story because I didn't want to be labeled "the crazy UFO / Giant Bird lady". I saw the bird on the side of Hwy. 376 a few miles from Round Mountain, Nevada. Because of heavy snow and ice in the winter and heavy rains in the spring, Nevada's highways are elevated with deep ditches along the sides for run-off. It was in one of these ditches that I saw the bird.

I was a passenger in a small Dodge truck (a D-50) at about 7 am, there was a fresh blanket of aprox 6 to 8 inches of snow. The road hadn't been plowed yet so I was looking out the window admiring how pristine it all was. At first I though the bird was someone stranded on the side of the road but if it was human it appeared to be wearing a strange feathered cloak of some sort. That's what alerted me to the strangeness of what I was seeing! It was standing fully in the ditch and it behaved as if it had a fresh kill under it's feet.

It gave a little hop like eagles do when they are trying to adjust their grasp but it didn't hop high enough for me to see it's feet. It did spread it's wings slightly for balance when it hopped and I could see that they were enormous. It was a shiny (but not what I would call glossy) chestnut brown color and was large enough that I could see the texture of it's feathers. It looked like a Golden Eagle, of which are abundant in Nevada, but it's head and shoulders(?) appeared close to the size of my own!

It was actually standing so that it's head was about level with my own and I was in a truck and the bird was standing at the bottom of a ditch at least 4 or 5 feet deep! It dipped it's head once toward it's feet but it's back was to me so I could only see a small bit of it's head between the back of the scull and the eye when it came up from that dip. I could just make out the indentation at the outer edge of the eye socket. I never saw it's face. A few days later when the clouds broke and the snow started to melt I went back to the sight.

There was signs of a fairly fresh kill. The remains had obviously been that of a mule deer (they are about the size of a small horse). The scull, shoulders, spine and pelvis, a few rib bones, bloody hair and tissue were scattered around. What ever the giant bird left behind was being taken care of by the local scavengers. I was nineteen years old and about three months into my first pregnancy so my husband was focussed on the road. He was maneuvering our truck through unplowed snow and ice so he didn't see the bird.

I didn't tell him what I saw until many years later when we were watching n unsolved mystery type show on TV with our children. I don't think he ever believed me and he and my children are the only ones I've ever mentioned it to. Until I watched the TV program I thought maybe I was the only one who had ever seen this. I even thought that maybe it was the only bird of its kind, some sort of weird experiment or something (we lived fairly close to Nevada's Nuclear Test Site)

Thank you for letting me share this with you.

Sincerely,

Rhonda (Last Name Withheld)
source: http://webpages.charter.net/dltanner/thunderbirds.htm

Interesting and similar to another sighting from a truck by Lewis Ostrander in 2002 also on Dallas Tanners blog. Dallas Tanner is an author of some books on cryptid subjects and a lecturer. Worth a look at his blog, lots of interesting stuff for those who like cryptozoology.

strange roof creatures

All over the internet there are stories of strange creatures seen on roofs-here are two examples:

Phantom Roof Creature

BY MAGI B.

By Stephen Wagner,

This happened about 2007 in the summer. I am 54 years old and live in a very small town in southeastern Washington. I worked for our local small town hospital cleaning the doctors' offices and local clinic after hours, usually around midnight to 5 a.m.This was about 2 or 3 in the morning and the night was clear and warm. I was standing outside in front of one of the offices having a smoke. I was turned toward the parking lot with the building about 30 feet away and to my right. I was looking up at the sky when suddenly movement to my right caught my eye. I quickly turned my head and caught sight of something dark -- very dark, like a shadow -- on the roof. It moved quickly behind the dormer. It moved so fast that all I saw was the back end of it. Its head had already gone behind the high dormer that was on the roof over the entryway. It was about the size of a man, but it seemed to move like a hyena, with rounded haunches, and if it had a tail, it was tucked between its legs.I wasn't scared, really, but I went inside nonetheless. A few weeks later, I was sitting in my truck at the same set of offices taking a break. Across the parking lot straight ahead of me I saw movement. This thing ran like a shadow under the light, moving from one building to the next, moving against the walls of the buildings. I don't know what I saw those two times, but I will tell you this: I saw something and I don't believe it was human. It was some sort of animal, but I got the impression it was intelligent. The older I get, the more I have come to realize just how much we don't know about the world we live in.

source:http://paranormal.about.com/od/othercreatures/a/tales_09_11_08t.htm

Strange Flying Creature

by Mr. Izu

This actually happened to my older brother and my grandma in Puerto Rico when he was about 9 (he's 33 now). My grandparents' house had a lot of land, and it inclines down,so if you look at the house from street level you see only the top part of the driveway and the roof of the house. Also, the house is near some huge mountains which surround Utuado, so in the back are the mountains.One day, my brother was playing on the driveway (from there you could see on top of the roof) and he looked up because he heard a loud thump, when he looked up my grandma came out at the same time. They looked on top of the roof and saw a short, hairy, dark brown apelike thing, with wings. It shook off and flew away into the mountains. To this day, they still don't know what it was, but they think it was a monster from the "yunque" which is like a rainforest in Puerto Rico, where they spliced the genes of many animals to create different ones. It is said that that's how the chupacabra was made. They think it escaped from there and hid in the mountains.

source:http://paranormal.about.com/library/blstory_march05_15.htm

Are these creatures some sort of chupacabra or a mothman type creature? It is very curious that they are reported all over the world. Giant bats could be one explanation but these creatures are seen in parts of the world where native bats are only small, such as the UK. Anyone care to post a comment to speculate what these roof sitters might be?

Possible Michigan Bigfoot encounter?

Bigfoot: Legend or ...

Posted: Friday, October 30, 2009 By Marci Singer News-Review Staff Write

When Ron Kostrubiec visited Wilderness State Park with his family at the end of July, he got more than he bargained for. Riding his mountain bike along Swamp Line Trail at approximately 6:30 p.m. on July 29, the 41-year-old Macomb Township man was enjoying the earthy smells of nature. Two miles or so into his ride, he turned east toward the Nebo Trail, delighting in deep breaths of pine and damp earth - that is until he reached a "wall." "I was about three quarters of the way to the Nebo Trail when I ran into the thickest wall of live human body odor that you could ever imagine," he said. "It sent chills up my spine and my hair stood up. It scared me so much, I peddled as fast as I could out of there." Kostrubiec got back to camp and told everyone about his experience. The next morning, he spoke with rangers but no one could give him an answer about what he smelled. So that evening he went back to the same spot at roughly same time. "This time I was on full alert. I put my nose in the air and looked around as much as I could but I never smelled it again. That tells me something was there. And I truly believe what ever was there watched me go by," he said. Not only did he go back to the spot once, but every night until he and his family left. Although he never smelled it again, on one of his "missions," something else happened. While walking down a snowmobile trail by O'Neal and Lawrence lakes, while listening to the wind blowing through the trees, he heard something. "I was listening to the sounds of nature when all of a sudden from the direction of the smell encounter I heard three faint taps like two pieces of wood being hit together, then a slight pause, then one more and then back to the sounds of nature," he said. After listening to people talk about Bigfoot, Kostrubiec thinks this is what he may have encountered - and he's not the only one. Shortly after his first encounter, Kostrubiec's 9-year-old son, Anthony, said a young boy by the name of Jack had a similar experience. "Jack smelled really bad body odor too right behind the campground around the same day as my encounter," Kostrubiec said. "He was riding his bike along a powerline trail when he said he ran into the smell. He said it really scared him and he got out of there and went back to his camper." The story doesn't end there. On one of the last days of their trip, Kostrubiec, along with his wife, Gina, their three sons, Anthony, Mikey, 7, and Joey, 5, and his mother and father-in-law, took a bike ride on Wilderness Road to a large glacier boulder marked by the Department of Natural Resources. As the kids were playing on the rock with his wife and mother-in-law, Kostrubiec and his father-in-law walked through the woods when they came upon unusual markings in the ground. "To understand these markings, picture the ground being a thick thatch layer of pine needles and to really make a mark in them you would really have to kick the ground in a forward motion to even really attempt to get to the dirt below," Kostrubiec said. "But there were these marks that went back into the woods that looked as if you would have gotten on your knees and punched the ground to push the needles forward and expose the dirt below." The men followed the marks into the woods toward the road where they seemed to stop at the base of a fallen tree. As Kostrubiec looked around, he noticed a footprint. "Because of the pine needle floor it was more of a impression like you would see in your carpet after vacuuming," he said. He called for everyone and directed them to come to him without stepping on the trail. When everyone was there, he grabbed a small stick and traced out the footprint. "It was a right foot print about 16 inches long and really wide," he said. "You could make it out perfectly with a little rise of dirt between the little and next toe. Everyone saw it." He traced it out a couple more times, all the while not believing what he was seeing. "Not even thinking of Bigfoot when going out there, my mind and senses seemed overwhelmed," he said.With no camera, everyone went back to camp. Since the trip, Kostrubiec has spoken with the Mackinaw City Police, as well as with the State Police in Petoskey. Chief Patrick Wyman with the Mackinaw City Police and Sergeant Jerry Briolat with the State Police Post in Petoskey said neither posts have ever received any report of suspicious Bigfoot activity. "We've had reports of suspicious activity in the area but nothing related to Bigfoot," Briolat said. The Department of Natural Resources Law Division also has not received any reports of that nature in the area or any other area in Northern Michigan according to Lt. Daniel Hopkins. "The reports of activity we've received are cougar or wolf related - nothing Bigfoot," Hopkins said. Kostrubiec said all of the researchers he's spoken with from the Michigan Bigfoot Organization and the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization said what he encountered in the woods could have been Bigfoot. Matt Moneymaker, president of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization said, with absolute certainly, Bigfoot creatures exist in some places in North America, but they are not everywhere. "Reports have been consistent in the last 11 years since reports began to be collected through the Internet," Moneymaker said. "The same kinds of animals are present and that indicates there may be a relatively sizable population." With several handfuls of reports in both peninsulas every year, Moneymaker said the Great Lakes has a history of Bigfoot sightings dating back to early Native American times. With respect to Kostrubiec's encounter, Moneymaker said there were characteristics that would make it possible that it was a Bigfoot but it's not definitive. "For all the time I have spent in the woods fishing and hunting in the Upper and Lower Peninsulas seeing bear, deer and other wildlife, I never had these experiences before," Kostrubiec said. "It was a Bigfoot encounter as for the footprint. There is no mistaking that. I truly believe in the events and I definitely think there is something going on up there."

Some other creatures that some people believe may be in area forests, but there is no conclusive proof:

- According to the Michigan Citizens for Cougar Recognition Web site, there have been 74 sightings of cougars in Emmet County from 1990-2009. Mary Dettloff, public information officer with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said although there are lots of alleged sightings, there have been only two cougars verified by scat, tracks and other biological evidence in the western half of the Upper Peninsula. Dettloff said there's no established evidence of breeding populations of cougars in Northern Michigan.

- According to Dettloff, one wolverine was found in the thumb area of Michigan four years ago. Dettloff said a possible theory is that the creature came in on a Canadian garbage truck.

- Dettloff said there are more than 500 wolves in the Upper Peninsula. A wolf was trapped in Presque Isle County three years ago, however there's been no biological data of wolves in the Lower Peninsula since then.

Source: http://www.petoskeynews.com/news/article_506e63ae-c548-11de-9b74-001cc4c03286.html

The Gowrow - alligator or dragon?

Was there a dragon living in Arkansas?

The Gowrow, is said to be a 20-ft long lizard-type monster with tusks, living along rocky ledges and in caves in the Ozarks The Ozark Native American Mythology, described it as a huge, dragon-like monster with tusks. In the 1880s, the gowrow was blamed for the terrorizing rural areas. Fred Allsopp, who edited the Arkansas Gazette was said to have published many stories about it.

In 1897, William Miller supposedly killed a gowrow, but no body was reported to have been found. One story said that when he killed the Gowrow the carcass was lost in shipment to the Smithsonian Institute.

There are a couple of versions of what happened around 1935 when the Gowrow was said to be inhabiting a deep cave in Boone County.:

Sometime prior to 1935, near the village of Self in Boone County, a gowrow allegedly inhabited the Devil's Hole, a deep cave who's mouth opened on the estate of E.J. Rhodes. One day, after hearing a commotion emanating from the Devil’s Hole's underground recesses, Rhodes decided to investigate by lowering himself into its shaft and descending via rope to a ledge 200 feet beneath the opening. Below this point the shaft was too narrow to permit further descent, so Rhodes failed to satisfy his curiosity - which was probably just as well. When some men lowered a flatiron down to the same level that Rhodes had reached, a loud angry hissing noise was plainly heard. They heard it again when they repeated the procedure, this time using a large stone attached to the rope. Moreover, when they drew the rope back up they discovered that the stone was gone. The section of the rope holding it had been completely bitten through!

From Dr Karl P.N. Shuker's book "From Flying Toads to Snakes With Wings" pages 87-88.

There are limestone caves in the area, possibly linked to the Mystic Cave system. Yet an intriguing incident took place during the Nineteenth Century at Devil's Hole Cave, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southwest of Yellville. "Deciding to find out what was causing all the commotion down in the cave. E.J. Rhodes, owner of the land containing its (the cave's) mouth, descended by rope to a ledge 200 feet below ground. The shaft was too tight to penetrate farther." "Later, several men probed the cave with a long rope. They tired a flatiron on it and let it down into the hole. At 200 feet, the iron struck something--evidently the ledge discovered earlier by Rhodes. A vicious hissing rose out of the hole, as if from some large, angry animal." "The men pulled up the rope and found that the handle of the iron had been bent, and was even thought by some to show teeth marks. A large stone was then lowered with the rope. Again the angry sibilance, and when the rope was drawn up, the stone was gone, and the rope was neatly bitten off." "Local people call the Devil's Hole Cave entity the Gowrow and believe it to be a gigantic, man-eating lizard. Stories of it have circulated since the turn of the century," i,e, 1900.

From : Weird America by Jim Brandon, E.P. Dutton Books, New York, N.Y. 1978, page 15)

A Mr V. Randolf, was said to have seen the Gowrow in the Ozark Mountains in 1951.I could find nothing more about this sighting though.

So was the Gowrow a dragon or as many people believe an alligator? I don’t know if alligator s lived in the area at one time but it may have escaped from a travelling circus or zoo. It must have lived for quite a long time though from the 1800’s to 1935. An intriguing question , if it was an alligator, how did it get there and if it wasn’t what did bite through the rope?

The strange story of an electric sea monster 1893.

A strange monster tale from 1893.

AN ELECTRIC MONSTER

Flashes of Light and Terrible Sounds Emitted by One in the Bay

A party of Tacoma gentlemen have good reason to remember the morning of the 2nd of July as long as life remains in their bodies--and to quote the exact words of one of the party, "There are denizens of the ocean that man never, in his most horrible and fantastic nightmare, even saw the likes of." On Saturday morning a party, composed of the following well known gentlemen, set sail on the sloop “Marion” from the boat house at the end of the wharf for a three days' fishing and hunting excursion on the Sound. The party consisted of Auctioneer William Fitzhenry, H. L. Beal, W. L. McDonald, J. K. Bell, Henry Blackwood, and two eastern gentlemen who are visiting the coast, and it is from the lips of one of these gentlemen, who declines to allow his name to be used, as he says that shortly before he left the east he took the Keeley cure, and he fears that if his name was used in connection with this article, his eastern friends might think he had “gone back” and got 'em again. The party were well supplied with all the necessaries of life, as well as an abundance of its luxuries, though it must not be inferred from this fact that the luxuries played any part in creating the sights seen on that memorable morning. Of course, as a person having much respect for truth, I merely chronicle the story as told me, and leave each reader of this remarkable yarn to judge for themselves the necessary amount of credence to give it. "We left Tacoma," said the eastern man, "about 4:30 p. m., Saturday, July 1st, and as the wind was from the southeast, we shaped our course for Point Defiance, intending to anchor off that point and try our luck with rod and line. We cast anchor about 6 o'clock, the wind having died out, and had fair success fishing. The wind coming up again pretty strong, Mr. McDonald suggested getting under way for Black Fish Bay, Henderson Island, as he knew of a fine trout stream running into the bay and also an excellent camping place near the fishing ground. So about 8 o'clock we weighed anchor and shaped our course for Black Fish Bay, which place we reached about 9:30. We landed and made everything snug about the boat and made a nice camp on shore, and as it was by this time 11 o'clock, we all turned in to get a little sleep as it was agreed upon that at the first streak of daylight we should all get up. About 100 yards from our camp was the camp of a surveying party, but as it was so late, we decided that we would not disturb them but that we would call upon them the following morning, and would probably get some valuable pointers as to the best places to fish and hunt on the island. After a few jokes had been cracked, the boys laid down and in a short time everything about camp became as still as death. It was, I guess, about midnight before I fell asleep, but exactly how long I slept, I cannot say, for when I woke, it was with such startling suddenness that it never entered my mind to look at my watch, and when after awhile I did look at my watch, as well as every watch belonging to the party, it was stopped.

“I am afraid, sir, that you will fail to comprehend how suddenly that camp was awoke. "Since the creation of the world, I doubt if sounds and sights more horrible were ever seen or heard by mortal man. I was in the midst of a pleasant dream when, in an instant, a most horrible noise rang out in the clear morning air, and instantly the whole air was filled with a strong current of electricity that caused every nerve in the body to sting with pain, and a light as bright as that created by the concentration of many arc lights kept constantly flashing. At first I thought it was a thunder storm, but as no rain accompanied it, and as both light and sound came from off the bay, l turned my head in that direction, and if it is possible for fright to turn one's hair white, then mine ought to be snow white, for right before my eyes was a most horrible looking monster.” By this time every man in our camp, as well as the men from the camp of the surveyors, were gathered on the bank of the stream, and as soon as we could gather our wits together we began to question if what we were looking at was not the creation of the mind, but we were soon disburdened of this idea, for the monster slowly drew in toward the shore, and as it approached, from its head poured out a stream of water that looked like blue fire. All the while the air seemed to be filled with electricity, and the sensation experienced was as if each man had on a suit of clothes formed of the fine points of needles . One of the men from the surveyor's camp incautiously took a few steps in the direction of the water, and as he did so the monster darted towards the shore and threw a stream of water that reached the man, and he instantly fell to the ground and lay as though dead. "Mr. McDonald attempted to reach the man's body to pull it back into a place of safety, but he was struck with some of the water that the monster was throwing and fell senseless to the earth. By this time every man in both parties was panic-stricken, and we rushed to the woods for a place of safety, leaving the fallen men lying on the beach. "As we reached the woods the 'demon of the deep’ sent out flashes of light that illuminated the surrounding country for miles, and his roar--which sounded like the roar of thunder--became terrific. When we reached the woods we looked around and saw the monster making off in the direction of the Sound, and in an instant, it disappeared beneath the waters of the bay, but for some time we were able to trace its course by a bright luminous light that was on the surface of the water. As the fish disappeared total darkness surrounded us, and it took us some time to find our way back to the beach where our comrades lay, and we were unable to tell the time, as the powerful electric force had stopped our watches. We eventually found McDonald and the other man and were greatly relieved to find that they were alive, though unconscious. So we sat down to await the coming of daylight. It came, I should judge, in about half an hour, and by this time, by constant work on the two men, both were able to stand, and both agree that the moment the water the monster threw touched them, they became immediately unconscious." On being asked to give some description of the fish, for it was, he said, "an electrical fish,” the eastern man said:

"This monster fish, or whatever you may call it, was fully 150 feet long, and at its thickest part I should judge about thirty feet in circumference. Its shape was somewhat out of the ordinary in so far that the body was neither round nor flat but oval, and from what we could see, the upper part of the body was covered with a very coarse hair. The head was shaped very much like the head of a walrus, though, of course, very much larger. Its eyes, of which it apparently had six, were as large around as a dinner plate and were exceedingly dull, and it was about the only spot on the monster that at one time or another was not illuminated. At intervals of about every eight feet from its head to its tail, a substance that had the appearance of a copper band encircled its body, and it was from these many bands that the powerful electric current appeared to come. The bands nearest the head seemed to have the strongest electric force, and it was from the first six bands that the most brilliant lights were emitted. Near the center of its head were two large horn-like substances, though they could not have been horns for it was through them that the electrically charged water was thrown (or appeared to be thrown)."Its tail, from what I could see of it, was shaped like a propeller and seemed to revolve, and it may be possible that the strange monster pushes himself through the water by means of this propeller like tail. "At will this strange monstrosity seemed to be able to emit strong waves of electric current, giving off an electro motive force which causes any person coming within the radius of this force to receive an electro tonus This fish probably receives its power from some submarine cavern of volcanic origin which owing to its peculiar construction, and having an extra large deposit of copper, it charges the fish that inhabit that region with a strong electric force that is displayed by this peculiar specimen. The peculiar shaped copper-like bands may be caused by the strong magnetic force of the fish and the copper deposits of the ocean, as the strong current would form the copper into a solution, whilst the strong attraction of the fish would naturally form an electric battery, drawing towards it this solution, thus forming deposits on the fish, so that in reality the electric fish is completely encompassed in copper, and its rapid movement through the water is constantly generating frictional electricity, which, I should judge, would in a measure account for the fish being so constantly and powerfully charged with electricity, though far from its original source of supply. One of the strange characteristics of this fish, and one by which it undoubtedly obtains its food, is its high electric control of dense and foggy atmosphere surrounding it, which amalgamates with the electrification of the fish, making a potential which causes any living creature, such as birds or insects, flying through the air to fall dead into the water. Of course, that is merely a theory, and I may be mistaken as to its origin or where it goes to, but one thing I do know, that I would not encounter the same monster again for the universe, and you can ask the rest of the party and you will find that they all agree with me, that to be within so short a distance of such a terrible monster and yet live to tell the story is something that only happens once in 1000 years. I hardly need to tell you that we were not long in getting under way for Tacoma, and I can assure you that I have no further desire to fish any more in the waters of this bay. There are too many peculiar inhabitants in them. I am going to send a full account of our encounter to the Smithsonian Institute, and I doubt not but what they will send out some scientific chaps to investigate. Now I must be going, as I have to leave on tonight's train, but if you need any further particulars you can obtain them from any of the party. No, I do not know who composed the survey party; all I know about them is that they are from Olympia and that they were on the island running farm lines on some disputed land.”

From :The Tacoma Daily Ledger of July 3, 1893, Tacoma, Washington.

The Tacoma News Tribune for August 14, 1960 has a drawing of the "sea monster" by Wayne Zimmerman.

See also :Carol J. Lind, "Tacoma's Sea Monster," Western Gothic. Seattle: C.J. Lind, 1983, p. 13-15.

So what was it they saw? Well it was either some form of giant electric eel or could it have been the navy testing a submarine of some sort? It does not sound like an animate object but more mechanical with it’s “copper bands”, and it’s propeller tail. I think perhaps the navy were testing some sort of submersible vessel and as it was secret , no one came forward to dismiss the story. I am always willing to wrong of course so if anyone else has heard of this creature and think it is indeed a cryptid creature ,please post a comment.