Lake Temiskaming in Quebec is a deep lake around 720 feet at it’s deepest point . A lake monster known as "Mugwump."is said to inhabit the lake.
The
first published story of it appears to be by the then mayor of New
Liskeard Jack Dent. In an April 20, 1979 he wrote an article in The
North Bay Nugget newspaper in which he discussed the creature. According to Mayor Dent:
“…
the Indian word, “mugwump” means fearless sturgeon and is all part of a
very old Indian legend from an old Indian…”a direct descendant of Chief
Wabi” who told him the mugwump was reputed to be the length of four
Indian braves. Putting the average height of a brave at about five feet…
concluded the mugwump was probably over 20 feet long…”Mayor Dent said he had only heard of the animal in 1969
Then in February 2, 1982 an article appeared by
Alice Peeper in The Temiskaming Speaker, a Mrs. Kate Ardtree recalled
her father telling stories about the animal as a child. Mrs Ardtree was
elderly at the time so the story must have been from 1920’s or 1930’s.
Mrs. Ardtree had never seen the animal herself. “…Sure I
know about it, or should I say them?” she smiled. “I well remember my
daddy talking about the monster.” Mrs. Ardtree also remembers her Dad
bringing home one of its scales when she was just a girl. The scale was
as big as a saucer and the family had it around the house for years….”
Dariene
Wroe then wrote in the August 9, 1995 issue of The Temiskaming Speaker
about the story of John Cobb. Cobb , then 83 years old, recalled an
event from the early 1940’s when he worked on the tugboats moving logs
along the lake.
“…One
night I was coming up just about dark and I seen the darn thing in the
lake.” He describes a creature about 20 feet long with a round head and
nose like an animal’s. “I didn’t know what it was. When we come up close
it disappeared…”
Then Chuck
Coull outlined his encounter with a strange beast in the lake to
journalist Mike Pearson in 1979. He claimed it happened in the early
1960’s:
“…We were cruising around in the boat, about a third of the way back from Burnt Island,
when we saw what looked like a deadhead. We pulled up to it. It rolled
over and swam away…. It was the biggest sturgeon you’ve ever seen… I’d
been hearing about the thing all my life….”Chuck Coull was with his father at the time and estimates the animal sighted was around 8 feet long.
The Temiskaming Speaker also had reported that in 1978, Ernie Chartrand and his wife, who lived in the town of Haileybury,
were seated at a table in The Matabanick, a local Hotel, where they had
a good view of the lake. Their attention was drawn to "something" that
was moving shoreward at a very fast pace. As it was nearing the shore,
it did a sudden and complete turnabout and headed out back to deep
water. Both Mr. and Mrs. Chartrand had noticed that this "thing" had a
large humped back, and they noticed that it had no fins along its side
or back, as itswam away. According to The Speaker, Ernie stated that it
must have been 15 feet long. He further stated that he will go on record
anytime as to his sighting of the Lake Temiskaming monster” (The Temiskaming Speaker February 3, 1982)
Another article by Alice
Peeper of the The Temiskaming Speaker appeared February 17, 1982. This
time it was the story of Roger Lapointe and Dan Arney who were ice
fishing at the time in a borrowed hut.
According
to Roger Lapointe and Dan Arney of Cobalt,the two men decided to try
their luck at ice-fishing so they managed to borrow a friend's
ice-fishing hut for a night.They had just settled in, when their tip-ups
started to agitate in an alarming manner. Hauling the lines in, they
discovered their bait and lines were missing. It looked like they were
sheared right off, the men had reported later. Resetting the line, they
settled back with a brew and were wondering what was stirring in the
depths below the fish-hut, when in about 20 minutes, or perhaps half an
hour, their tackle flew right up in the air and then vanished down the
hole. The men were dumb-founded! "To hell with this," Lapointe relates,
"Let's pack it in", and Arney agreed. They were donning their parkas,
when Arney said he could feel the small hairs on the back of his neck
stiffen (this sixth sense had served him well in the RCMP back a dozen
years). Arney said he just knew that something was watching them as he
reached out and put a silencing grip on his partner's arm and they began
to survey the half-dark interior of the hut. Looking downwards at the
fishing hole, they saw a black, glistening head with protruding
eyeballs, and one of these eyes was staring fixedly at the men "like it
was sizing us up for a snack", Lapointe remarked. When Arney shouted,
"Let's get the hell out of here", he lost no time in following him out
the door. They leaped aboard their snow machine and raced for shore.
When contacted about their experience, both men agreed there was
"something" out there in the lake, alright.
Another sighting of the Lake Timiskaming monster has been made by John Sheur of New Liskeard, who claims he saw the monster quite recently. Mr.
Sheur says he was locking up his ice-fishing hut for the night, when he
heard a crunching noise. Knowing he was the only fisherman still out on
the lake, he decided to see what it was about. Thinking it was probably
a dog, he almost walked into a long, dark animal, that seemed to be
wrapped about several of the ice-fishing huts and was chewing something,
said Sheur. What did its head look like? the reporter asked. Something
like a dinosaur, said Sheur, "but I didn't stay for a second look."
Sheur had dashed for shore on his snow machine and, rushing into a local
hotel, tried to get several men to go out and investigate. Two men
finally decided to go take a look, but all they found was a rather
snake-like trail in the snow. They also noticed that one of the fish-hut
doors was wide open. Someone had forgotten to secure it, so the men
closed it against the drifting snow. Mr. Harmon of Haileybury, who has
an ice-fishing hut near where the incident occurred, said it was the
darndest thing that he had been losing line and fish left out in the
snow. He presumed it was stray dogs, but now he's not so sure!
So
what is it? Well a sturgeon would not come ashore on the ice so could
it be our old standby a giant eel? Or could it be more than one creature
lives in the lake? It is deep enough to hold more than one large
predator, so perhaps there is a large sturgeon and something else in the
deep waters.
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