The Heber Springs Water Panther.

Heber Springs in Arkansas serves as a gateway to Greers Ferry Lake and the Little Red River. The U.S. Corps of Engineers completed the 31,500-acre lake in 1963.Greers Ferry Lake is known for  fishing and recreation. Little Red River is the home of the world-record brown trout.So lots of food sources in the area .

There is a legend of a monster in the area called the Heber Springs Water Panther. It is said to be a hairy beast looking like a cross between Bigfoot and a big cat such as a Puma. It can breathe on land and in the water .Its hellish screams can be heard in the forests and around Greers Ferry Lake and Little Red River. However  there are no photos or recent evidence or sightings .

Bigfoot type creatures have been reported in other parts of Arkansas ,the north western area and Pine Bluff area.There is a history of bigfoot type cryptids but The Heber Springs Panther sounds an unlikely creature unless its a hybrid of a bigfoot and a mating with a big cat!

A monster carcass and a sea monster sighting

A recent news item appeared about a large carcass washed up near Aberdeen on a beach:

MYSTERY surrounds what appears to be a gigantic skeleton found washed up on a Scottish beach during Storm Ciara.

Locals were left baffled after a snap of what looked like a rotten carcass was posted online earlier this week, with some suggesting it could be the remains of the Loch Ness Monster.

Source:https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10944503/storm-ciara-mystery-skeleton-beach-nessie/

It is probably a whale carcass but it is not the first time a sea monster has been seen in the area. 

In December 1898 a sea captain returning from haddock fishing saw a huge creature in the water off the coast of Stonehaven, a village near Aberdeen.The creature was described as finny,over  34 feet long and a back  the size of a upturned boat .The captain and his men were said to be honest and not prone to fancy.Plus being fishermen They would have seen many whales etc  would know the difference. Another boat reported a great disturbance in the water but it was foggy and they couldn't see the cause of the commotion.

See the article below for full description.:

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NOT18981221.2.5

Unless of course the carcass was a descendant of the 1898 sea monster

El Cuero,monster of Lake Lacar.

 El Cuero,

Lago (lake) Lacar, is a glacial lake in the Andes Mountains in Neuquén Province, Argentina. It is enclosed in the mountain range, at 630 m above sea level. The area around the lake is mostly uninhabited, except for the city of San Martín de los Andes on its north eastern coast. The lake has an average  depth of 167 metres but can reach 270 metres in parts. 

It is supposedly the home of an unknown creature. The locals call it El Cuero, meaning “ Cow Hide” .It is described as being hairless with a body structure which has the appearance of cow hide splayed out. Cuero’s head is said to be ugly , with red stalks upon which are it’s snail like eyes. Some say that the creature has a proboscis like mouth located in the centre of its torso through which it sucks the blood out of both its human and animal victims. Eyewitnesses have also reported seeing a serious of razor sharp claws along the fringes of El Cuero, which the creature uses to secure its prey. The creature is also known by the names “El Threquelhuecuvu,” or “El Bien Peinado” (“the smooth-headed one”).

There are no documented sightings of El Cuero but there is a local story which is repeated to everyone. A local mother was washing the family’s clothes on the banks of the Hua-Hum River, when to her horror as a huge stingray like creature lunged out of the water and grabbed her infant child which lay sleeping next to her on the shore. Additional evidence of this creature’s carnivorous tendencies are said to be the bird and animal remains, which litter the lake’s shoreline after one of its nocturnal feasts. The features described about the creature’s appearance have lead to speculation that it may be a type of freshwater stingray , which are known in South America.This creature , or something like it, has also been reported in the rivers and lagoons of both Argentina and Chile. Some have pointed out the similarities between this creature and the Hueke-Hueke.

Lake Lacar is also said to be the centre of other strangeness. In 1850 a mermaid like creature, apparently half amphibian, and half human was seen in the lake. The mermaid was reported to be able to levitate over the water, and supposedly lived in an underwater city.

(Source: Fabio Picasso, Strange Magazine #10)

Then in 1982 UFO sightings were reported also at the lake.

There often seems to other strangeness around lakes with reported ‘monsters’. UFOs are said to have been seen around Loch Ness for example. Could it be that certain areas attract otherworldly attention?

NB re-edited original posted 17^th Jan 2010

The Straits of Mackinac Sea Monsters

The sea serpent of the Straits.

The Straits of Mackinac are narrow waterways in Michigan . The main strait flows under the Mackinac Bridge and connects two of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The main strait is 3.5 miles (5.6 km) wide and 295 feet (90 metres)deep.

On June  25th 1976 approximately  600 feet from the shore near the Straits of Mackinac , people witnessed two unknown creatures in the water. According to The Grand Rapids Press, the local sheriff came to the spot on the beach where people saw the monsters, and he saw something he’d never seen before. “I’m looking at something 20, maybe 30 feet long, swimming just below the surface,” he told The Grand Rapids Press. “I was amazed. I didn’t know what it was, but it sure wasn’t a publicity stunt.” The creature would occasionally rise to the surface of the water before diving back into the depths.

The owner of a resort along the Cheboygan lake front also reported seeing two large creatures frolicking in the Mackinac Straits on Lake Huron in front of his property on the same day. He estimated they were 45 feet long.

It was thought that it must have been large fish or eels but eels don’t normally grow to that size.

There are also supposed to be lake monsters in Lake Huron which adjoins the straits.The local indigenous people the Ojibway have legends that  say there is a giant reptile, or serpent creature with large horns that rules the waters of Lake Huron. They call it "Mishebeshu" which means 'great lynx' and it dwells in an underwater den.

An  8 foot seal-like creature was sighted off Wasaga Beach in 1938. There have apparently been many reports of creatures within Georgian Bay over the years, but none as large as those seen in 1976.

In 1975 the London Ontario Free Press reported that a group of creatures were seen on June 12th near Kincardine and another sighting was reported in the Goderich area in 1989.
Two, long, log-like creatures were reportedly observed in the Goderich area, frolicking in the water.

I think the smaller creatures reported were seals but the larger creatures remain a mystery. Even at the smallest estimate of  20 feet long it is difficult to find a marine creature that fits the descriptions. So an unknown creature  or a mis-identification? What do you think?