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| Bear Lake Monster |
This post by Thomas Marcum, Thomas is the founder/leader of the cryptozoology and paranormal research organization known as The Crypto Crew. Over 20 years experience with research and investigation of unexplained activity, working with video and websites. A trained wild land firefighter and a published photographer, and poet.
Bear Lake monster
The Legend of the Bear Lake monster comes from, you guessed it, Bear Lake. Bear Lake sit close to the Utah - Idaho Border.
According to an article from 1868, by Joseph C. Rice, the local Indians called this creature "water devil" but once the white settlers had seen the creature it became known as the Bear Lake Monster. Later on Rice would admit he made up the original sightings. Lets call him an old school hoaxer.
But wait, that is not the end of the story, there continued to be reports of this lake monster. In 1937 a report came from a 4 year old boy about seeing the lake monster and then in 1946 a Boy Scout leader reported seeing the creature. The strangest report comes from 1907, when 2 men claimed to have seen the creature attack and kill one of their horses. It also appears that there are sighting reports from different areas of Utah, leading to the theory that the lakes might be connected by underground water channels.
There are also a few more recent reports of people claiming to have seen something strange in Bear Lake. In 2002, business owner Brian Hirsch claimed to have seen the creature.
Over the years the legend and folklore of Bear Lake Monster has continued to grow and has become a tourist attraction. There is a scenic boat tour that takes you out on the lake and talks about the monster. The legend grew even more when the Bear Lake monster was featured on Animal Plants Lost Tapes and SyFy's Haunted Highway season 1.
The description of the creature does vary, some describe it as crocodile like while others say it's kind of like a walrus without the tusk. Most reports do state that the creature can swim very fast and is very large, at least 90 feet long. The creature has been described as dark green with red eyes.
In 2011, the follow video was uploaded to youtube - is it just an effort to get more info or just to keep the legend alive, you can decide for yourself.
Map of Bear Lake
So what do you think? is there some truth to the reports or is it all just made up?
Thanks
~Tom~
[source: Wikipedia ]
[image source: redorbit.com ]
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ALL of the early reports were published by ONE newspaperman...who later admitted he made the whole thing up. While I am personally not against the idea of an alligator-shaped creature there (There are other reports of that description from all over the place) I have not been able to independently verify that there are any there. There is one very good report of a swimming elk making the appearance of a row of humps from that lake, made by some park rangers, which is perhaps noteworthy.
ReplyDeletehttp://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-bear-lake-monster.html
"Later on Rice would admit he made up the original sightings" - Still does not explain the later sightings
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