Lake Monster Mysteries (21 page)

On June 27, 1999, Joe visited nearby St. George and collected local accounts of the fabled monster. His guide, Tony Wilson of All Wet Aquatics, took him on a jet-ski trip (via the Magaguadavic River and a natural canal) into and around the 3,409-acre lake. Despite these efforts, the creature didn't have the courtesy to show itself, let alone pose for a photograph.

As with similar claims, a major argument against the possibility of such a monster is the improbability of the lake providing sufficient food not merely for one leviathan but for the breeding herd that would be necessary for the continuation of the species. Also, many mundane phenomena can simulate a monster. Local candidates include floating logs; wind slicks; salmon, sturgeon (Gaudet 1999), and schools of smaller fish; and silver eels, which were once so plentiful that they clogged the pulp mill's waterwheels (
Brief history
n.d., 13). Other potential culprits include swimming deer, muskrats, beavers, and otters (St. George 1999)—especially otters, which could have produced many of the effects reported (Nickell 1995, 1999).

Another reputed New Brunswick lake monster is the giant amphibian now displayed at the York Sunbury Historical Society Museum in Fredericton (
figure 8.1
). Dating to the 1880s, the huge bullfrog reportedly lived in Killarney Lake, some eight miles from Fredericton, where Fred B. Coleman operated a lodge. Coleman claimed that he had made a pet of the great croaker and that his guests fed it June bugs, whiskey, and buttermilk. It thus grew to a whopping forty-two pounds and was used to tow canoes and race against tomcats. It was killed, Coleman said, when poachers dynamited the lake to harvest fish, whereupon the distraught raconteur had it stuffed and placed on display in the lobby of his hotel. His son's widow donated it to the museum in 1959 (Coleman n.d.).

Some local doubters insist that Coleman simply bought a display item that had been used to advertise a cough medicine guaranteed to relieve “the frog in your throat” (Phillips 1982). A former historical society president called it a “patent fake” and said that it should have been thrown out years ago; other officials coyly declined suggestions that it be examined scientifically (Colombo 1988, 50–51; Coleman n.d.).
Macleans
magazine concluded: “The argument about whether it is a stuffed frog or an imitation may never be settled, but as a topic of conversation and a tourist curiosity it has had as long a career as any frog, dead or alive” (McKinney n.d.).

Figure 8.1
The Coleman frog. Since the 1880s, folks have debated which is the bigger whopper: this giant amphibian or the claim that it's authentic. (Photo by Joe Nickell)

Following Joe's expedition to the museum's third floor, he determined that the exhibit was probably not a real bullfrog (
Rana catesbeiana
). Did he penetrate the sealed display case to obtain a DNA sample? No, he simply sweet-talked his way into the museum's files, which were revealing. A 1988 condition report by the Canadian Conservation Institute referred to the sixty-eight-centimeter (almost twenty-seven-inch) artifact as a “large, possibly stuffed frog” but went on to observe that—in addition to many wrinkles having formed in the “skin”—there
was actually a “fabric impression underneath” and, indeed, “a yellowed canvas” visible through some cracks. There was an overall layer of dark green paint, to which had been added other colors, the report noted. Wax appeared to be “present below the paint layer,” and the feet were described as being “a translucent colour, possibly consisting in part of wax.” Although a taxidermist of the 1880s might have used some of these materials (
Encyclopaedia Britannica
1960), the overall effect is of a fabricated item, especially considering the canvas. Its impression showing through the paint suggests the lack of an intervening layer of true skin, for which the fabric was probably used as a substitute.

It should be noted that the largest frog actually known, according to
The Guinness Book of Records
(1999), is the African goliath frog (
Conraua goliath
), a record specimen of which measured a comparatively small fourteen inches (sitting) and weighed just eight pounds, one ounce. At almost twice the length and five times the weight, Coleman's pet froggie is no more credible than his outrageous yarns about the creature.

The museum file also contained a letter stating the policy of the historical society regarding the Coleman frog. To a man who had objected to the exhibition of the artifact, President E. W. Sansom (1961) wrote: “It was agreed .… that the stuffed frog was of historical interest only as an artificial duplication used for publicity purposes by F. B. Coleman years ago in Fredericton. As such, the majority of those present felt the frog should be retained but only as an amusing example of a colossal fake and deception.” And so it remains on display, according to one journalist (Brewer 1973), “as big as life—yea, bigger.”

Canada's Lake Simcoe, some forty miles north of Toronto, supposedly holds a monster known as “Igopogo” (after its more famous relative Ogopogo), among other names. Residents of Beaverton, on the eastern shore, call it “Beaverton Bessie,” while others refer to it as “Kempenfelt Kelly,” after Kempenfelt Bay, which has the lake's deepest water and claims the most sightings. Sources refer vaguely to early Indian legends of the monster and sporadic reports of a “sea serpent” in the lake during the nineteenth century. Important sightings occurred in 1952 and 1963 (Costello 1974, 229), and a “sonar sounding of a large animal” in 1983 was followed by a videotape in 1991 of “a large, seal-like
animal” (Eberhart 2002, 242–45). Significantly, according to John Robert Colombo in his
Mysterious Canada
(1988, 153), “No two descriptions of Kempenfelt Kelly coincide.” Nevertheless, cryptozoologist George M. Eberhart (2002, 244) attempted a portrait:

Physical Description: Seal-like animal. Length, 12–70 feet. Charcoal-gray color. Dog- or horse-like face. Prominent eyes. Gaping mouth. Neck is like a stovepipe. Several dorsal fins. Fishlike tail.

Behavior: Basks in the sun.

In August 2005, supported by Discovery Canada's TV program
Daily Planet
and by the tourism department of the city of Barrie, we went in search of the elusive creature, conducting interviews and searching Kempenfelt Bay using a boat equipped with sonar and an underwater camera. Our first stop, however, was the home of local retired businessman Arch Brown, who told us that he had coined the name Kempenfelt Kelly and had seen the legendary monster himself. He acknowledged that his background made him predisposed to believe in the beast; his Scottish father had told him of the Loch Ness monster, and Brown had once resided in British Columbia, so he was familiar with Okanagan's Ogopogo. When he moved to Barrie many years ago, he said, he was prompted by local reports to be “on the lookout” for the monster, spending many hours at the task. Over the years, he has had no fewer than four sightings—all from a distance, unfortunately. Once he saw the creature from an estimated quarter of a mile away but nevertheless described it as being ten feet long and having a dark gray, serpentlike body and a doglike head. It swam, he told us, with an undulating, up-and-down motion. Less seriously, he added that it had “an impish look” and a kind disposition that kept it from frightening children (Brown 2005).

Like many of the other sightings, Brown's could reasonably be explained by otters swimming in a line, diving, and resurfacing. Our boat captain, Jerry Clayton (2005), specifically mentioned otters as a likely explanation for some sightings. Brown (2005) himself acknowledged
that there are otters—as well as beavers, minks, and other animals—in the vicinity, although he did not believe that any of these were responsible for his sightings.

As to the 1983 sonar report, Clayton showed us on his sonar screen what were clearly individual fish, as well as occasional larger forms that he attributed to schools of small fish being “read” by the sonar as a single unit. The underwater camera showed only nonmonstrous fish. Clayton (2005) told us that he had been on Lake Simcoe for eighteen years. “I've dragged a lot of line for a lot of miles here on this lake, and—nothing,” he said.

Elsewhere in Canada, Quebec is apparently a hotbed of lake monsters. French researcher Michel Meurger found well over fifty lakes in the province said to have some monster or another. In addition to Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog (discussed in
chapters 2
and
3
, respectively) those lakes that connect to the St. Lawrence Seaway include Massawippi, Aylmer, St. Francois, Williams, and Trois-Lacs. What struck Meurger (1986) most about the results of his investigation was the widely varying descriptions: “Refreshingly, some witnesses spoke of animals possessing hair and scales at the same time! .… Because the descriptions in the reports vary so much, it is impossible to make any definite identifications.”

In the United States, Lake Tahoe's “Tessie,” a humped dark or brown form between twelve and twenty-five feet long, had a heyday of sightings in the mid-1980s. In 1984, an organized but fruitless search was conducted for the monster. Investigators speculated that some of the sightings may have been of a giant sturgeon. A popular recreational area, Lake Tahoe continues to report occasional sightings.

The Great Lakes are said to harbor a few monster mysteries as well. The creature in Lake Erie, known as “South Bay Bessie” (a.k.a. “Lake Erie Larry”), has been described as a giant snake. Like most monster descriptions, those of Bessie vary widely; the skin has been characterized as black, brown, or copper, as either smooth or with silver-dollar-size snakelike scales. Many of the sightings date back to the 1800s, when interest in the monster was high and fueled by outlandish (and almost certainly hoaxed) newspaper stories. One article, published in the
Pultneyville
(N.Y) Commercial Press
in 1867, states that a local “sea serpent” was in fact owned by a local fellow: “Mr. Henry Stowell, of Oswego, says he owns the animal of which so much has been said, having imported him at great expense from the Humbug (!) Islands. … [Stowell] has him boarded during the hot weather, and as soon as the weather becomes cool he intends to skin him and have it stuffed.… [The monster] has occasionally stolen away and visited different localities about the lake, and when he has been seen, has made hideous noises in imitation of the parties present” (quoted in Palmer 2001.) Only a few modern reports exist, mostly in the 1980s and 1990s. Lakes Ontario, Superior, and Onondaga also have resident lake monster mysteries.

Lake Seljordsvatnet in Norway supposedly contains an unknown creature in its depths called “Selma.” Sightings go back hundreds of years, although it seems that Selma's heyday was in the 1960s and 1970s, when there was a handful of accounts. Most reports claim that the creature has one to five humps and an equine head. The best-known effort to find the monster was a 1998 expedition led by UFOlogist Jan-Ove Sundberg and featured in a Discovery Channel documentary. Though a fairly well-equipped and well-funded effort, the search turned up no monster and no real evidence, but it generated some controversy. Several members of the team resigned, believing that Sundberg was too quick to tout ambiguous evidence and apparently more interested in profit than in truth. One team member, Kurt Burchfiel, complained, “As soon as there's any sort of big blip on the echosounder Jan is parading around with it and insisting that it's evidence.” Burchfiel resigned, telling Sundberg, “I have very different goals in this. I came here genuinely interested in pursuing this in an intelligent and educated way.… It strikes me that you're here more for the money and for the publicity and the hype” (for more, see Walsh 1999, 48).

Not far away, a “snakelike animal with a dog's head and fins,” named “Storsjoe,” lives in Sweden's fifth-largest lake, Storsjoen. Like a few other lake monsters, Storsjoe is a protected species; a 1986 court
ruling declared it illegal to “kill, hunt, or catch” the creature, as well as “to take away or hurt the monster's eggs, roe, or den.” In 2004, local resident Magnus Cedergren planned to hatch the eggs, raise monster babies, and turn them into a tourist attraction. The intrepid entrepreneur may have counted his eggs before they hatched, however, because he was denied permission by the provincial government to even search for the monster's eggs. Sightings allegedly date back to 1635, and since then, around five hundred people have seen the beast.

“Teggie” is the celebrated denizen of the deep in tiny Lake Bala, North Wales. Recorded sightings of the creature date back only to about 1975, when former lake warden Dafydd Bowen saw an unusual form in the water: “It was grey, about eight feet long, and looked like a crocodile with a small hump.” In March 1995, two fishermen reported seeing a creature raise its fearsome head ten feet above the lake's surface; two years later, a man filmed some video footage of what appears to be a moving head and hump.