Dozens of lakes around the world are supposed to house "monsters" of various sorts. Water cryptids from places other than the ocean are collectively called "lake monsters" because very few of these creatures are reported from rivers or ponds, and even in the case of river monsters, such rivers often connect to lakes with a history of monster sightings.
On the more normal end of the spectrum, some lake monsters seem to resemble animals that we are more familiar with, such as giant turtles or giant crocodiles. The creatures in this other category are quite varied, linked only by the fact that they do not resemble sea serpents. Creatures in this group include the gigantic, hairy monsters like seals with canine faces that are said to reside in Lake Simcoe and Muskrat Lake in Ontario, Canada, and the school of twenty-foot mystery fish that are reported from Iliamna Lake in Alaska.
Most lakes that are supposed to house monsters are in remote areas, are very big, or both. Iliamna Lake is over a thousand square miles in area and more than a thousand feet deep. Unless these monsters have the ability to waddle onto land, draining the lake in question would answer the question of whether a monster was in it once and for all, but researchers are understandably reluctant to do this. Even when such an option isn't too expensive, it would destroy a valuable ecosystem and, if there is a monster, kill it. Most cryptozoologists are afraid of making a new animal extinct just to prove that it had once existed.
|You can find out more about Lake Monsters from the following sources:|
Benjamin, R.W. Lake Elsinore Serpent - Elsie
Blackman, W. Haden. The Field Guide to North American Monsters New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998. Pages 39-47, 49-50, 54-59, 64-78
Blake, Polenth. The Dragon Stone - Dragons of Mythology and Fantasy
Bradley, Michael. More Than a Myth: The Search for the Monster of the Muskrat Lake.
Brookesmith, Peter, ed. Creatures from Elsewhere. London, Chartwell Books, 1989. Pages 41-53
Brown, Charles E. & Hendricks, Richard. Weird Wisconsin: Lake Monsters
Campbell, Elizabeth M. & Soloman, David. The Search for Morag. London: Tom Stacy, 1972.
Clark, Jerome and Coleman, Loren. Cryptozoology A-Z. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. Pages 84-86, 113-116, 131-134, 149-150, 170-171, 174, 192-193, 228-229, 235, 248-249
Clark, Jerome. Unexplained!. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1999. Pages 260-271, 279-282
Coleman, Jerry D. Strange Highways: A Guidebook to American Mysteries & the Unexplained. Alton, Illinois: Whitechapel Productions Press, 2003. Pages 135-136, 184, 187, 192
Coleman, Loren & Huyghe, Patrick. The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep
Coleman, Loren. Mysterious America: The Revised Edition. New York: Paraview Press, 2001. Pages 12-14, 26, 29, 81, 83-96, 169, 309-311
Finnigan, Joan. Witches, Ghosts & Loup-Garous: Scary Tales from Canada's Ottawa Valley. Kingston, Ontario: Quarry Press, 1994. Page 81
Godfrey, Linda S., Hendricks, Richard D., Moran, Mark, ed. & Sceurman, Mark, ed. Weird Wisconsin: Your Travel Guide to Wisconsin's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. New York: Sterling, 2005. Pages 116-117
Harrison, Paul. Sea Serpents & Lake Monsters of the British Isles
Holiday, F. W. The Goblin Universe
Juliano, Dave. Sea Serpents and Lake Monsters
Keel, John A. The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings. New York: Doubleday, 1994. Pages 297-316
Kirk, John. In the Domain of the Lake Monsters.
Krystek, Lee. Lake Monsters of North America
Lenihan, Eddie, ed. Meeting the Other Crowd: The Fairy Stories of Hidden Ireland. Pages 91-102
McCormick, Bob. The Story of Tahoe Tessie: The Original Lake Tahoe Monster. Kings Beach, California: Tahoe Tourist Promotions, 1994.
McEwan, Graham J. Mystery Animals of Britain and Ireland. London: Robert Hale, 1986. Pages 11-16, 77-118, 196-202, 206-209, 211-212
Moran, Mark & Sceurman, Mark. Weird N.J.: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2004. Page 108
Newton, Michael. Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide to Hidden Animals and Their Pursuers. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2005. Page 4, 11, 14-15, 20-22, 24, 27-30, 34-35, 38-41, 54-60, 68, 72, 75-77, 83-85, 88-102, 106-107, 113, 118-120, 122, 124, 126, 128, 130-133, 139, 140-141, 146-148, 150-152, 154-165, 172-174, 176, 178-180, 182-186, 188-192, 194, 196-197, 201-206, 208, 211, 219-222, 226-229, 231-232, 236-258, 263-275, 277-283, 285-286, 288-289, 291-292, 295-297, 299-300, 302, 308-311, 313, 315-317, 321, 322, 324, 328-331, 336-337, 341-346, 348-354, 357-363, 365-366, 368-369, 371-377, 379, 382, 384, 391-395, 397-403, 405, 407-411, 413, 415, 418-426, 428-451, 453-455, 458, 461-462, 464, 466-469, 472-475, 477-480, 482-489, 491-493, 495-496, 507, 509
Randolph, Vance. We Always Lie to Strangers: Tall Tales From the Ozarks. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1974. Pages 71-74
Rath, Jay. The W-Files: True Reports of Wisconsin's Unexplained Phenomena. Black Earth, Wisconsin: Trails Books, 1997. Pages 27-35
Rife, Philip L. America's Loch Ness Monsters
Roesch, Ben S. The Cryptozoology Archives: Lake Monsters
Rose, Carol. Giants, Monsters and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend and Myth. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2000. Pages 175-178, 274
Russell, Davy. When Lake Monsters Attack!
Salmonson, Jessica Amanda. Phantom Waters: Northwest Legends of Rivers, Lakes and Shores. Seattle: Sasquatch Books, 1995.
Shughart, Willie. North American Lake Monsters
Steiger, Brad. Out of the Dark: The Complete Guide to Beings from Beyond. New York: Kensington Books, 2001. Pages 80-89
Sundberg, Jan. Trapping Selma.
Weidensaul, Scott. The Ghost with Trembling Wings: Science, Wishful Thinking and the Search for Lost Species. New York: North Point Press, 2002. Pages 152, 156-165
Wikipedia, The. Lake Monster
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