Encounter Atlas
Chessie is a long, dark, snake-like animal said to live in the Chesapeake Bay. Witnesses usually describe a body 25 to 40 feet long and about a foot thick, with a football-shaped head and humps that roll along the surface.
In 1943 two fishermen near Baltimore said a black creature about 12 feet long, with a head like a horse, turned its head almost all the way round to look at them. Sightings peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1982 Robert and Karen Frew filmed a brown, snake-like shape moving near Kent Island, and Smithsonian scientists who reviewed it could not say what it was.
Some sightings have been traced to manatees, which wander north into the bay in summer. Chessie later became a mascot for keeping the bay clean.
What witnesses report
- A long, thin, dark body with several humps
- A football- or horse-shaped head
- Side-to-side serpentine swimming
- Seen near the bay shore in summer
Famous cases
- 1943Perch fishermen sighting
Near Baltimore, Maryland - 1982Frew video
Kent Island, Maryland - 2014Magothy River roadside report
Magothy River, Maryland
Seen the Chessie?
Tell us what happened. Every report is read by a person before it goes on the map, and you can stay anonymous.
