Lake Pend Oreille in North Idaho is one of the deepest lakes in the United States. Reports of something large in it began in 1944, the same years the Farragut Naval Training Station operated on its shore, and the Navy has used the lake for submarine and sonar testing ever since. Many locals think that is the whole story.
The monster got its name in the 1970s. A widely shared 'Paddler' photo later turned out to show a 12-foot papier-mâché catfish made for a 1974 Sandpoint play. In 1983 a North Idaho College professor, James McLeod, started a cryptozoology club to look into it, and suggested the real answer might be a very large deep-water fish such as a sturgeon.
Other explanations include waterlogged trees, drifting boats and, in one local theory, railway cars lost in the lake.
What witnesses report
- A large grey or silver shape just under the surface
- A fast-moving object that outpaces a boat
- A wake with no boat
Famous cases
- 1944First reports from the lake
Lake Pend Oreille, Sandpoint, IdahoThe first reports of a large, unknown shape in Lake Pend Oreille date from 1944, while the Farragut Naval Training Station was running on the lake's southern shore. Many locals have long suspected the Navy's later submarine testing in the deep lake explains the sightings.
- 1984The papier-mâché catfish
Lake Pend Oreille, Sandpoint, IdahoIn late 1984 a professor's cryptozoology club tracked down the tabloid photo of the 'Paddler'. It showed a 12-foot papier-mâché catfish built for a 1974 play in Sandpoint. The name stuck anyway.
- 1985A teacher chases a grey shape
Lake Pend Oreille, Sandpoint, IdahoOn Memorial Day 1985 Julie Green, a Coeur d'Alene teacher, said she saw a 'gunmetal grey object' a few hundred yards from her boat and gave chase. Some took her description as support for the theory that the Navy used the monster to cover its submarine tests.
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