Walgren Lake, once called Alkali Lake, is a small lake in the sandhills near Hay Springs in north-west Nebraska. The best-known account came from a local man, J.A. Johnson, who said he and two others saw a dull grey or brown animal like an alligator but far bigger, about 40 feet long, with a horn between its eyes and nostrils. The story travelled across Nebraska and as far as the London Times.
Later tellings grew wilder: a 1938 Federal Writers' Project book of Nebraska tall tales said the ground shook when it moved and that it ate livestock and breathed a thick green mist. The story was most likely spread by John G. Maher, a Nebraska newspaperman known for other hoaxes, to sell papers. The Nebraska State Historical Society notes another idea: Johnson saw an unusually large beaver.
Hay Springs has kept its monster as a local mascot.
What witnesses report
- A grey or brown body like a huge alligator
- A horn between the eyes and nostrils
- Ducks and livestock going missing (in the tall tales)
Famous cases
- 1935Old Jules mentions the monster
Walgren Lake, Hay Springs, NebraskaIn Old Jules, her 1935 biography of her father, Nebraska writer Mari Sandoz recalled how famous the monster had become, and that some local churchgoers said the devil had planted it to test the faithful.
- 1938The tall-tale version
Walgren Lake, Hay Springs, NebraskaIn July 1938 the Federal Writers' Project's Nebraska Tall Tales described the monster as so huge that the earth shook when it moved, leaving farmers seasick for miles, and said it came ashore every day to eat livestock and breathe out a thick green mist.
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