Encounter Atlas
Historic encounters / Sea serpents and lake monsters
Sea serpents off New England, monsters in Midwestern lakes and long things in rivers. Sightings by fishermen and steamboat crews ran next to obvious newspaper fun, so read each one with care.
37 cases101 newspaper pages11 marked as probable hoaxes
Newport, Rhode Island · Aug. 1839
The Newport Herald of the Times said the sea serpent had been reported again along the coast, in Frenchman's Bay, off Nahant and as far south as Cape May. The editor admitted he had been sceptical, but was shaken when an old friend said he had seen it himself.
Newark Bay at Saltersville (Bayonne), New Jersey approx. · July 1869
The Newark Courier vouched for James Andrews, a sober porgy fisherman from Saltersville on Newark Bay, who said he had seen the sea serpent. His neighbours generally believed him.
“not at all given to grog”
Pyramid Lake, Nevada approx. · Oct. 1869
The Elko Independent said miners and prospectors had long passed on a Paiute story of a monster snake in Pyramid Lake, and that local Native people would not go near the water. The paper then gave a new account from men who said they had glimpsed it.
Reported on arrival at Delaware Bay (sighting at sea) approx. · Nov. 23, 1869
Captain Allen of the bark Scottish Bride, arriving from Bordeaux, said he had passed the great sea serpent at sea, and that a smaller serpent swam with it. The New York Sun ran his description and it was copied from Minnesota to Nevada.
“The Sea Serpent still lives, and has an heir”
Probably a hoax or tall tale The Sun's account was written with a wink.
Eltingville, Staten Island, New York · Feb. 29, 1884
Eltingville was in an uproar after Constable Elbert Poillon said a sea serpent attacked his boat and crunched an oar. He described it as long as a shooting gallery, with a head like a powder keg. An oyster planter partly backed him up.
“a Head Like a Powder Keg”
Between Grape Island and Hog Island, Essex County, Massachusetts approx. · June 11, 1884
The Georgetown Advocate said six young men sailing from Grape Island toward Hog Island saw something in the water they first took for seals chasing each other, then decided was the annual sea serpent.
Lake Michigan, later off Death's Door, Wisconsin approx. · Nov. 1884
A tug captain, Dick Brewer, said a large black monster surfaced ahead of his boat as he towed a mud scow past the Marine Hospital, setting off talk among sailors. Fishermen later reported it again off Death's Door.
Greenport breakwater, Long Island, New York · June 1891
Captain Edward Reeve, who rowed out each evening to light the beacon on the Greenport breakwater and was known as a sober, reliable man, told the New York World he had fought off a sea monster from his skiff.
Santa Cruz River below Tucson, Arizona · Aug. 1891
The Arizona Weekly Citizen ran a comic account of a seven-headed sea serpent that came up the dry Santa Cruz River below Tucson, watched by frightened hundreds, and delivered a sermon and prophecy.
Probably a hoax or tall tale Pure newspaper comedy; the Santa Cruz is usually dry.
Reported at Gloucester; seen on the Flemish Cap fishing bank · Sept. 25, 1891
Gloucester fishermen back from the distant Flemish Cap bank said a sea serpent over 80 feet long, resembling a giant squid, appeared while they were hauling their trawls, and that a marine monster wrecked trawl lines and overturned dories.
Lake Kenosia, Danbury, Connecticut · Dec. 4, 1891
Danbury announced that the famous Lake Kenosia serpent had been caught. Warren Baker, driving along the shore, saw what he took for a big tree limb across the road until his horse shied. The creature was said to be almost twenty feet long and covered with scales.
Probably a hoax or tall tale The Sun printed it in its usual playful style; no specimen was ever described by a scientist.
Long Island Sound off Saybrook Point, Connecticut approx. · Jan. 12, 1896
Crews of the tugs Runyon and Aries, heading east past Saybrook Point, reported a sea serpent at least 75 feet long that stayed in sight for ten minutes before it disappeared.
Currituck Sound, North Carolina approx. · Jan. 25, 1896
A North Carolina paper reported, with plenty of jokes about President Cleveland's recent duck hunt, that a sea serpent had been found frozen to death off the Currituck coast.
Probably a hoax or tall tale Written tongue in cheek.
Seattle, Washington · March 31, 1896
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer described a midnight crowd staring at a huge bluish mass, said to be 75 feet long, that the sea had thrown up and that had sunk half a dock under its weight.
Probably a hoax or tall tale Printed on April 1; it reads like an April Fool's story.
Off the New Jersey coast approx. · May 4, 1896
Captain Shannon and his crew fought a strange fish for two hours off the New Jersey coast and killed it: about 15 feet long and 500 pounds, with a horn on its nose, two rows of teeth and silvery armour-like scales. No fisherman there could say what it was.
“the like of which none of the fishermen had ever seen”
Saybrook Point, Connecticut · May 10, 1896
John Skipworth, keeper of the new light at the end of the Saybrook jetty, said he watched a monstrous sea serpent playing on the surface of Long Island Sound one Sunday afternoon, and guessed it at hundreds of feet long. His wife and a ship's captain were said to back him up.
Hood Canal, Puget Sound, Washington approx. · June 27, 1896
Two Tacoma fishermen said they caught a live sea serpent in Puget Sound: smooth-skinned, spotted like a tiger, about 17 feet long by one account. Later reports spoke of two smaller ones from Hood Canal, eight and ten feet long, put on show in Tacoma. A Kansas paper ran the story under the headline that the monster was not a myth.
“Has a Bulldog's Head, a Tiger's Fangs, a Snake's Body”
Lighthouse Point, New Haven, Connecticut · July 19, 1896
On a Sunday afternoon, more than 200 people at Lighthouse Point in New Haven said a 100-foot sea serpent, about fourteen feet around, swam close past several pleasure boats and headed for deep water. The paper joked that the Sunday liquor laws ruled out the usual explanation.
“Have you seen the sea serpent?”
Plum Cove, Lanesville (Gloucester), Massachusetts · July 29, 1896
William Henry Sargent was hauling lobster pots off Lanesville when he saw a sea monster, rowed ashore in a fright and gathered a crowd. Everyone watching agreed it was about 80 feet long before it disappeared.
Stratford Shoals, mouth of the Housatonic, Connecticut approx. · July 30, 1896
Captain Ewing of South Amboy, towing coal barges up the Housatonic, told people at the Derby docks that he had seen a big sea serpent off Stratford Shoals. The paper vouched that he was an honest old salt who did not drink enough to affect his sight.
Lake Ripley, Wisconsin approx. · Aug. 1, 1896
A Chicago Tribune piece said the Lake Ripley serpent was snatching sheep, swallowing calves and chickens, cracking the winter ice and tossing the swimmers' diving floats around.
Probably a hoax or tall tale Written as summer-resort comedy.
Off Throgg's Neck, Long Island Sound, New York approx. · Aug. 10, 1896
Two Whitestone anglers, Anthony Rick and Wesley Hunt, said a sea serpent went scurrying through the water off Throgg's Neck, apparently headed for New York. Days later other boaters described a green monster about fifty feet long in the Sound.
Off Provincetown, Massachusetts · Aug. 16, 1896
Captain Richard Horton of the fishing schooner Minnehaha was said to have captured the sea serpent off Provincetown. It turned out to be a large loggerhead turtle that put up a hard fight.
Probably a hoax or tall tale Explained at the time: a loggerhead turtle.
Carrabelle, Florida · Aug. 20, 1896
A dispatch from Carrabelle said a sea serpent 49 feet long, eel-shaped with a spoonbill head and forked tongue, was killed in the Gulf after towing the steamer Crescent City for an hour, and was lying on the town wharf. The story travelled to Washington, Savannah, Wichita and beyond.
Probably a hoax or tall tale No specimen was ever examined by a scientist; it has the marks of a newspaper tall tale.
Rock Lake, Lake Mills, Wisconsin · Aug. 28, 1896
A Watertown paper said fishermen had long reported a huge serpent or water beast in Rock Lake that broke their lines. A Chicago alderman said he had battled it and that it had feet and scales like an alligator, and an old resident claimed it once towed his boat for several rods.
Columbia River near Clifton, Clatsop County, Oregon · Oct. 17, 1896
Dominick Bule, a salmon fisherman at Clifton, said that at dusk a huge animal rose out of the Columbia twenty feet from his boat. It had a hairy, horse-like head and four tusks a foot long, and stared at him for about two minutes.
At sea between Gay Head and Winter Quarter lightship approx. · May 30, 1897
Officers and passengers of the Merchants and Miners steamer Gloucester, bound from Boston to Baltimore, said they saw a white sea serpent 40 to 45 feet long early one Sunday morning, off the coast near Gay Head.
Off Pumpkin Rock, near Boothbay Harbor, Maine · June 4, 1897
Captain Handy McKown's fishing steamer Shark, returning from herring fishing near Pumpkin Rock, passed an immense sea serpent 80 to 100 feet long with a head four feet across, swimming with part of its neck out of the water.
Block Island, Rhode Island · July 3, 1897
Block Island sailors and fishermen reported a white sea serpent with a horse-like head and great brown eyes. The New York Sun noted that three separate sources had described a white serpent that season.
“Its Head Is Like That of a Horse and It Has Great Brown Eyes”
Lake Michigan beach, North Chicago, Illinois · July 8, 1897
Joe Downey of North Chicago said his family was on the beach at dusk when two men in bathing suits ran past yelling about something in Lake Michigan. They then saw the creature themselves. Chicago papers called it Joe Downey's sea serpent.
“Have you seen it?”
Off Salem, Massachusetts · July 18, 1897
Two summer visitors fishing near a buoy off Salem said a large flat head rose out of the water next to their boat, followed by a long body.
Lake Wawasee, Indiana · Aug. 1, 1897
Hotel guests and cottagers at Lake Wawasee said they had seen and heard a serpent in the lake. The Indianapolis Journal joked that the resort could now rank with the seaside attractions.
Probably a hoax or tall tale Written half in jest as resort publicity.
Long Island Sound, Connecticut approx. · Aug. 7, 1897
Three Hartford men fishing on Long Island Sound, one of them a Sunday school superintendent, said an all-black sea serpent passed their boat, writhed about and then vanished. The paper reported it in a teasing tone.
North of Greenport, Long Island, New York · Nov. 16, 1897
C. Edwards Stauson, a Greenport drug clerk, came back from a morning's fishing on Long Island Sound with no fish and a story of two sea serpents, each about fifty feet long, swimming together north of Greenport.
Probably a hoax or tall tale The papers ran it as a fish story.
Off Long Beach, California · Feb. 17, 1909
Guy Griffith, James Harvey and three other fishermen in the launch Reta said that some miles off the coast they saw a sea serpent 40 feet long, with a brown head as big as a small barrel, eyes like a man's fist and a large dorsal fin, swinging its head like a snake. Papers noted that Long Beach was a dry town.
Greenwood Lake, New Jersey and New York approx. · July 9, 1909
Three Montclair men back from Greenwood Lake said a queer amphibious creature with a horn and a sponge-like tail speared a bass, soaked them and tried to climb into their boat. One showed a slashed wrist as proof.
Walker Lake, Nevada approx. · Aug. 31, 1909
Visitors to Walker Lake had long reported a monster serpent or prehistoric beast in the desert lake, and several mining men claimed to have seen it. A new account came via a Reno police captain's brother, mining at Lucky Boy. A Tonopah paper headlined it as Reno booze at work.
Probably a hoax or tall tale The paper's headline blamed the drink.
