Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

Mark A. Hall, “Sobering Sights of Pink Unknowns,”
Wonders 1, no. 4 (December 1992):
60–64.
North Shrewsbury River. Loren Coleman, Mysterious
America (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1983),
p. 277.
Old Mill Pond, near Trenton. Monster reported
March 1, 1975. Roy P. Mackal, Searching
for Hidden Animals (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday,
1980), p. 220.
New York
Baldwinsville Mill Pond. Probable hoax. New
York Times, May 27, 1871.
Black River. In 1951, a 15-foot, dark-brown
monster with large eyes, fins, and a round, tapered
body was reported. Betty Sanders Garner, Monster!
Monster! (Blaine, Wash.: Hancock House, 1995),
p. 179.
Canandaigua Lake. Indian legend of a large serpent.
Charles M. Skinner, Myths and Legends of
Our Own Land (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1896),
vol. 2, p. 301.
East Caroga Lake. Lewis Decker and fifteen
others saw a large animal creating a disturbance in
the water on August 30, 1983. Possible Muskellunge
(Esox masquinongy). Dan L. Lowenski, “Was
It a Fish, Or ... ?” Pursuit 64 (1983): 184–185.
East River, off Greenpoint. On June 29, 1856,
a yellowish animal with a head like an alligator’s
and a forked tail was seen by two policemen.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 1, 1856.
Lake George. See HIPPOGRIFF.
Hudson River. In March 1969, an enormous
black and gray animal was seen near the City Island
Bridge in the Bronx. Betty Sanders Garner,
Monster! Monster! (Blaine, Wash.: Hancock
House, 1995), p. 179.
Lake of the Woods, Jefferson County. In 1929,
two women were fishing on the lake when they
saw 20 feet of a grayish-tan animal in three arched
loops with a sawtooth growth (a mane?) down its
back. Ivan T. Sanderson, Things (New York: Pyramid,
1967), pp. 31–32.
McGuire’s Pond, Forestport. Possible hoax of
June 1893. Howard Thomas, Folklore from the
Adirondack Foothills (Prospect, N.Y.: Prospect
Books, 1958), pp. 39–40.
Lake Onondaga. See MOSQUETO.
Lake Ontario. Loglike, serpentine monster seen
occasionally in the nineteenth century. “Mis-
cellen,” Notizen aus dem Gebiete der Natur- und
Heilkunde, August 1835; St. Catherines (Ont.)
Constitutional, June 27, 1867.
Silver Lake. After a group of fishermen reported
seeing the head and neck of a monster on July 13,
1855, people flocked to the area, hoping to catch a
glimpse of the creature or to capture it. When the
Walker House Hotel burned down two years later,
a fake monster was discovered, apparently built to
encourage business. However, Joe Nickell has
pointed out some holes in the hoax story, especially
in regard to earlier reports, and prefers the Northern
river otter (Lutra canadensis) as the stimulus for
the sighting. The Silver Lake Serpent: A Full Account
of the Monster as Seen in the Year 1855 (Castile,
N.Y.: Gaines and Terry, 1880); Frank D. Roberts,
History of the Town of Perry, N.Y. (Perry, N.Y.: C.
G. Clarke, 1915), pp. 200–202; Herbert J. Hawley,
“The Sea Serpent of Silver Lake,” New York
Folklore Quarterly 2 (1945): 191–196; Harry S.
Douglass, “The Legend of the Serpent,” New York
Folklore Quarterly 12 (1956): 37–42; John A. Keel,
Strange Creatures from Space and Time (Greenwich,
Conn.: Fawcett, 1970), pp. 254–261; Joe Nickell,
Real-Life X-Files (Lexington: University Press of
Kentucky, 2001), pp. 92–104.
Spirit Lake. Alfred Hulstrunk, “Assorted
Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins of New York State,”
Binghamton Press (Sunday supplement), August
14, 1977, pp. 8–13.
Wading River. Loren Coleman, Mysterious
America (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1983), p. 277.
North Carolina
French Broad River. See DAKWA.
Hiwassee Creek. See TLANÚSI.
Lake James. In 1981, some fishermen saw a
dragonlike animal the size of a car. Mark A. Hall,
“Lake Monsters,” Wonders 6, no. 1 (March 1999):
11.
North Dakota
Devil’s Lake. Indian legend of a 90-foot, green
snake. Charles M. Skinner, American Myths and
Legends (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1903), vol. 2,
pp. 281–283; Corrine Kenner, “The Curse of
Devil’s Lake,” Fate 50 (October 1997): 52–53.
Lake Sakakawea. Reported monster is probably
a Paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) or Pallid sturgeon
(Scaphirhynchus albus). “Sakakawea Monster,”
Garrison Independent, June 21, 1979.
NORTH AMERICA 685