They say that something strange swims beneath the murky waters of Lake Champlain, a creature, a legend, older than most can remember. sightings allegedly date back hundreds of years to the indigenous tribes of the area. And yet, in our modern age of science and smartphones, while plenty of people still claim to catch a glimpse of the creature known as champ, there is a lack of hard evidence, not unlike a lot of other cryptids that have been reported around the world. This is a study of strange.
Welcome back to the show. I am Michael May. And tonight on this mini sode, we embark on a journey diving into some cryptid waters, specifically the waters of Lake Champlain, where for centuries there's been a tale of a mysterious creature which has terrified those who traverse the lake. This creature, known as Champ or Champ, is typically referred to as the Loch Ness Monster, North America's version of the Loch Ness Monster. I should say I'm very excited about this cryptid story.
I was in Vermont a few months ago, and as I do when I travel anywhere, as I research, the history of strange things, unsolved crime, weird stories. And although I know a little bit about champ, I was excited to dive into that a little bit more.
And truth be told, I've gotten a little more interested in cryptids recently, especially after my episode on the skunk cape with my guest, filmmaker Anthony Cousins, who, I'm not gonna lie, I put me on a little bit of a reading rabbit hole, and it's made me way more intrigued about some of these unexplained cryptids around the world. So let's dive right in. Aunt tale begins in the early 17th century, when a man whose name would be synonymous with exploration and adventure, Samuel de Champlain.
He was born in France in 1567, and Champlain was a navigator, cartographer, soldier, eventual governor of New France, which would eventually become Canada. And Champlain had this insatiable curiosity and somewhat a narcissistic determination to expand the French Empire, and this led him on numerous expeditions across the Atlantic and through North America. This may have also been fueled by a bit of an ego that he was known to have.
As he had a great desire for everyone to think that he was the best at everything, especially exploring. In 1608, Champlain established the city of Quebec, the heart of New France, but his ambitions did not stop there. The following year, in 1609, Champlain set out on an expedition to explore the lands further south, driven by the dual goals of mapping new territories and forging alliances with the indigenous peoples against their common enemy, the Iroquois.
It was during this expedition that Champlain and his party just happened to bump into a vast body of water that would later bear his name, Lake Champlain. For those that don't know, Lake Champlain is in the Great Lakes region of North America. Though it's not officially one of the Great Lakes, it is often called the Sixth Great Lake because, well, it's really big. It's over 100 miles long and it connects via the Champlain Canal to the Hudson River.
It also connects to the Saint Lawrence River, which itself connects to the Great Lakes. It sits between the US states of New York and Vermont, into its north into the Canadian province of Quebec. Vermont's largest city, Burlington, is on the lake as well. So the story goes that on a warm July day, as they navigated the pristine waters, Champlain documented an extraordinary sighting. He described seeing a 20ft serpent with a horse shaped head and a body as thick as a barrel.
This creature, unlike anything he had ever encountered before, Was the beginning of one of North America's most well known and documented cryptids. To fully appreciate the impact of Champlain sighting, we must look at the historical context of the time. The early 17th century was a period chock full of tales of sea monsters and mythical creatures. It was an age of exploration, after all, and mariners logs and maps often depicted fantastical beasts lurking in uncharted waters.
In short, they were very popular. Sea monsters were a common motif in the folklore of coastal communities. In the writings of explorers, these creatures, often described as serpents or leviathans, were believed to inhabit the depths of the oceans and Great Lakes, surfacing occasionally to terrorize seafarers. Champlain's account of the creature in Lake Champlain utilized or connected with these popular beliefs. Champlain's encounter in this story doesn't seem to be a fleeting glimpse.
He notated the creature's size, the shape. The movement talked about all sorts of details, allegedly, which is interesting because most sightings of Champlain are so brief that it's hard to actually say what it looks like in Champlain's reputation as an explorer and a politician lent credibility to this account. Champlain's sightings basically set the stage for a series of subsequent encounters that would happen with the creature for hundreds of years to come. Fast forward to the 19th century.
In July 1819, a captain Crum reported seeing a black monster in beluga Bay, an inlet on the lake on the New York side. He described it as being about 187ft long, with a head resembling that of a seahorse, and eyes that glowed like peeled onions. In 1873, champ started to get more popular and well-known.
A New York Times story reported that a railroad crew had seen the head of an enormous serpent in Lake Champlain, This story, and probably a few other local tales that are not as well remembered today, copy attention of someone important P.T. Barnum, showman. Circus guy. Never wanted to miss out on promotions, gimmicks, and business opportunities. P.T. Barnum offered a reward of $50,000 in 1873, so I'm not going to do the math to find out what that is now.
But it's a lot of money for a hide of the great Champlain Serpent. To add to my mammoth World's Fair show. In 1883, Sheriff Nathan H. Mooney claimed to have seen a gigantic water serpent as well, and he described the creature as having silvery scales. It shimmered in the light and it moved with an eerie sort of serpentine motion. In short, the late 19th century saw a number of sightings, a lot of stories that added to the legend of champ. no one had been attacked, killed or otherwise.
like Bigfoot and other cryptids today, the stories were interesting. They sold papers. They were intriguing and a lot of people legitimately thought that they saw something strange in the waters of Lake Champlain. Now, whenever you hear these stories, these cryptids, especially stories that go back a few hundred years, there's always mentions of native legends. That these stories started before European exploration, which again adds this sense of credibility and history to these things.
The Abenaki and Iroquois tribes, it is said, have long spoken about a creature they called Doug. I'm sure I'm pronouncing that perfectly well. Early in the 18th century, Abenaki warned French explorers about disturbing the waters of the lake to not provoke a beast within. Their legends had been passed down from generations, and tell of these tales to basically make sure that people are respecting the area, respecting the lake and waters.
Today, some suggest champ is a surviving plesiosaur, a marine reptile from the time of the dinosaurs. Others proposes a giant eel or sturgeon, and those might account for some of the reported characteristics. Also potentially a giant gar, which, if you don't know what a gar fish is, they are large, alligator like faces, but the body of a fish, and depending on the type of gar, they can get really, really big and are very scary looking.
And take note of the Gar comment here because it might play an important role in the story of champ, So listen to the end to learn more about that. Crypto zoologists and skeptics alike have pored over the evidence, including the famous 1977 photograph taken by Sandra mansi. If you're unaware of it, you've probably seen it a million times. Her image shows a dark shape rising from the water. It's been subjected to rigorous analysis with no definitive conclusion.
Although I will say she lost the negative, and she's never been able to tell investigators exactly where she took the picture. Those that believe in the cryptid like champ, believe that the photo is proof. Those that don't believe think it's proof that it's not real. Regardless, I think this photo is a better one than the surgeon's photo with the Loch Ness Monster. That's my personal opinion.
In recent years, technology has brought new tools to the search for sonar readings, and underwater cameras have captured anomalies in the lakes depths, unexplained blips and bluffs and shapes that hint at something extraordinary in the water below that people can't explain it this time. in 2003, for example, the Communications Research Institute detected echolocation signals in the lake similar to those produced by dolphins or whales could be a yet to be discovered aquatic mammal.
The scientific community remains divided, but this jury is still going on. Champ is not only captivated those who live by the lake, but also inspired a broader cultural fascination from tourist attractions, restaurants to a minor minor league baseball team, champ has become a beloved symbol of the region. So what are we to make of change? Is it a species that's yet to be discovered? Or is it a series of mis identifications and hoaxes?
So there's one main point of contention within the history here that I do want to bring up before we conclude, though Samuel de Champlain is often quoted as having seen a 20ft serpent in the water, there's no actual evidence that he ever said that he kept diaries and journals, and what he actually mentioned is large fish. In fact, he described something.
He wasn't sure what it was when he described it, but its description is very similar to that of a large gar, not a serpent with a horse shaped head. Now, I mentioned earlier because they're large and they have a scary snout and they can easily be misidentified. The practical side of me wants to put that as a likely suspect in miss identifications in Lake Champlain, as well as sturgeons, which can be gigantic in super creepy as well.
It's also inconclusive that the natives had any stories about a large, serpentine creature to have come across this. In other cryptid research where there's mention of native stories, because, again, I think it adds, sort of a credibility to these stories. And it is fascinating to hear this. However, I can't prove that any of these stories are real. There's really no credibility to it.
So it seems like that may have been made up in the early sort of folk tales, local local stories, and likely early press that was written about somebody like champ, where they added these little anecdotes about native stories, but they aren't real. However, I could be wrong. It's tough to research these things. So if you listeners have any information about real local tales from the natives, from the indigenous tribes of the area, reach out.
Let me know if they actually did talk about large, serpentine or otherwise monstrous unknown species of creatures in Lake Champlain. Before I go, there are some amazing bits of evidence in relation to champ. There's a really cool video. I believe it's a drone shot and it shows this dark shapes swimming in the lake. I'm not sure if it's real or not, but it's really cool. There's also other photos that I didn't go into, and other tales and anecdotes that I did not go into in today's episode.
So if you enjoy cryptids, give it a search, you will come across all of it, and I will provide some links in the show notes. Thank you for listening to today's episode of a study of Strange. I will mention I didn't intend to do a mini sode. I wanted to do a couple of larger normal episodes with guests, but I have been dealing with just a sinus infection that will not go away. And it's been really tough to talk, but I wanted to come out with an episode. I wanted to keep content coming.
So thank you for bearing with me as I deal with this, and hopefully I don't sound to, lethargic and sick and nasally to listen to this. If you enjoy content, please check out our Substack or our website at City of strange.com. You can support the show there, get additional content, get episodes early, all of that fun stuff. And it goes a long way to helping us continue to make the show. Besides that, you know, follow us on the socials, all those things, and stay tuned for more!
A Study of strange hopefully coming soon when I'm not sick. Thank you and good night.