The Monster of Lake Champlain

In 2006, Dick Affolter and his stepson, both of Vermont, videotaped something that was swimming just below the surface of Lake Champlain.  ABC News had two retired FBI forensic image analysts take a look at the video.  They concluded that the tape seemed authentic, although they could not say what the image was.  The two fishermen judged the length of the creature to be ten to fifteen feet.  However, they admitted that they had not seen the entire body.

This is just one of the more recent sightings of “Champ”, a monster that allegedly haunts Lake Champlain.  Lake Champlain is a 125 mile long body of fresh water that borders New York, Vermont and Quebec.  The Iroquois and the Abenaki are two tribes of Native Americans that live in the area.  They have long told of a legendary monster that inhabits the lake.

The first official sighting of Champ occurred in 1819.  In Port Henry, New York, a crew of railroad workers claimed to have seen the head of a huge serpent sticking out of the water.  A major sighting came in 1883 when Sheriff Nathan H. Mooney spotted an enormous serpent swimming about fifty yards from him.  P.T. Barnum placed a reward of $50,000 for a carcass of Champ after the Mooney sighting.

Since 1883, Champ has been seen over 240 times.  One of the best sightings came in 1984 when 86 passengers aboard the Ethan Allen saw three to five humps in Lake Champlain.  Most of the motion picture footage and photographs of Champ are enticing.  However, it is mostly inconclusive.  The most interesting evidence came in 1979.  Joseph W. Zarzynski and Jim Lennard of Rochester Engineering Laboratories have used high-tech sonar to search for the Lake Champlain monster.  Zarzynski and Lennard took readings showing a ten to fifteen foot object  in the lake beneath them in 1979.

An organization called the Fauna Communication Research Institute found something using sound waves reflected by them (echolocation). 

There are many theories as to what Champ might be.  Two of the main groups of theories are that it is a legend or it is a monster.  There is a third option – maybe it is a misidentified animal.  One such theory is that Champ is a surviving Zeuglodon,  a prehistoric whale with a snake-like body.  Other people believe it is a long nose gar, which grow as long as six feet and are plentiful in Lake Champlain.