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Our website would not be complete
without the story of our Bear Lake Monster. The story was written in 1868 by
Joseph C. Rich and was sent to the Deseret News Newspaper. It goes as follow:
"The Indians have a tradition
concerning a strange, serpent-like creature inhabiting the waters of Bear Lake,
which they say carried off some of their braves many moons ago. Since then, they
will not sleep close to the lake. Neither will they swim in it, nor let their
squaws and papooses bathe in it.
Now, it seems this water devil, as the Indians called it, has
again made an appearance. A number of our white settlers declare they have seen
it with their own eyes. This Bear Lake Monster, they now call it, is causing a
great deal of excitement up here. S. M. Johnson at South Eden was riding along
near the Lake the other day when he saw something a number of yards out in the
lake which he thought was the body of a man. He waited for the waves to wash it
in, but to his surprise, found the water washed over it without causing it to
move. Then he saw it had a head and neck like some strange animal. On each side
of the head were ears, or bunches the size of a pint cup. He concluded the body
must be touching the bottom of the lake. By this time, however, Johnson seems to
have been leaving the place so rapidly he failed to observe other details.
The next day three women and a man saw a monstrous animal in
the lake near the same place, but this time it was swimming at an incredible
speed. According to their statement, it was moving faster than a horse could
run.
On Sunday last, N. C. Davis and Allen Davis of St. Charles;
Thomas Sleight and James Collings of Paris, with six women were returning from
Fish Haven when about midway from the latter place to St. Charles, their
attention was suddenly attracted to a peculiar motion of waves on the water
about three miles distant. The lake was not rough, only a little disturbed by
the wind. Mr. Sleight ways he distinctly saw the sides of a very large animal
that he would suppose to be not less than 90 feet in length. Mr. Davis doesn't
think he was any part of the body, but is positive it must not have been less
than forty feet in length, judging by the waves it rolled up on both sides of it
as it swam, and the wave it left in the rear. It was going south, and all agreed
it swam with a speed almost incredible to their senses. Mr. Davis says he never
saw a locomotive travel faster, and thinks it made a mile a minute. In a few
minutes after the discovery of the first, a second followed in its wake, but
seemed much smaller, appearing to Mr. Sleight about the size of a horse. A
larger one followed this, and so on until before disappearing, made a sudden
turn to the west a short distance, then back to its former track. At this turn
Mr. Sleight says he could distinctly see it was of a brown color. They could
judge somewhat of the speed by observing known distances on the opposite side of
the lake; and all agree that the velocity with which these monsters propelled
themselves, was astounding. They represent the waves rolling up on each side as
about three feet high. This is substantially their statement as they told me.
Messengers Davis and Sleight are prominent men, well known in the country, and
all of them are reliable persons, whose veracity is undoubted. I have no doubt
they would be willing to make affidavits to their statements.
Was it fish, flesh. or serpent? Amphibious, of just a big
fib, or what is it? I give up, but live in hopes of some day seeing it.
The Deseret News ran the story July 31, 1868. Great
excitement followed. A news staff member during the next month quizzed many Bear
Lake people and found hardly a person who doubted it.
However, the inevitable skeptics did appear on the scene.
The Indians had taken a great deal of interest in stories of
the monster and claimed that their ancestors told them about a monster. They
were telling some pretty good-sized stories about the creatures.
In 1874, a traveler named John Goodman came through the Bear
Lake Valley. He described an Indian legend about two lovers whom, upon being
pursued by some of their fellow tribesmen, plunged into the lake and were
changed by the Great Spirit into two large serpents. However, this is just a
legend.
The description of the Monster was the following: A creature
with a brown-colored body, somewhat bigger in circumference than a man, anywhere
from 40 to 200 feet long. Its head was shaped like a walrus without tusks or
like an alligator's, and the eyes were very large and about a foot apart. It had
ears like bunches, about the size of a pint cup. It had an unknown number of
legs, approximately eighteen inches long, and it was awkward on land, but swam
with a serpent-like motion at a speed of at least sixty miles an hour. No one
ever described the back part of the animal since the head and forepart was all
that was ever seen. The rest was always under water.
Make believe? No one knows for sure. Come on up to Bear Lake and find out for
yourself.