Lake Monsters

One Way or the Otter, Radford/Nickell X-Files-Labeled

Don Getty, River Otters, Grand Tetons. Used with full permission of Mr. Getty. The photograph does not, however, appear in Ben’s and Joe’s book from last year. Would it have helped lessened the blow of this review against their flank? One would expect that the respected Journal of Folklore Reseach at Indiana University would come down on the side of Benjamin Radford’s and Joe Nickell’s recent skeptical book, Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating the World’s Most Elusive Creatures. It turns out it didn’t work out that way, and the journal, instead, found the book had shortcomings. Did Ben and Joe receive [...]

Lake Springfield’s Suspicious Serpent

Springfield, Illinois, is in central Illinois, in the Midwest USA, west of Decatur. It is the state capital and the county seat of Sangamon County. The Sangamon River, which flows near Decatur and Springfield was impounded to make Lake Decatur. But the manmade Lake Springfield is a reservoir built by impounding water upstream of Spaulding Dam on Sugar Creek. The water for the lake comes from rain falling directly on Lake Springfield, however, the predominant supply is runoff from the 265-square-mile watershed that lies primarily southwest of the lake, most notably from Lick and Sugar Creeks and their tributaries, that [...]

Loren & Loch Ness on Video

Someone has uploaded parts of the History Channel’s recent repeat of an episode of “Deep Sea Detectives” featuring great archival footage of recent cryptozoological discoveries, the program’s hosts diving at Loch Ness, and yours truly in my home-research office-museum. Corrective footnote: Yes, I know that Loch Ness is six miles from the ocean, although I misspoke during one of the tapings, and too quickly said “mile” instead of “a few miles.” I do get excited in these interviews to try to share my down-to-earth passion for the topic. For more on this subject see: The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, [...]

Nessie Video Due to Black Holes?

Editorial Commentary “The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” as spoken by Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Gordon T. Holmes (above) is doing himself no favors by adding more information and speculation to his university-hosted website. In addition to coming up with some rather bizarre theories, he now is sending out appreciation for the feedback he’s receiving, while also saying no one can refer to his material any longer. What? Mr. Holmes continues to add more and more details to his staff pages at Bradford [...]

ChampQuest Director’s Disappearance Deepens

Missing: The virtual vanishing of Dennis Hall, the founder and director of ChampQuest, is upsetting seekers and friends. Dennis Hall is shown above during the happier days of the U-Haul Champ promotion. Used with prior permission. For months, Lake Champlain Monster hunter Dennis Hall has not been able to be located. His old website, ChampQuest.com is now posting this message: “Gone. The requested resource is no longer available on this server and there is no forwarding address. Please remove all references to this resource.” Attempts to reach Hall that I have made to his (old?) telephone number in Paton, Vermont, [...]

Update: Rock Ness & Nessie

Rock, paper, Nessie. Despite early Loch Ness Monster reports to the contrary in newspapers yesterday, there are hints that something cryptozoological did occur during the recent musical concert, Rock Ness. The usual things happened when a crowd of nearly 35,000 people gather. One man found unconscious under apparently “no suspicious circumstances,” died yesterday in a local hospital. A few people, seven to be specific, got arrested for “drugs charges and breach of the peace.” Lots of rock fans enjoyed two days of music in Scotland from 30 acts on five stages. It was just your typical outdoor music event. Almost. [...]

Rock Ness: Nessie Photos?

Nessie, seal, or otter? This does not represent a car full of Rock Ness attendees trying to photograph Nessie, but merely another view of the Spicer encounter of 1933 (used for promotional purposes by loch-ness.org on various Scottish tourism sites). As you will recall, after all the buzz of the Holmes video of an unknown something in Loch Ness, a million pounds was offered for definite photographic proof of Nessie. A promoter was to hand out reportedly 50,000 cameras at the Rock Ness concert held near Loch Ness. Attendence was more than the 22,000 that showed up last year for [...]