A week ago it was mentioned here that D. Robert Carter wrote an article in the Provo, Utah Daily Herald, entitled “Mysterious Monsters Inhabited Utah Valley Waters.” Today, Sunday, May 07, 2006, part two, "The Meandrous Monster Migrates to Utah Lake" has been published.

The article gives a good overview. Also the possible mammalian nature of the Bear Lake Monster is reinforced with various passages recalled, as per this item extracted.

A May 18, 1874, letter from William Budge, who lived in Paris, Idaho, told of a monster sighting on Bear Lake.

Budge, William Broomhead, and Molando Pratt were returning from general conference in Salt Lake City when they spotted the monster about three miles from Lake Town. Budge reported that it swam in the lake about 100 yards ahead of the party and 20 yards from shore. At first the men thought the creature in the lake might be a very large duck, but as they drove closer, the men could tell the creature was an animal they judged to be about five or six feet long.

The animal dived underwater and came up about 100 feet from the three men, giving them a good look at its strange countenance as it swam through the still water about as fast as a man could walk. Pratt’s description read:

"It’s face and part of it’s head was distinctly seen, covered with fur, or short hair of a light snuff color. The face of the animal was apparently flat, very wide between the yes, and tapering to the nose with very full large eyes, and prominent ears, the ears resembling those of a horse, but scarcely as long. The whole face, in shape, was like that of a fox, but so large that the space between the eyes, equaled that of the distance between the eyes of a common cow."

See all of Carter’s article for more about other Utah lake cryptids and local reactions.