Bear Lake Monster: A Connection to Nessie?

Have you ever heard of the Bear Lake Monster? No?! She’s a serpent like beast that is at least 40 feet long, greenish brown in color, and she has these stubby little legs that allow her to come up on the shore to steal farmers’ animals. Possibly scariest of all she really likes the caves over on the east side of the lake. These caves are endless, and if you go scuba diving down there the monster will take you and eat you alive! Then she’ll retreat back through the tunnels which are connected to Loch Ness in Scotland only to be sighted there and be named Nessie!

Now, the connection that these two beasts in folklore share is a lot more one sided. I doubt people around the world believe that Nessie is one in the same with our Bear Lake monster, most people probably don’t even know about the Bear Lake Monster. So how did this connection come about then? During an interview my source stated, "What I've heard is they're the only two lakes in the world with the same Cisco fish species, and the tunnels on the east side of the lake have no bottom. At least not one that has been found yet" (Anonymous). I have also heard this story about the fish, I'm quite skeptical about that one. But the caves are interesting. Bottomless caves, we can't really prove where they end up. So whats to say they don't connect to some lake in Scotland? I mean it's really not that far of a jump when in the making of an urban legend. Other than these caves that may be a possibility, are there any other connections? Perhaps similarities in description of the monsters?

Surgeons Photograph (Watters)

The original story of the Bear Lake monster was told by Mr. Joseph C. Rich back in 1868. Mr. Rich wrote a letter to Deseret News describing the monster as “40 feet in length, judging by the wave it rolled upon both sides of it as it swam . . .It had ears or bunches on the side of it’s head nearly as large as a pint cup” (Rich). This laid the groundworks for many a story about the Bear Lake monster. There are more accounts and sightings describing it as a large serpent like creature that is brownish green in color and having legs about eighteen inches in length. The story behind Nessie is a little more famous and well heard of, describing the animal as sort of serpent like but more similarly looking like a branch off of the Plesiosaurus. There are even photographs of the Loch Ness Monster, the most common of which is known commonly as the Surgeon’s Photograph. This photo is the most well known photograph of Nessie to have ever existed. The photographer was Dr. Robert Wilson. Wilson was a British surgeon on a trip up through Scotland and snapped this photo of the Loch Ness Monster (Watters). With this photo you can get a feel of similarities between stories and how people of Bear Lake might start to speak of a connection. Hearing the description of serpent like then seeing this photo creates a mental image for people. So now we have a possible connection of description. What else connects these monsters? Economy.

"Scotland's economy has certainly benefited from the tourist revenue generated by those who visit Loch Ness in the hope of a glimpse of "Nessie" the monster" (Watters). This is no doubt the case for Bear Lake as well. As soon as you enter into Garden City there are gift shops and restaurants everywhere that have something about the monster. There is even a guy by the name of Brian Hirschi that owns a boat shaped like the beast that sells tours upon the craft (Hollenhorst). Very similar indeed that each of the places with such a monster have an economical boost from said stories. This in all could be the final driving factor for why the stories circulate in the first place. Especially for the Bear Lake Monster whose sightings are so few and far between with very little physical evidence. Hirschi himself (the owner of that monster boat) has even made a public statement saying he's sighted the monster back in 2002 (Bear). Bear Lake residents recently even introduced some road signs that you can purchase locally, I guess in this case maybe waterway signs is a better term, all the same they're signs that say Bear Lake Monster X-ing (Midgley).

Bear Lake Monster Boat (Hollenhorst)

So running through the sightings, there are small similarities but I'm not sure if there are enough to connect the two based on physical description. The whole cave thing is cool to ponder about in more of a wondrous way, not knowing where the bottom truly is leaves a bunch of possibilities. One of these possibilities being a connection to a lake halfway around the world? Now that's doubt able. But taking in the thoughts of this being some sort of elaborate marketing ploy to bring revenue into small towns seems very possible. Not only possible but quite honestly the only true connection I can really find between these to fantastical monsters of legend.

Works Cited

Anonymous. Personal Interview. 1 Feb. 2016

"Bear Lake Monster" Animalplanet.com. Web. 3 Feb. 2016 http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/lost-tapes/creatures/bear-lake-monster/

Hollenhorst, John. "The Bear Lake Monster" Ksl.com 13th May 2004. Web. 6 Feb. 2016 http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=84796

Midgley, Jeff. "It came out of nowhere...and it had the right of way." bearlakemonster.com. 31 Jul. 2013. Web. 3 Feb. 2016.

Rich, Joseph C. "Bear Lake Monster." Bear Lake Monster Digital Collection. Utah State University Merrill-Cazier Library. 10 Sept. 2012. Online Database. 31 Jan. 2016. http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/bearlakemon/id/433/rec/4

Watters, David A.K. "Loch Ness, Special Operations Executive And The First Surgeon In Paradise: Robert Kenneth Wilson (26.1.1899-6.61969)."ANZ Journal Of Surgery 77.12 (2007): 1053-1057. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Feb. 2016.

This post was written to complete an assignment requirement for a class at Utah State University.