Sea Monster Champ - Lake Champlain

The above photo shows the mysterious sea monster living in Lake Champlain, commonly called “Champ.” Don’t see him? Don’t feel bad. Few people have. But he’s there. To the left. Or, maybe it’s the right. Maybe it wasn’t that day at all.

Lake Champlain, discovered by French explorer Samuel del Champlain in 1609, is sometimes called New England’s west coast. It’s a 109-mile long freshwater lake, 400 feet deep at its greatest depth, and reported, even since the 1600s, as being the home of a sea monster, long before “Nessie” in Loch Ness Scotland ever made a name for herself.

Modern-era sightings of Champ were made by passengers of ferry steamships in the 1870s, about the time of the first “Nessie” sighting in Loch Ness. Long-time “Champ” searcher and author Joseph W. Zarzynski has produced a sonar image of a creature or something with the help of Rochester Engineering Laboratories. It is hoped that one day technology will uncover this mystery of what may be a plesiosaur, living some 10,000 years beyond the age when we thought they bought the farm.



Here is the view from the ferry “Sprit of Ethan Allen” which cruises Lake Champlain, of another ferry on which passengers are also unsuccessfully seeking Champ. Oh, he’s around, though. You see him on T-shirts and souvenirs at the gift shops. One of these days, when Champ appears in the flesh, he’s going to be a millionaire with all that merchandising.

Want to go? Check out this website for one of the many cruises on lake with “Spirit of Ethan Allen III” that run through October.

Been there? Done that? Bought the Champ T-Shirt? Saw Champ? Let us know!