On the Trail of Champ (Lake Monster) - Episode 1: Not Your Average Lake

lake champlain is home to one of north

america's greatest mysteries join

small-town monsters as we explore

america's loch ness following

researchers listening to eyewitnesses

and examining the evidence this is on

the trail of champ

[Music]

nestled between the u.s states of new

york and vermont as well as the canadian

province of quebec lies a massive body

of water

but this is no ordinary lake

this is lake champlain

a place of endearing beauty and natural

wonder

a place filled with rich history

but also a place riddled with mystery

and intrigue

[Music]

for centuries people inhabiting this

area have reported the presence of

something unknown in the lake

an unidentified creature rumored to be

much larger than any known species in

the lake

the lake champlain monster is

affectionately known as champ or champi

by the locals

has been seen hundreds of times over the

centuries

typically described as being anywhere

from 10 to 30 feet in length with a dark

brown green or black scaly color the

creature is purported to closely

resemble some sort of long-necked

aquatic reptile from the time of the

dinosaurs

[Music]

one of only a few lakes that flows

northbound modern-day lake champlain is

120 miles long

12.2 miles wide at its widest with a

maximum depth of 427 feet

this makes lake champlain one of the

largest freshwater lakes in the entire

united states

[Music]

lake champlain was first discovered by

europeans in 1609 as french explorer

samuel de champlain made his way through

the area

the lake was thus named after him but

the history of the lake itself reaches

much further back in time

modern-day lake champlain traces its

origins to a time when it was actually

part of a much larger body of water

known as the champlain sea

which was an arm of the atlantic ocean

lake champlain was but a fjord in this

sea which covered much of the canadian

provinces of quebec and ontario as well

as parts of new york state and vermont

[Music]

the sea was present due to water from

massive glaciers that engulfed much of

canada

[Music]

the champlain sea was host to a variety

of marine life including mammals like

whales and seals

so the charlotte whale was found in 1850

by some railroad workers and that is a

marine mammal a whale

so the time the champlain sea thirteen

thousand years ago which was about the

time of our end of the last ice age

is actually a really short amount of

time in the history of life here on

earth and it's believed that those

saltwater animals are what brought

people to this area for the first time

because they were hunting those animals

and those animals got pushed back out as

the fresh water started to replace the

salt water

today there are 90 species of fish in

modern lake champlain making it one of

the most biodiverse lakes in north

america

[Music]

my name is scott martis i've been an

investigator

of the lake champlain monster for the

last 25 years i used to live here in

vermont

for 18 years

my initial visit to lake champlain to

begin investigating was november

of 1992.

i moved here in april 1994 and lived

here until december of 2011.

i moved to florida because i met my wife

but i've still come back every summer

to investigate i've been here

every summer since 2013. so i've been at

this a long time

my speculative hypothesis regarding

the simplest answer to what may be going

on here

and that's assuming and this is a big

assumption

that what people are describing in their

eyewitness reports and i include myself

in that because i had a sighting in 1994

of something that i believe was one of

these animals

and if

the best video and photographic evidence

is correct

my speculative hypothesis that somehow

some sort of moderately long-necked

plesiosaur managed to survive beyond

their presumed extinctions

in the oceans

for millions of years

then

a small colony or group of these

plesiosaurs came into

the champlain sea

and were subsequently trapped when the

land rose and cut off the marine

influence

gradually became fresh water and became

modern day lake champlain

and there's been a small colony of them

living and dying in the lake ever since

now that's a speculative hypothesis

[Music]

the idea of some kind of

plesiosaur or prehistoric quail

existing here is not that far-fetched

because some of the fishes

that the prehistoric mesozoic marine

reptiles

and the early quails eight

are thriving in this lake

like guards and both ends

sturgeons these are all contemporaries

of the dinosaurs

so

you know it's not that far-fetched to

imagine something like that but

imagining it and making it real are two

different things

[Music]

while it is disputed when exactly the

first recorded sighting of the champ

creature occurred native american tribes

on both sides of the lake had their fair

share of folklore surrounding a

mysterious serpent in the water

for the mohawk it was called onyarakoa

or great snake

for the western abunaki it was pittascog

or tataskok an underwater horned serpent

[Music]

several interesting petroglyphs have

been pointed to as possible evidence of

native american depictions of champ or

similar creatures

one such petroglyph was discovered in

1995

not far from the shores of the canadian

section of lake champlain

[Music]

in 1794 western abunaki's petroglyphs

were discovered on the west river just

about 80 miles southeast of lake

champlain's southernmost point the

petroglyphs purport to show strange

serpent-like creatures including one

with a long neck and appendages

whether these peculiar petroglyphs have

anything to do with the mystery of lake

champlain is yet to be determined

my name is katie elizabeth i am the

president and founder of champ search

an organization that's dedicated to

proving the existence studying and most

importantly protecting the unique

animals that inhabit lake champlain

i started getting into this phenomenon

when i was around seven years old um i

was watching an episode of unsolved

mysteries

and i saw the famous sandra mansi photo

that was taken in 1977

and i said to my mom oh my gosh there's

a dinosaur in vermont i want to go see

it

and then later on um in my life i was 21

it was 2012. um i ended up coming up to

the lake

well i believe that these animals are

a reptile and also have amphibious

traits

the main reason for that is the many

eyewitness accounts that i've gathered

gathered over the years of my research

i've heard of people seeing them

sunbathing on the beach which is a thing

that reptiles do

basically they do this to sustain

vitamin d

also there's been reports of eye shine

in the marsh and out on the lake when

a light is shown upon them

that's also indicative of a nocturnal

animal

american alligators crocodiles

things like that they give off this eye

shine and that's just

it's just amazing to see the same

similarities between

you know a known reptile that has

survived millions of years that is still

here compared to

the traits that these animals have as

well you know you don't see these

animals coming up for air all the time

so it's possible that these animals

breathe through their skin they have

like slimy skin on some of their body

and then they also have these knobs

on their back and on their neck

and that is the other part of the you

know the reptilian traits that this

animal has

[Music]

the revolutionary war brought more

people to the lake champlain area in

fact lake champlain played a crucial

role during the war

various naval battles were fought

between the rebelling americans and

british forces on the lake

the lake was a key strategic area that

both sides wished to control

the british retained control of most of

the lake following the war but stayed

posted mostly in the northern sections

of the lake

while there were reports of strange

serpent-like sightings during the

colonial and revolutionary period around

lake champlain it wasn't until local

newspapers began reporting on such

phenomenon that sightings were being

recorded

the first such published report of a

monster on lake champlain came from a

new york publication known as the public

advertiser which in 1809 wrote

lake champlain a monster has lately made

its appearance on the waters of the lake

the next reported account of a monster

on the lake came in 1819

it was reported in the plattsburgh

republican publication that a massive

creature had been spotted by residents

near bulwaga bay in port henry new york

um and what's really interesting is if

you read that story um it reads as kind

of satirical

and so at that time people had satire

too and so there were people who

believed in champ and there are some

people who maybe were making light of

people believing in champ and so i think

it's important to

really look at the evidence and

distinguish between people who really

saw something and believe that they saw

something and maybe people who were

having a little fun

at the time um and we see a similar

thing with samuel d champlain a lot of

people quote these records of daniel d

champlain seeing a monster in lake

champlain

and that's often misquoted he saw

something that was five foot long that

was probably definitely a long nose gar

[Music]

uh my name is william dranginis i've

been interested in cryptozoology the

study of unknown animals since 1995 when

i had a bigfoot sighting in virginia

we were 100 feet away 75 feet away

actually and i saw the creature

uh clearly

that really sparked my interest knowing

that these are flesh and blood animals

creatures so

it was about almost 10 years later 12

years later i got interested in the

champ creature at lake champlain

i found it interesting because i

contacted some eyewitnesses

worked with scott mardis up here at the

lake

and actually talking to the witnesses is

a really great thing they had they have

the same energy that i have after i had

my bigfoot cited

um that in itself is key um because

there are people that hoax sightings

things like that but when you

meet someone that had that same energy

that you had and it doesn't matter if

it's bigfoot or loch ness or

champ here

it's an energy everyone has and you

could sense that energy so

by interviewing some of the people

around the lake here

it really got me into it that there

there could possibly be a creature here

together with scott mardis they make up

the mardis stranginess lake champlain

research team

[Music]

it was the 1870s that would bring the

monster of lake champlain into the

mainstream lexicon

back then it was referred to as the

champlain sea serpent

white hall new york sits at the southern

end of the lake

it was in the small hamlet of dresden

new york bordering the lake that in july

of 1873 a group of railroad workers

reported seeing a 20-foot long serpent

with large teeth swimming for about a

quarter of a mile the white hall times

wrote an article about the encounters

and panic began to spread

later that month a steamboat reportedly

hit the serpent and nearly capsized near

fort ticonderoga

[Music]

the reports soon were printed nationwide

and they even attracted the attention of

noted showman pt barnum

who issued a dispatch stating i hereby

offer fifty thousand dollars for the

hide of the great champlain sea serpent

to add to my mammoth's world fair show

as a result armed hunting parties began

scouring the lake in search of the

creature's remains but none were found

and barnum's reward was never handed out

[Music]

the the general consistent opinion

among mainstream zoologists is that

there is no strange animal in each damn

plane

you know whatever it is is extremely

elusive

there are a whole host

of known prehistoric survivors in the

lake

i believe have a place

in the more explaining the more marginal

champ sightings

the ones where people

are giving a a a detailed description of

something with a long neck and a

humpback that's very large in excess of

six feet you know that obviously will

not do

but the only thing that's ever gonna

make a difference with mainstream

science and put this animal

in

the zoology books if it exists

is a biological specimen of solar type

sometimes you have to break through that

wall to make it legitimate i believe

they're here but i can't prove it

you know

eyewitness testimony

you know no matter how persuasive it is

and no matter how consistent it is

is not acceptable evidence

in the science of zoology for evidence

of a new animal species you've got to

have

a biological specimen

in 1889 the plattsburgh sentinel offered

a thousand dollars for the capture dead

or alive

of the champlain sea serpent after

renewed sightings

the monster reappeared in 1915 in a new

york times report about multiple

witnesses seeing a 40-foot long creature

trapped in the shallows of bulwaga bay

[Music]

accounts of sightings were published

sporadically in 1929 1939 1943 and 1961.

[Music]

in 1971 joseph zarzinski formed the lake

champlain phenomena investigation

cataloging many of the reports in the

modern era

well i've been studying the animals for

god over 30 years but actually champ

quest has been in existence since 1992.

the late 70s early 80s there was a bunch

of sightings and then

it slowed down

towards the mid 80s late 80s but then in

the from 1992 to

1996 there was a bunch of sightings

they were just uh one summer we had 35

and there was more yet that we had heard

of but just hadn't been able to track

down

we have a quick sighting report for him

this goes back about over 20 years ago

even before they named this creature

champ

i was fishing up there in the late fall

and uh as i was sitting there i heard a

splash

and then i saw

the creature it was no more than 20 some

feet

approximately from the boat

what i saw from it was approximately

the size of a telephone pole

the coloring onto it was very similar to

that of a bullhead or the kneel

and then it went to more or less a

whitish underneath it

i saw the way this creature swam

it did not

swim in a serpentine

type of motion with a snail going from

side to side

it went in a motion

of a coil type where it propelled itself

downward at a very fast rate of speed

[Music]

champ sightings have been going on at a

fairly regular pace since then with

sightings reported nearly each year

however the question remains if champ

exists

what could it be

[Music]

[Music]

so

[Music]

[Music]

you