Strange Rez - There be monsters in them depths

By Sam Sandoval

This family gets the best photos: Despite digital fakery such as this, many have reported seeing the Flathead Lake monster over the last 100 years. It has been seen by locals and tourists and by tribal members alike. (Sam Sandoval/
MetroCreative Graphics photo)

“Jean” and her friend “Harlan” were hiking by Big Arm Park when Harlan spotted something in Flathead Lake. At first, Jean couldn’t see it and Harlan gave up on her. But then its motion caught her eye as well as its size. “It was like if you stuck half a car out of the water, that’s how big it was.” It had a sharp tip to his hump, she supposes, as it swam through the murky water. It was the color of a dirt road, she says, and left a wake in the water as it traveled. They watched it for half an hour; it never raising its head and then it disappeared.

For over a 100 years, people have seen the legendary Flathead Lake Monster. Many articles cite that Captain James C. Kerr was the first to spot the creature in 1889 on the steamer U.S. Grant. It was whale like and seemed to be ready to ram the boat. A passenger with a rifle fired at it and seemed to scare it off. Since then at least two sightings a year have been reported to the state Fish, Wildlife and Pars, local historians and monster enthusiasts with 1993 being the most with up to 13 sighting in that one year.

Lake monsters aren’t unknown. Whilst the Loch Ness monster is the most famous, there are reports of creatures in Lake Okanagan in British Columbia, Lake Eerie in the Great Lakes region, Lake Champlain in New York and several others in Europe and Africa. What it may be is subject to much speculation; a long lost descendent of the plesiosaur is one theory while a giant eel is another. A fancier speculation suggests a type of long necked otter. Seriously.

Critics and cynics point to logs, schools of fish, waves, debris, insanity and crocodiles.

There are some theories as to what the Flathead Lake Monster may be. One theory is a white sturgeon that occasionally breaks the surface. Sturgeon can reach up to 12 feet in length; in 1955, Leslie Griffith claimed to have caught an 8-foot, 181 lb. sturgeon in Flathead Lake after a five-hour battle to reel it in. Both critics and believers of the Flathead Lake Monster feel he brought it in from another river; the preserved sturgeon can still be seen at the Polson-Flathead Historical Museum.

Other sightings and accounts measure the creature to be 20 to 60 feet long. Some descriptions match that of sturgeon, but some suggest a more eel like appearance. The slithery way it moves through the water doesn’t suggest a slower whale shaped animal or the broad girth of a sturgeon. Jean’s description of the creature’s color is slightly different from other eyewitnesses reports too. Generally the color is darker, almost being black and in one case, having steely black eyes.

An anonymous banker from Seattle, Washington claims to have video taped the creature during the 1993 flap. While visiting Woods Bay, he saw a black creature in the water and set his video camera on it. He claims he saw its sturgeon like head and eyes before he pressed the record button; the video purportedly shows the creature with a more eel like quality though. Two weeks later, a vacationing Illinois policeman and his family witnessed the creature chasing a school of fish.

Jean says that many consider seeing the creature as bad luck, or a sign of something negative to come. Just weeks after seeing the creature, a friend of hers passed away. Other witnesses have reported similar experiences of losing loved ones, enduring sudden medical problems or having relationships crumble in a short amount of time.

Generally, too, people who’ve seen the creature become obsessed with it. Many have tried to track and/or capture it, see it again or find out as much as they can. Brian Beck saw the creature in 1996 near Melita Island. His fascination led him to create Flathead Lake Monster Inc. that makes and sells Monsterware and other merchandise including the Flathead Lake Monster soda.

Laney Hanzel, a former fish biologist, has been documenting the cases and still accepts reports. While he doesn’t have a census of how many of the dozens of reports he collected are from tribal members, he knows that these people aren’t ‘nutcases.’ From doctors, policemen, military people and more, he’s collected reports from a number of credible witnesses. Recording the sightings is more than just a curiosity, he said; it’s recording a history and lore of the lake.

According to the Salish and Pend d’Oreille Culture Committee, there aren’t any stories, tales or personal accounts of the Flathead Lake Monster. Jean says, however, that that Kootenai knew of the creature, even calling Flathead Lake “Monster Lake” before white explorers ventured into the region.

In this world, new animals are being discovered all the time. Google-Earth has even discovered places no one has ventured before and even deep underground, ecologies untouched for millions of years flourish. Logic would presume that animals reaching up to 60 feet in length would easily be captured and identified, especially in an inland lake. However, despite being known for centuries, the giant squid was only recently visually documented by Japanese marine biologists. The megamouth shark was discovered in the 1970’s despite centuries old legends. And once thought extinct, the coelacanth fish was discovered thriving off the coast of Africa in the 1930s; prior to its discovery, the coelacanth could only be seen in million-plus year old fossils.

Does this make the Flathead Lake Monster real? At this point, only as much as you want it to be real.

Do you have any strange or unexplained true story to tell? Send it to sams@cskt.org or call 675-2700, ext. 1314. Privacy assured if requested. UFOs, ghost, bigfoot and more stories are welcome.