There’s Something Out There!

Here's a link to some background about the Flathead Lake monster, the topic of today's post.

Skeptics have explained the mysterious creature sighted in Montana's Flathead Lake as an overweight skindiver, a mother-in-law in a swimsuit, a sturgeon, a superfish, a prehistoric holdover, even a wayward seal. As unlikely as it may seem, however, the USO (unidentified swimming object) may not be a hoax. For well more than a century, reports of something in the third largest body of fresh water west of the Great Lakes has kept residents and tourists on the lookout. And sightings have been numerous.

Stories about a creature living in Flathead Lake have long been the subject speculation.
Flathead Lake, Ralph De Camp, oil on canvas, Montana State Capitol

Visitor Services Bureau Chief Ken Soderberg of Montana State Parks related an incident that FWP Maintenance Supervisor Merle Phillips shared with him a few years ago. Phillips and his crew were called to Wild Horse Island to dispose of a dead horse that was, as Soderberg puts it, "making a bit of a stink." While sometimes in such a situation the men will resort to dynamite, a nearby cabin made that solution unwise. The horse was stiff as a board and too big to load on the boat, so they built a raft of inflated inner tubes and boards intending to haul it across to shore. They lashed the horse to the boards, legs sticking straight up in the air, but they slightly miscalculated the weight of the horse. Once in the water, it partially submerged.
The boat moved slowly, dragging the raft with its unusual cargo. Boats passing by gave the FWP crew double takes as they saw what was tethered to the raft. Finally one boat turned around, pulled alongside the FWP craft and the driver asked, "Hey, what are you guys doing?"  
Phillips replied in all seriousness, "Mister, I would advise you to stay back from this official boat."
The driver was taken aback, "Well, how come? What are you doing?"
Phillips realized he had to come up with an answer. The look on the fellow's face was priceless when he heard Phillips' response, "We're trolling for the Flathead Lake monster!"

Flathead Monster

I’ll be telling spooky stories at the Belgrade Public Library tomorrow (Thursday, October 18)  at 6:30. The program is a Humanities Montana sponsored event and is free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!

Captain James Kerr, piloting the U.S. Grant on Flathead Lake in 1889, made the first recorded sighting of a mysterious creature in Flathead Lake. He and his passengers saw a 20-foot object swimming in the steamboat’s path. Passengers panicked. One man fired at it and missed. The boat nearly capsized and the creature disappeared. Since then, there have been nearly 100 sightings.

Documented sightings of "something" in Flathead Lake
Compiled by Laney Hanzel, from Montana Outdoors

One of the most credible was that of retired army major George Cote and his son Neal in 1985. Trolling in Yellow Bay, they saw an object "…as long as a telephone pole and twice as large in diameter." As it slowly undulated, they counted four to six humps above the water. It then sped away, stopped, looked back, and disappeared underwater. They knew that no one would believe them and kept quiet. Then in 1987, Major Cote again saw the creature as he drove along old Highway 93 near Lakeside. This time the entire head, body and tail were visible. Cote wrote of his encounters to Fish Wildlife and Parks in 1990. As a veteran fisherman, he knew what he saw. He had no doubt that it was a huge creature. FWP biologist Laney Hanzel has never seen the monster but has observed huge holes in nets officials have pulled from the lake. Even renowned Whitefish author Dorothy Johnson believed there was something in the lake. In a letter to the editor of the Flathead Courier, Johnson wrote: "I don't think the monster should be done with tongue in cheek. You have eyewitness accounts by people who were scared and didn't think it was funny. I remember hearing about something in Flathead Lake more than forty years ago, so don't give the Polson Chamber of Commerce credit for dreaming it up…."  And back in the dim past, the Kootenai Indians had a name for the lake they passed down through generations. They called it “Monster Lake.”