Pressie the Lake Superior Sea Serpent

Lake Superior or Gitchigumi (meaning Great Water or Great Lake) is a fresh water lake. It is 1,333 feet deep in places , with an average water temperature of 34 degrees F and is 350 miles long and up to 160 miles wide in parts. The lake is almost an inland sea. It is said to house a lake serpent, Pressie, named after the Presque Isle River where one of the best sightings occurred .


Mouth of the Presque Isle River at Lake Superior

The native indigenous people called the serpent Mishipishu and it is seen in pictographs at various shoreline sites, either as a spiky cat-like creature or as a serpent. Modern sightings cite a serpent type creature up to 75 feet long with a horse-like head on a longish neck and a bilobate (whale-type) tail, and described as dark green to black in colour. The reported sightings go back centuries, here is a selection of the most well known:

In September 1894, about halfway between Whitefish Point and Copper Harbor, Michigan, the crews of two steamers observed a strange creature undulating along in the twilight, its back protruding 6 to 8 feet out of the water.

In July 1895, three members of a steamer crew observed a “hideous creature” off Whitefish Point which seemed at times to be deliberately pacing their ship. They claimed it had a 15 foot neck and a jaw a foot wide.

In 1897 near Duluth (MN), a Detroit man fell overboard when his yacht struck a rock. He was then attacked by a huge serpent which he said tried to constrict him in the manner of a large snake. His three shipmates also saw the beast.

In the 1930’s, a serpent, swimming along at about 9 miles per hour, was observed by two fisherman at Pictured Rocks, Munising, Michigan. The animal created a strong wake as it passed the shore.

In the 1960’s, a family watched a huge animal, alternately showing humps and stretching out straight, swim upriver past the North coast of Sugar Island Neither head nor tail was visible and they said it resembled a log when stretched out straight.

Memorial Day weekend in 1977, North of Ironwood , hiker Randy Braun snapped a photo of something which he suspects was a giant serpent swimming in the waters of the lake near the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. Braun said it undulated in the water like a serpent. The snapshot he took of the beast shows a blurry object in the water. (Top Photo) The photo indicates a serpent like creature with a horse-like head on a long neck and an undefined tail.



Randy Braun’s sketch

In the summer of 1981 in Munising, four children and teenagers, all siblings, observed a serpent showing 3-5 humps rising 1-2 feet out of the water (the slower it went the higher the humps). As it came within about 20 yards of the private beach, one of the children ran away crying and the animal headed away showing lower humps.

In the middle 1990’s, during the summer, fishermen watched in horror as a large aquatic animal pulled a wading buck deer under (leaving only it’s severed head) near Point Iroquois, Michigan.

All the photographic evidence is as usual grainy or blurry , but that is par for the course and lets face it, anyone’s hand would shake if they thought they saw a monster. So could it be a giant eel? It seems the most likely or a giant water snake. A sturgeon, the usual explanation seems less likely given the descriptions. What we need is a video or a carcass to turn up. Certainly in a lake that big there are plenty of places to hide!

Here is Randy Braun’s written account of the incident with other information:

Lake Superior Monster

“On Memorial Day Weekend in 1977 I was camping at Presque Isle campground north of Ironwood, Michigan, with a friend. I don’t remember if it was Saturday or Sunday but it was a beautiful morning and Lake Superior was like glass. Visibility was remarkable when looking out across the Lake, and distant land was visible. There’s a trail that leads east from the campground which crosses the Presque Isle River that I was navigating, however, the bugs were unbearable, and I headed north towards the lake hoping that walking along the beach would be more comfortable.

When I reached the tree line there was the beach but about one hundred feet below me. The slope leading to the beach was close to a 45 degree angle with short dead trees protruding from the moss covered rock, and come to find out also very slippery. It still amazes me to this day how I was able to control my slide and with a full backpack. I sheared off some of the scrub trees on the way down. Then again I was young and experienced having had extensive background in forestry and working in Idaho and Montana. I was twenty-six years old then and now I am fourty-eight. The beach was maybe thirty feet from the waters edge to the the slippery slope and as I continued to walk east sometimes no beach at all. Instead there was water with tangled lake debris amid dead standing trees. The water was knee deep to waist deep but difficult to get through, and as I think about it I’m glad “it” wasn’t lurking in there. After crossing through a couple of these beach barriers it was clear beach as far east as I could see, and I stopped by a 3’x3’ boulder, sat, and began to east lunch.

When I looked straight out to open water I saw two very distinct dark bumps which seemed to be separated by just a few feet. First, one bump would go underwater then the next bump would do the same, but only after the first one surfaced. I had a 20x spotting scope with me and couldn’t quite make out what they were. Then they began to move east and to my left, one bump going under and then the other, but one bump always stayed on top of the water while the other submerged.

It became frightfully apparent to me that this object was close to one thousand feet out and as it gained speed I realized there was a third smaller bump, and that the object was undulating. It moved very rapidly “VERY RAPIDLY” to the east and quartered towards and nearly up to the shore. The now obviously living thing stopped maybe several hundred feet from me and began moving and weaving around large boulders that were in the water, and directly towards me. IT WAS BIG and resembled an anaconda with the girth of a Volkswagen. Don’t laugh it wasn’t funny.

There was no where to go for me because of the slippery slope and the water barriers so I jumped behind the boulder and grabbed by 35mm Yashica. As it moved towards me it slowed down considerably but was making a noticeable wake. It was strangely quiet while it snaked towards me and stopped dead in the water, right in front of me. IT WAS BIG! I steadied my camera on top of the rock and fired one picture but was afraid to move after that. The thing sat there for about thirty seconds with its huge horse shaped head and large dark left eye staring at me. On the nose was a visible catfish type whisker, maybe two feet in length and wiggling.

I don’t talk to many people about it and have the original negative which I used to make an 8x10. The picture is high quality and every-thing plus more makes it quite a conversational piece. Incidentally a Doctor Reines from the State University of New York in Plattsburgh, New York has an 8x10 I’ve sent some twenty years ago. The picture is copyrighted so he didn’t pursue purchasing the photo, at least that’s what I think. At the time of the incident I lived in northern Illinois but now ironically I live in Michigan and only several miles from Lake Superior.

Two summers ago and not far from where I live, now, recreational fisherman observed a large something bite a buck deer in half while it was wading in the water near Sault Ste. Marie. An Indian friend of mine has the newspaper article.

May I also add that seeing these creatures is in Indian legend. Legend has it that Indians observed the creature do the same thing I did, and legend further adds that when it stops in the water sometime gulls mistake it for a log and land on its nose. You can guess what happened to the gull.

Furthermore and finally, people disappear near Presque Isle River occasionally and are never found. It’s attributed to the undertow (???). I don’t swim in any deep water lake anymore and occasionally have nightmares of being consumed by the thing I saw.”

Sources: cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2009/07/pressie-lake-superior-serpent.html, monstertracker.com/article/lake-superior-monster

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What is the Scariest Cryptid You’d Never Want to Meet?

Alleged encounter with a giant snake in Katanga 1959

This image has surfaced on a few websites over the years and is one of my all-time favourite monster snake photos and was taken by a passenger on a plane flown by a WWII pilot upon returning back to their Congo base from a mission.

The Story

Tales about enormous snakes are very frequent throughout the tropical regions of the world.

Sensationalist news, sometimes anchored on dubious witnesses and unclear photos, appear frequently in South American and African newspapers.

These assertions, however, aren’t viable in an encounter chronicled in 1959 by a helicopter pilot flying in the Congo region.

Col. Remy van Lierde (14 August 1915–8 June 1990) was a Belgian pilot who served during World War II in the Belgian and British Air Forces, shooting down six enemy aircraft and 44 V-1 flying bombs, and achieving the RAF rank of Squadron Leader. In 1958 he became one of the first Belgians to break the sound barrier while test flying a Hawker Hunter at Dunsfold Aerodrome in England. As Lt. Colonel Van Lierde he was made Deputy Chief of Staff to the Ministre of Defense in 1954. Van Lierde is considered a hero of World War II and a flying ace.

In 1959, as full Colonel, he commanded the air base at Kamina in the Belgian Congo. While there, in the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while returning from a mission by helicopter, he encountered a Giant Congo Snake emerging from a hole as he flew over the forests, describing the snake as being close to 50 feet (about 15 meters)  in length, earning its place among the largest snakes ever reported.

Upon the incredible discovery, he then turned around and made several passes over the snake at a lower altitude in order to allow another person on board to photograph the creature.



Van Lierde claims that as he flew lower for a closer inspection, the snake rose up approximately 10 feet, giving the impression it would have attacked the helicopter if it had been within striking range.

“I feel and I’m convinced if I had been in its range it would have struck at me”, Col. Lierde confessed.

He later described the giant snake as having a dark shade of green and brown with a white coloured belly and claimed the snake’s head was 3 feet wide, and that the jaws were of a triangular shape.

The Colonel has a wiki page that touches upon the account.

Van Lierde is considered a reliable eyewitness and his testimony is convincing. His depiction is very realistic and familiar to snake experts.

On an episode of Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World entitled “Dragons, Dinosaurs and Giant Snakes”, Van Lierde claimed, “It could have easily eaten up a man.” Watch the clip.

Multiple experts and zoologists analyzed several of his pictures of the ‘Giant Congo Snake’ and have verified them as authentic. They verified the size of the serpent by comparison analysis to the ground features around the snake.

According to Col. Lierde’s report, when he lowered the helicopter for a closer look the snake raised up 10 feet and looked as if it would strike at the helicopter if they flew any closer, but he was able to get a good view of the colouring which leads many people to believe it could have been an Anaconda.

More on Anacondas

Anacondas which are probably most clostly related to the Titanaboa (giant prehistoric snake believed to be extinct but might be similiar to the snake in the photo) have been documented to raise up 6 to 7 feet to strike at people.

The name anacondas refers to a whole genus of Boa constrictor snakes which kill their prey by squeezing them to death. Although no one is sure how big anacondas can get, most scientists believe that the largest are 25 feet long or even longer and there are many accounts of other giant snake encounters.

The Anaconda is considered the biggest snake in the world and can weigh 550 pounds or more, but will usually top out at a few hundred pounds. These snakes can measure more than 12 inches in diameter. The female typically outweighs the males. The Green Anaconda is dark green in color with black oval patches on its back. This drab pattern blends the snake in well with the wet, dense vegetations of its habitat.

The Anaconda come equipped with a large head and a thick neck. Its eyes and nostrils are positioned on the top of the head, enabling the Anaconda to breathe and to see its prey while its stocky body lays submerged under water. The extremely muscular Anaconda is a constrictor and is not poisonous; however, it still has teeth and powerful jaws that it utilizes to clench onto its prey. It grabs its victim and pulls it underwater, drowning the prey.

Anaconda or aquatic boas can be categories as four different species. They are green anaconda, the yellow anaconda, the Dark-Spotted anaconda or Deschauense’s Anaconda (Eunectes deschauenseei) , and the Bolivian Anaconda (Eunectes beniensis).

There are two possible origins for the word “anaconda”. It is perhaps an alteration of the Sinhalese word “henakanday,” meaning “thunder snake,” or alternatively, the Tamil word “anaikondran,” which means “elephant killer.”

Related posts:

Sucuri Gigante
http://cryptidchronicles.tumblr.com/post/13031133281/sucuriju-giant-snake

Giant Anacondas Lurk Near The Amazon River
http://cryptidchronicles.tumblr.com/post/12732373273/anaconda-in-amazon

Underwater, face to face with a peaceful anaconda
http://cryptidchronicles.tumblr.com/post/13031277649/underwater-anaconda

Further reading: Giant Anaconda and Other Cryptids
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Sucuri Gigante (“Giant Sucuri”, “Giant Boa”, or Anaconda), is an elusive giant snake, a constrictor, claimed to be a sub-species of the common Green Sucuri, or Anaconda (Eunectes murinus), but some scientific speculation has proposed that it could be a descendant of the Gigantophis, a large snake from the Eocene period, (58 million to 34 million years BPE) that could reach 33 feet (10.7 m) in length.

 Description

In Brazil, along with several other areas in South America, the common Anaconda is called Sucuri. While no definitive proof exists of Sucuri Gigante, it is speculated to reach lengths of 40 meters, grow to 80 centimeters around, and weigh up to a massive 5 tons. Some tribes from the Amazon speak of Sucuri Gigante as the Anaconda, referring to it as the creator of the Amazon River. It is also referred to as “Mysterious Beast” and “Controller”, as it is said to control the areas of the rivers it inhabits.

References

1. Dr. Heuvelmans’, Bernard, “On the Track of Unknown Animals”
2. Dinsdale, Tim, “Monster Hunt” 1972

Reports of giant anacondas date back as far as the discovery of South America when sightings of anacondas upwards of 50 meters (150 feet) began to circulate amongst colonists and the topic has been a subject of debate ever since among cryptozoologists and zoologists.

The first recorded sightings of giant anacondas were from the time of the discovery of South America, when early European explorers entered the dense jungles there and claimed to have seen giant snakes measuring up to 18 metres (59 ft) long. Natives also reported seeing anacondas upwards of 10.5 metres (34 ft) to 18 metres (59 ft).

Another claim of an extraordinarily large anaconda was made by adventurer Percy Fawcett. During his 1906 expedition, Fawcett wrote that he had shot an anaconda that measured some 19 metres (62 ft) from nose to tail. Once published, Fawcett’s account was widely ridiculed. Decades later, Belgian cryptozoologist Bernard Heuvelmans came to Fawcett’s defence, arguing that Fawcett’s writing was generally honest and reliable.

GIANT SNAKES

When herpetologists speak of giant snakes they mean the “ big six”: South America’s green anaconda and common boa, Asia’s reticulated python and Burmese python, the African rock python, and Australia’s amethystine python. Most sources cite the reticulated python as the earth’s longest snake, although reports of its maximum size disagree.

A specimen 32 ft., 9 in. long was reportedly killed on the island of Celebes (now Sulawesi) in 1912, but no proof exists. Likewise, the slaying of a 37.5-ft. anaconda in 1944 remains unproved, since the dead snake revived and escaped. A reward of $50,000 offered by the Wildlife Conservation Society for the first live capture of a snake measuring 30 ft. or longer has yet to be claimed. Meanwhile, reports of truly giant snakes continue ro be made around the world.

• Explorer Percy Fawcett killed a 62-ft. anaconda on the Rio Negro in 1907 and reported the slaying of another more than 80 ft. long on the Rio Paraguay.

(Top Photo: Brazilian soldiers battle a giant anaconda. Credit: William Rebsamen)

• Another Amazon explorer, Algot Lange, shot two anacondas in 1910, reporting that one measured 54 ft. and the other 52 ft., 8 in.

• A Brazilian priest, Fr. Victor Heinz, saw three huge snakes on the Amazon River during 1929 – 30. He claimed the first was more than 80 ft. long. Heinz said another specimen’s eyes were “as large as plates.”

• In 1933, members of the Brazil-Colombia Boundary Commission allegedly killed
an anaconda 97 ft., 6 in. long but subsequently lost their photos of the monster.

• Also in 1933, Congo tribesmen reportedly killed a 130-ft. python, then cooked and ate it before authorities could measure the reptile.

• Brazilian soldiers killed a 75-ft. anaconda in April 1947 and published its photo
in local newspapers.

• Two more Brazilian monsters, both killed in 1948, reportedly measured 130 ft. and
114 ft. The larger one was photographed, but the photo provides no objects from
which to gauge size.

• In 1959, Belgian helicopter pilot Remy Van Lierde photographed a snake 40 – 50 ft. long in the Congo, but, again, the photo includes no details to provide a sense of scale.

• In February 1969, newspapers announced Italian zoologist Bruno Falcci’s search for an anaconda “ more than 100 ft. long and at least a yard wide,” but the snake eluded him.

• Reports from Peru described the rampage of a 130-ft. serpent that destroyed a native village in August 1997.

No snake native to North America officially reaches 10 ft. in length, yet numerous reports of larger snakes have been recorded from Colonial times to the present.

Author Chad Arment lists 211 American encounters with snakes 10 – 40 ft. long reported between 1715 and 1960. In 88 of those cases, the snakes were supposedly captured or killed, but none was preserved.

Among the more surprising cases we find:

• Giant rattlesnakes. The largest known rattlesnake species on earth, the eastern diamondback, claims a record length of 8 ft., 3 in., but huge rattlers were reportedly killed nationwide throughout the 19th century. Examples include a 20-ft. specimen from Harlan County, Kentucky (1857), a 17-ft. rattler from Medina County, Texas (1858), a snake 21 ft., 6 in. long at Danville, Illinois (1859), an 18-ft. specimen from Eufala, Oklahoma (1877), another 18-ft. rattler at Fort Drum, Florida (1878), a specimen 14 ft., 9 in. long in Dooly County, Georgia (1878), a rattler 14 ft., 3 in. long from Arizona’s White Mountains (1879), a 17-ft. snake at Salina, Utah (1893), and a 20-ft. rattler at Anderson, Indiana (1897).

•1 8 4 3 : A dark green snake with black spots, measuring 14 ft., 8 in. long, was killed at North Attleboro, Massachusetts.

•1 8 7 1 : Residents of Fredonia, Kansas caught a blue-black snake with yellow spots that measured 37 ft., 9 in.

•1 8 7 2 : A snake 20 ft., 3 in. long was killed at Loudonville, Ohio.

•1 8 7 8 : An unknown greenish-colored snake, 31 ft. long, was killed near Antioch,
California.

•1 8 7 8 : A farmer at Quapaw Bayou, Louisiana killed a 31-ft. snake that tried to eat one of his calves.

Source: “Hidden Animals” by Michael Newton

Giant Anacondas Lurk Near The Amazon River

In beast hunting lore nothing is more alluring than the Amazon River and environs. Spectacular expeditions were launched in the 19th century long before cable news and the Internet. The Yeti, Sasquatch, the Chubacabra have not been proven to exist, but giant snakes are real.

All the early explorers had tales of giant snake encounters. The British explorer Percy Fawcett claimed to have shot a 62 foot anaconda in 1907.

Teddy Roosevelt in his famous journey down the river of doubt, claimed to have measured a 38 foot snake “in the flesh.” Those were the pioneers as pulp magazines chronicled their adventures.

We do know that anacondas are real and they often reach massive size. The python in Florida, with a large water supply and food, is growing to unseen sizes as well.

intriguingphenomena.blogspot.com/2011/03/giant-anacondas-lurk-near-amazon-river.html

Theodore Roosevelt: Statesman… Naturalist… Monster Hunter?

The year is 1918 and Knoxville Tennessee is in danger.  A lurking creature stalks the farmlands killing pets and livestock at an alarming rate.  Citizens are afraid to leave their homes at night.  Could it be an escaped lion?  Rumors persist of a mysterious black panther.  A cry for help is sent to the New York Times, who somewhat surprisingly, considers it “fit to print.”  An experienced monster hunter is required to lead the hunting party.

Given a lifetime of exploration and adventure, Roosevelt was the obvious choice.  Teddy had discovered new species, and tracked big game in Africa and South America.  Unfortunately, for the city of Knoxville, that lifetime of adventure had finally caught up to the ‘Bull Moose.

Ailing from rheumatism, and still recovering from a bought of malaria contracted while on expedition in Brazil, the 60-year-old former President was no longer fit to go toe-to-toe with Knoxville’s mysterious, rogue animal.

It’s hard to imagine any current politician, (let alone a former President), being seriously considered to lead a monster hunt.  Roosevelt was a different breed, however.  A renowned and respected naturalist and explorer, Teddy was only 4 years removed from an expedition into the heart of the Amazon.  There he hoped to find, (among other things) a monster anaconda for exhibit within the Bronx Zoo.

Though Roosevelt managed to collect many animal specimens completely unknown to science, Teddy never found the “Megaconda” of legend.  He was, however, still intrigued and encouraged by local reports of truly monstrous snakes.  Roosevelt offered a $1,000 reward for any snake measuring 30 feet or more.

The 26th President’s interest in the unknown was not limited to the impossibly large snakes of South American stories.  The legendary President was aware of another American legend… Bigfoot.

In Roosevelt’s 1890 book, The Wilderness Hunter, he describes a tale related to him by a frontiersman named Bauman.

Here is an excerpt from the story:

Frontiersmen are not, as a rule, apt to be very superstitious. They lead lives too hard and practical, and have too little imagination in things spiritual and supernatural. I have heard but few ghost stories while living on the frontier, and those few were of a perfectly commonplace and conventional type. But I once listened to a goblin-story, which rather impressed me.

A grizzled, weather beaten old mountain hunter, named Bauman who, born and had passed all of his life on the Frontier, told it the story to me. He must have believed what he said, for he could hardly repress a shudder at certain points of the tale; but he was of German ancestry, and in childhood had doubtless been saturated with all kinds of ghost and goblin lore. So that many fearsome superstitions were latent in his mind; besides, he knew well the stories told by the Indian medicine men in their winter camps, of the snow-walkers, and the specters, [spirits, ghosts & apparitions] the formless evil beings that haunt the forest depths, and dog and waylay the lonely wanderer who after nightfall passes through the regions where they lurk. It may be that when overcome by the horror of the fate that befell his friend, and when oppressed by the awful dread of the unknown, he grew to attribute, both at the time and still more in remembrance, weird and elfin traits to what was merely some abnormally wicked and cunning wild beast; but whether this was so or not, no man can say.

Roosevelt, Theodore. The Wilderness Hunter: an Account of the Big Game of the United States and Its Chase with Horse, Hound, and Rifle. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1893.