OMG. Starting week two of just lake monsters and I’m only in the M’s. Seriously people. Not every body of water has a monster in it! I know you may be hurting for tourists but monsters aren’t how to get it. sheesh.
Unless otherwise stated, all information below can be found on Wikipedia.
Mamlambo – Named after the Zulu goddess of rivers, in 1997 a South African newspaper reported nine dead bodies in the Mzintlava River. By the time the authorities arrived, crabs had eaten away at the faces and necks of the deceased. The locals believed that they had all been killed by the Mamlambo, as it apparently likes to eat the faces and brains of it’s victims, earning itself the nickname “Brain Sucker”. It is reported as being 20 meters in length with the head of a horse, the body of a fish, and a long neck. Mamlambo is also supposed to glow green at night, like it’s radioactive.[Unconfirmed]
Manipogo – Also known as the Winnepogo, lives in Lake Manitoba and/or Lake Winnipegosis (hence the two names), is said to be 12-50 ft long, brown, and has a head like a sheep. Though it is reported to have been seen as far back as the early 1900’s, actual documented sightings didn’t start till 1935 (probably spurred by hype over Nessie) when a timber inspector and his friends claimed to have seen a creature with a single horn on the top of it’s head. Since then many reports have been made including one in 1948 where the creature supposedly rose 6ft out of the water and let out a “prehistoric type of dinosaur cry”. Most recently, in 2004 a fisherman’s catch was completely ripped out of his nets and the nets themselves destroyed. In August of 2012 it was concluded that mass sightings of “humped” creatures in the water were due to giant Sturgeon living in the lake. Despite these findings, St Laurent, a community on the south east shores of Lake Manitoba, holds a Manipogo festival the first week of March every year. [Check Out This REAL Footage of the creature found on YouTube][Unconfirmed]
Memphre – Yet another Canadian lake monster (what is this, three now, four?) in Lake Memphremagog, Quebec. Like almost every other lake monster, it’s said to be either a whale or a plesiosaur and was last sited in 2005. In 2011 the Canadian government issued a special release colored quarter featuring Memphre.[Unconfirmed]
Morag – A neighbor of Nessie’s, Morag hails from Loch Morar in Scotland. The best known report of Morag is from two guys in a speedboat who claim they ran into the thing. The creature was a little pissed and hit the boat back. One of the men hit the thing with an oar while the other unloaded his rifle into it. The thing then sank into the water. [Unconfirmed]
Muckie – Muckie is probably the worst case of “me too” syndrome as well as “monkey see, monkey do”. Muckie didn’t even exist (not even in legends) until 2003 when scientists were conducting sonar sweeps of the Lakes of Killarney in Ireland to research fish populations. They “hit” a large object that, at that moment couldn’t be identified. Though more plausible theories such as seals swimming together in a large group is the most logical explanation the tourism board has tried to tout the existence of a monster in the lake… without much success. The best they got was a Japanese TV show spent some time there looking for the creature with no success.[Unconfirmed]
Mussie – The legend of Mussie goes back to the founding days of Quebec, Canada. It is said that French navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, chronicler, and founder of New France, Samuel de Champlain, was the first to encounter the beast while exploring the Canadian wilderness. Though he never mentioned anything even remotely close to a giant lake monster with three eyes and pointy teeth in his memoirs, the “Welcome Visitors” sign for the town of Cobdon depicts him holding an astroglobe and looking at the creature in Lake Muskrat.
Contemporary “experts” have dropped the idea that Mussie is a hepaxalor serpent with three eyes and lean towards a more logical look. A walrus or a seal like creature. No evidence has arisen that Mussie is real, not even sonar. BUT, if you want a windsock or a kite with the monster on it, Cobdon sells them.[Unconfirmed]
Ogopogo – Another Canadian lake monster, this one living in Lake Okanagan in BC. Ogopogo goes by another name, Naitaka meaning “Lake Demon”. 1926 is when the first “recorded” sightings of Ogopogo occurred though the natives had had a legend of a lake creature for the past 300yrs. The name Ogopogo, comes from the album art of a popular song in 1924 featuring a small green fish man with big ears and antennae. I have no idea why people linked the two other than the fish-pixie is somewhat aquatic. [Unconfirmed]
Sharlie – Also gained it’s name from pop-culture at the time. The Idaho creature was named in the 1954 The Star News contest. “Sharlie” came from the catch phrase “Vas you der, Sharlie?” Uttered by Jack Pearl’s hit character Baron Munchausen on The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air. Sharlie’s first recorded sighting was in the 1920’s when some workers saw what they had previously thought was a log start to move on it’s own. In 1980 a Cryptozoologist put forth a theory that Sharlie and Champ are actually related monsters… but without an evidence that these creatures actually exist, it made it hard for him to prove his theory.[Unconfirmed]
Lake Monsters I
Lake Monsters II
Lake Monsters III: The Loch Ness Monster
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