Raystown Lake in Pennsylvania Home to Ray

Nessie may be the big name in the cryptozoology world when it comes to lake monsters, but we have many legends of our own right here in the United States. With all of the event promotions around Believe It Tour’s “Champ Camp – Weekend with a Lake Monster” I thought it would be fun to take a look at American lake monsters this 4th of July weekend.

Champ is the name given to the mysterious creature said to be lurking in the waters of Lake Champlain located between New York, Vermont, and Canada. There have been over 300 documented sighting of the lake monster with a mass sighting by 86 people during a lake cruise in July of 1984 on the Spirit of Ethan Allen. Sightings of Lake Champlain’s lake monster have been reported as far back as the 1600s.

In addition to Champ, Believe It Tour has explored several other famous areas where lake creature sightings have been reported. You might recall our previous report on the Flathead Lake Creature of Montana or the one on Tarpie, the Lake Tarpon Monster, in Florida from the 2008 Summer Tour. In 2009, during the Weird, Wacky, Wild California Tour, we were excited to meet the creator of Tahoe Tessie, Bob McCormick. Tahoe Tessie was a name Bob came up with so that his children and their friends wouldn’t be afraid to swim in the lake after reports of Lake Tahoe having a large, unknown monster hiding in the depths of the mountain lake.

This year, during a couple of road trips, we were able to make a few side stops to research different lakes and gather information for future exploration and investigations of lake monster sightings. One such stop was in Darien, Georgia where they have their own resident sea serpent, Altie or Altamaha-ha. After exploring the area and learning more about Altie, we decided to include further investigation into the sightings and legend of this river monster on the upcoming “Quest for Eternal Youth” trip.

The other spot we explored was in Pennsylvania with Raystown Ray, the lake monster that allegedly lives in Raystown Lake located in Huntingdon County. This lake monster was even featured in a recent production for the SYFY Channel. The first documented sighting of Ray was in 2006, but according to locals the sightings actually go back much further.

Other creatures that are on our list of upcoming cryptid adventures are South Bay Bessie, the lake monster swimming in the waters of Lake Erie, and a Chesapeake Bay monster named, Chessie.

Do you know of other lake monsters or sea serpents you we should look for on future adventures? We’d love to hear from you, so post your comments below.