Champ Eyewitness Sketches

[Scott Mardis Guest Blog]

 

A collection of Champ eyewitness sketches compiled by Joseph W. Zarzynski for his 1988 book, Champ Beyond the Legend

 

 

[Dale D. Comments: For the greater part of the 20th Century a key description of Champ has been that it looked like the Sinclair Oil company's signature sauropod dinosaur. That is the reason for the photo in the internet listing below, and it is a good thing to remember that many witnesses from the 1930s up to the 1960s had this image firmly in mind. The same description is historically repeated at various locations on up the St Lawrence Seaway.]

The Monster of Lake Champlain

With a 125-mile long stretch of water to hide in maybe it’s no surprise that the monster of Lake Champlain, affectionately known as Champ, has never been caught.
They may both be prehistoric, but Champ wins over Nessie when it comes to the history of sightings, with legends of a giant lake monster known as ‘Tatoskok’ recorded from two of the nearby Native American tribes.
The first newspaper report of a sighting came in 1819 and over the years hundreds of visitors to the lake claim to have spotted a creature with a bizarre snake-like neck estimated to be as tall as 30 feet. The most convincing picture of Champ was taken in 1977 by a passing holidaymaker and although many have taken it as definitive evidence of the existence of Champ, others have dismissed it as a piece of driftwood.
Champ has proven a significant draw for tourists to the town of Burlington, Vermont, and locals will be happy to sell you a t-shirt or cap featuring the famous monster, whether you believe or not.
http://www.makethelist.net/5-famous-lake-and-sea-monsters/

          Below: Cartoon of Chanp greeting the Loch Ness Monster, a latecomer who only showed up
          200 years after people already knew there was a Lake Champlain Monster.(Bobby Carroll)

Local model intended to show "Champ"while the neck is not nearly thin enough and the gead is highly embellished, the body represented on this one is close to the more reputable reports and NOT like the "String-of-Buoys" reports. (From Flickr and used on local-tourism message board)

                                 Champ Periscope, and below, the more dramatic version.

 In this case the forefins are definitely interesting and I wonder if any sightings mention them

The Lake Champlain Monster?

broncos314

Uploaded on May 6, 2007

Grand Isle, Vermont.
While working outside, this was spotted out in the lake. Unfortunately all I had was a little digital camera with limited video ability.
Is it Champ? Of course not. Or is it??



found on Google photo search and Labelled as "Lake Champlain Monster"