Lake Champlain Sightings Profiles

 

Some different views of "Champ" from different sources. The video still above ios the same as the  first one on the diagram below, the head seems to change shape. It seems to be a swimming quadruped with only a modest length of neck and it is assumed to be a deer with antlers that present a different aspect from different angles. Its resolution is too poor to make it out any better.

 

There are a couple of different phenomena at Lake Champlain that have fed into the Legend of Champ. Of far more interest to us are the sightings which allege it has a Plesiosaurian shape, with or without humps on the back. Below is an assortment of creatures depicted in different sightings in profile, as variations on the Plesiosaurian category.

 

Drawing of a recent sighting of "Champ" from a Kayak

As produced by Facebook Friend Thomas Finley as part of a package promoting a field trip to Lake Champlain (Via Scott Mardis, who also hopes to go). it is a good match for the second-from-the-last profile on the chart above, but that one is a different sighting taken from a different source.

                   Video purporting to show "Champ": could be a swimming beaver.
                   More distinctive Plesiosaur type sighting below:

Purported "Champ" looking very much like Peter O'Conner's 1960 photo of "Nessie"

(By way of Scott Mardis)

 

Here is my earlier attempt to characterise the Champ sightings as done for a CFZ article. The impression I had was that several of the witnesses used the old Sinclair Oil Dinosaur as a point of reference and so I simply cut a section off of the Sinclair Dinosaur and added the dimensions (The shape of the head was wrong on this reconstruction but nobody knew about that part until more recently) The comparison of Lake Monsters to the Sinclair Dinosaur has also been stated in Lake Superior and in the state of Michigan, but I am rather more dubious of those claims.

 

http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2010/01/dale-drinnon-champ-sightings-mock-up.html

http://www.njan.org/draw.php

Champ Sightings List

Please give the files time to open some of the pdfs have many pages
and it may take a few seconds for them to appear. [Joe Zarzynski 1988] [Gary Mangiacopra 2007Pt.1] [Gary Mangiacopra 2007 Pt.2]

[Unfortunately the links have expired but I believe they are still at the Not Only Nessie site,]

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"

 

Scott Mardis' pdf Files

Scott Mardis pdfs

For the next 30 days, Scott Mardis has made these pdf files available too interested persons. I have them myself, but I cannot attach pdf files to blogger blogs in any way to transmit them permanently: that is something that failed when I tried it before

Zarzynski Champ Beyond the Legend 1988.pdf 3 MB Champquest Dennis Hall 1999.pdf 13 MB Champ Sightings List Gary Mangiacopra 2007 Pt. 1.pdf 11 MB Champ Sightings List Gary Mangiacopra 2007 Pt.2.pdf 14 MB Loch Ness Sightings List Henry Bauer 1986.pdf 10 MB Champ Sightings List Joe Zarzynski 1988.pdf 14 MB

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