Nunavik hunters run into rock-throwing bigfoot creature
“Maybe the creature was trying to communicate with us. But I don’t know how to talk to the bigfoot.”
This photo that Maggie Cruikshank posted on Facebook shows what she believes to be the footprint of the creature she saw near Akulivik in September 2012. (FILE PHOTO)
by JUSTIN NOBEL
Akulivik hunter Harry Cruikshank and his friends say they are the third northern Quebec group within the last two years to spot a bigfoot creature.
There was the night-time sighting last month of a red-eyed bigfoot mama and cub by Cree hunters near Wemindji, and there was the sighting in Aulivik last September, by Harry Cruikshank’s sister, Maggie Cruikshank, who was picking berries when she spotted a tall hairy beast without any clothes.
But unlike previous sightings, Harry Cruikshank’s bigfoot actually may have tried to convey a message to him and his friends.
The message was, “stay away!”
The group of four men and one woman say they saw the creature Oct. 19. The weather was nice and everyone was hungry for country food so they decided to go seal hunting.
The group traveled by motorized canoe to an area 45 minutes south of Akulivik on Nunavik’s Hudson Bay coast. After a short coffee break they continued to a remote bay known to be a good spot for seal.
“We all saw the unexpected something on a small hill, it was dark and we started staring at it,” Cruikshank said. “We knew there was nobody up there because there were no other canoes and you can only reach that hunting area by canoe.”
The group decided to go after the creature. They approached the area and climbed the small hill, but they found nothing. Then they spotted a caribou trail.
“We heard a strange noise up in the land,” said Cruiskshank, “like the sound of something throwing rocks.”
“Maybe the creature was trying to communicate with us,” added Cruikshank. “But I don’t know how to talk to the bigfoot.”
Still, the hunting party tried to interpret the creature’s movements.
Speaking amongst themselves, they determined the animal was indeed a bigfoot, and that it was throwing rocks at them because it was angry.
The bigfoot had been hunting the caribou, Cruikshank speculated, and his hunting party had interrupted the beast on its quest for food.
Cruikshank and his friends were hungry, too. But they weren’t about to try and shoot the bigfoot. They were also craving caribou meat.
“The bigfoot is not food for us because it walks like a human, with long, long arms,” said Cruikshank. “We forgot about that beast because we really needed to have the country food.”
And so the bigfoot escaped into the wilderness, and Cruikshank and his friends bagged the two caribou that they suspected the beast had been out hunting.
This is actually not the first time Cruikshank has seen a bigfoot. He first sighted the creature back in July of 1997. Cruikshank and his wife were travelling by canoe when she spotted something on the land.
“Harry, what is that!” his wife cried, pointing to a dark hairy creature.
“He stood up and started running,” said Cruikshank, “very fast running.”
But when he told his story, the people of Akulivik didn’t believe him. “I become quiet after that,” said Cruikshank.
For more than 15 years no one in Akulivik saw bigfoot, or at least no one in Akulivik spoke very loudly about seeing a bigfoot.
Then, late in the afternoon on a rainy, windy Saturday in September 2012, Harry Cruikshank’s sister, Maggie Cruikshank, spotted a bigfoot while out picking berries with her cousin.
The creature was “taller and larger than a man,” Maggie Cruikshank said at the time. “It walks like us but not standing straight like us, it can jump and crawl.”
And its footprint measured some 40 centimetres.
Maggie Cruikshank posted photos of the footprints on her Facebook page, which instantly drew numerous comments. But she still has not released a video she claims to have of the creature, which has drawn her some criticism.
Unfortunately her brother was not able to gather any hard evidence of the bigfoot that he saw.
“All of us forgot our cameras,” said Cruikshank.
Clear and compelling documentation of bigfoot has long been a goal of bigfoot enthusiasts and researchers in the western United States, where stories of the creature abound, from the forests of Oregon and Washington to the canyons of Utah.
In the U.S., people have set up motion sensor cameras and trekked deep into the woods searching for bigfoot, but one Utah-based group called the Falcon Project has an ambitious new plan: construct a remote-controlled helium-filled airship, complete with high tech cameras and thermal imaging equipment, and take the search for bigfoot to the skies.
“We spent 40 years on the ground trying to film this creature,” said project manager William Barnes. “I decided the only way we can actually study these creatures is from the air.”
Barnes, who had a life-altering bigfoot sighting while prospecting for gold in California in the late 1990s — the creature came within just three feet of his tent — says the craft will cost approximately $310,000.
“We’re still raising money,” said Barnes, “But once we get our money we’re going to be out there 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
The group, which includes an Idaho State University anthropologist, world-renown tropical biologist and conservationist Ian Redmond and an experienced wolf and mountain lion tracker named Jim Halfpenny plans to search in Idaho, Texas, West Virginia and British Columbia.
But as of now the Falcon Project has no plans to come to Nunavik.
Back in Aulivik, Harry Cruikshank believes the creatures are here to stay, though he doesn’t plan to go out looking for one again anytime soon.
“I am just going to leave it alone,” said Cruikshank, “and only hunt for the real animals, and not that kind of beast.”
“There have been sightings before,” added Akulivik Mayor Henry Alayco, and he seemed to think there would be sightings again. “It is some sort of mystery,” said Alayco.
http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674nunavik_hunters_run_into_rock-throwing_bigfoot_creature/
http://www.chiefrok.com/blog/the-adventures-of-chiefrok/sasquatch-the-james-bay-incident/
SASQUATCH: The James Bay Incident
“Evidence of the aliens, footprints of the Sasquatch ” Killa Priest – 2010
In the mid-nineties, I did a lot of travel for business purposes and for various hip hop related things I was into. On one such road trip, I was on my way to James Bay, driving a big 4×4 GMC pick-up truck, fresh off the lot. As was typical of me in those days, I was driving at night because, well, I didn’t understand circadian rhythms much at all and I thought I could dictate what my body did, not the other way around. Of course I was also driving fast, because I was still just a dumb ass young buck. It was already quite dark by the time I turned off route 117 onto route 113. As I was making my way up the 113 I was heading into a part of Quebec that’s really strange and desolate. It’s way out in the sticks, I mean really out there. The last town before it goes into 100% “bush mode” is Senneterre, population 3000 – maybe! It’s literally a blip on the map, and if you look at the photo below you can see 95% of the town. It’s just a little strip along the highway with a few scattered houses.
Senneterre: a quaint and charming blip on the map
Anyway, once you get past Senneterre it gets pretty lonely. I can remember some days travelling the 113 and only going past about ten cars. Right after that little town it quickly starts to look like the photo below, the rest of the way.
Caught in the very edge of the high beams, two red eyes reflected back at me. The only way I can describe the color is amber-reddish, like red eye in a photograph. These eyes suddenly rose from two or three feet above the ground to about seven feet in the air. Now this is all happening in a flash, but I quickly realized I was not looking at a moose. They don’t do any kind of “hi-ho silver” moves seven feet in the air, yo’. I freaked and was braking hard and the tires began to squeal, so naturally it was startled. In a flash, it left the road and somersaulted head first into the ditch. In one smooth movement, it rolled, stood up again, stuck its arms ahead of itself into the woods and shoved small brush aside to make a path into the forest.
Now to this day I don’t know what it was I saw, exactly. I’ve never seen it again and plenty of people around the world insist a Sasquatch/Bigfoot does not exist. I can’t say from my brief encounter if the creature had humanoid qualities such as speech but It moved like a human, and it didn’t look at all like they usually describe them (apelike). I barely got a decent look at it. Usually Sasquatches are described as being mangy and sort of resembling Chewbacka, but from what I saw, the only thing resembling Chewy was the height. As I came closer, all I could see was its back as it headed into the bush. The fur was much more like a moose hide, trim and neat, not the typical stank dreadlocks on a neo-hippy-type “flavor”. I didn’t see its face very clearly, only the reflection of the eyes as it darted off, turning its head away into darkness.
The original natives in the area, the Inyou (people typically refer to them as Cree) have stories of a being they call the Mehstabweow (not sure if the spelling is right). The descriptions I was given orally fit the Sasquatch to a T! Their stories tell of a wise being that in times of need, helps guide them on hunts and other matters of importance. It was also told to me that these beings have the ability to walk in between two trees and disappear on the other side. I asked where they go when they go between the trees, and I was told it was another plane of existence, they are able to go in between these two worlds at a moment’s notice. In all of the stories I was told, they always refer to these beings as very benevolent and wise, not wild creatures like animals. Now if you choose to believe that these beings are not like the moose or the deer but beings from another world, then it can make perfect sense why they are only seen briefly and not very often.
One day, I was telling someone who lives in the area about my encounter, and they pulled out a VHS tape of a hunt. There were three guys close to the camera and they were taping what appeared to be a moose far off in the distance, laying in the snow near a tree. One of them walked over to it with his gun thinking he could sneak up on it while it was sleeping. He came back quickly, hauling ass through the snow with a freaked out expression on his face. They asked him what happened but before he could answer, they saw the dark figure stand up on two legs in the background, brush the snow off, and walk off into the distance. Sure, this could have been a hoax but they seemed pretty genuine and I doubt they were very skilled in movie magic to fool me, especially considering it looked old when they showed it to me 12 years ago. And these guys are the type to barely get out of the boonies. From the filming skills they didn’t even appear to be great operators of that old-ass VHS-camcorder, so it seemed pretty legit to my eyes. If I ever locate that tape I’ll surely post a Youtube video.
We don’t hear about stories from this area much. Maybe it’s the language barrier of both French folks and natives in the boonies that don’t speak much English. One thing is certain to me, though: Quebec isn’t known for Big Foot sightings. but it should be.
Note to self : have a camera with you next time!
Zdenek Burian
Original Source
The border separating Quebec from Vermont runs through dairy fields, traverses a small wood and crosses an abbreviated beach before diving a little over 300 feet under the cold waters of Lake Memphremagog, a 39-square-mile amoeba of glacial water that either does or doesn't contain a 30-foot-long monster. If the lake doesn't contain a monster, its most notable feature is probably its hilly shore, which bursts into riotous color come fall and presents an inviting destination for American leaf peepers exploring the Northeast Kingdom and Montreal homme d'affaires on weekend getaways.
The lake is bookended by two charming towns, Newport, Vermont and Magog, Canada, which display very different sensibilities. Newport has the look of a mill town with a brick main drag and neighborhoods full of small homes for the tradesmen who hang out downtown in greasy spoon diners. The best view in town is from the church and everybody nods or waves to everybody else. Magog is a larger place and many of the Victorian homes just outside the lengthy town center, which contains multiple practical footwear stores and a sex shop, are bed and breakfasts. There is a town park by the water where neighbors walk together and fail to smile at strangers and where a sign reminds visitors to look for Memphre, which is the name of the monster. (*SEE PHOTOS BELOW*)
Memphre got his name from Jacques Boisvert, who called himself a "dracontologist" and lived in a clapboard house three minutes out of Magog. Boisvert, who died in 2006, was the Canadian ambassador to Memphre. Along with Barbara Malloy, the head of the Memphremagog Historical Society of Newport, he publicized the serpent and, in so doing, the region.
The region on both sides of the border -- crossing requires little more than a few minutes of small talk with a custom's officer -- is quiet and pretty. The delights of this landscape, the maple trees and postcard-ready barns, are no more ostentatious than the people who inhabit it. Syrup is sold out of mud rooms and, aggressive Quebecois driving aside, courtesy seems to be the great cultural achievement. In Magog, neighbors spend a lot of time raking each other's lawns.
In this context, Boisvert's monstrous story has a distinct appeal. It helps, of course, that the story also has compelling details: A viking petroglyph found at the top of a mountain near the lake showed a serpent and, when Europeans first arrived in the area, they'd been warned off swimming in the lake by natives with similar concerns. Of course Boisvert had also seen the beast. As had Mrs. Malloy.
"At first, when you see it is pitch dark," Malloy told Huffington Post Travel by phone. "When I first saw it, it was coming in from the Canadian border. I thought it was jetskiers because it was moving fast, but when it turned to go south more it was parallel to the road and I could see from the side view that it had a head like a horse, a long neck and a big body. As it got closer I could see that it was pretty tall and as long as a house. Then it turned again and went towards the west shore and, as it swam out it disappeared into the mist because it had been raining."
It is probably worth saying the Malloy doesn't come across as crazy or attention-seeking. To the contrary actually. She says she's trying to talk about the creature less these days because "the whole thing has brought a lot of frustration." Still, she is an evangelist for the creature's existence and the holder of the copyright to his name.
"These all sound a lot like Champ," Malloy says, namechecking Lake Champlain's famous beast, the mascot for -- among other things -- the Short Season Single-A Vermont Lake Monsters.
If it did live at the bottom of the lake, a beast like Memphre would probably be classified as a Sauropterygian. Sauropterygians -- think Plesiosaurs or the Loch Ness Monster -- are aquatic reptiles and though they were once extremely common, they went extinct along with the dinosaurs at the end of Cretaceous period.
This means that Lake Memphremagog -- if Malloy is correct -- should be of tremendous interest to scientists instead of being, as it is now, of some interest to open-water swimming enthusiasts and Canadian mountain bikers, who favor the trail system on nearby Mount Orford. The people who rent the paddle boats from the public docks would probably be a bit more nervous as well, though they'd still rent the boats because the lake is beautiful. It just happens to be beautiful in a very specific way: It's eerie.
Early in the morning, vapor rises off the lake and visibility can be fairly low. The hills and mountains beyond the Lake are perfectly reflected on the flat surface of the bracing water. The shallows are clear and filled with clouds of small fish and piles of pebbles. From the lookout dedicated to Jacques Boisvert in Magog, visitors can see many miles, but may find themselves without much to focus on other than the few small islands that interrupt the liquid metal of the water.
Boisvert, it turns out, was something approaching beloved in the town of Magog, a fact Malloy credits to the politeness of Canadians, who seem more willing to engage with the idea of the monster. Memphre lends his name to nicest bistro in town.
The owner of my bed and breakfast suggested that the myth was really a way to attract tourists, but added that it might not be necessary anymore given how much the community has to offer by way of performances and festivals and trails and foliage.
But Memphre is an interesting monster because he isn't a commercial monster. You can't buy a t-shirt with his name on it in America because Malloy would be able to sue the seller for $100,000. In all likelihood, you hadn't heard of him before you started reading this article.
If he turns out to be real, Malloy will likely serve a banquet of crow for all the haters in town. But if he is simply a stubborn notion, Memphre still says something about this place at the edge of two countries: The people here want hard evidence of their landscape's singularity.
Look close enough and you can see that it is there already. The dairy farms the border runs across and the woods it runs through and the lake it dives under are all pristine. There is either a monster in the lake or there isn't. It's a nice lake regardless.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that the lake is 39 acres large. It is 39 square miles large. We regret the error.
http://www.vermonter.com/northlandjournal/lake-memphremagog.asp
Lurking in the Depths of Lake Memphremagog
Lake Memphremagog is home to a gigantic monster—at least that is what some people say. For many years, people have reported seeing what some consider a lake monster, or lake serpent, swimming in Lake Memphremagog and other Northeast Kingdom waters. My family has long been connected to Lake Memphremagog, so I’ve always been interested in the creature that we call ~Gog. I’ve often worried about the impact of this fish eating serpent has on our famed fishery. Such a creature must surely eat enough fish to diminish the supply of fish in the lake. I’ve been skeptical of claims about the existence of these aquatic monsters, any kind of monsters, whether it be Gog or ~ Willie," the mythical creature that is said to roam the waters of Lake Willoughby in Westmore. Instead, I always wrote off sightings as the result of overactive imaginations. Logs, beavers, snapping turtles, schools of fish, and swimming moose are suddenly trans¬formed into something more sinister—a salmon and walleye—eating beast.
Yes, the water can play tricks on one’s eyes. During another hunting trip I was again convinced of Gog’s existence. Through the morning haze, it was clear to me what I was see¬ing—four black humps bobbing in the lake. Certainly they were the humps on the back of a horrible lake creature. Those humps kept undulating in and out of the water one after another like some kind of prehistoric water-dwelling creature from the Stone Age. One hump appeared at the same time that another one disappeared.
"Wow!", I said to myself. "It’s Gog." My excitement was dashed when the haze lifted. No, it wasn’t a lake serpent I was seeing, but a family of loons diving for fish in the morning light. Those loons sure did look like humps rising and falling though, as they took turns diving for fish, leaving at least one loon on the surface all the time to keep an eye out for approaching danger.
"Get a grip, Scottie," I laughed at myself. "You’ve been watching Jurassic Park too much."
Then there was the time several years ago, while fishing in Scott’s cove, when I thought I was on the verge of having my first encounter with Gog, an aquatic monster that my ancestors, who have spent hundreds of years living and working on Lake Memphremagog, had never even seen. Catching one fish after another, I was startled by a tremendous crashing sound coming from the direc¬tion of the nearby cattails. This wasn’t any sound that I’d ever heard before. Surely it wasn’t one of those beavers or a school of spawning fish that had tricked me many times into making me think I was going to see a certified lake monster.
"Darn!" I cursed as I remembered that I’d forgotten my camera. Why does that happen every time I think Gog is going to reveal himself to me? Bummed out, but being the adventurer that I am, I pressed on into the cattails in my boat, hoping to at least get a description of this monster to share with my friends, some who themselves claim to have seen unexplained creatures, both aquatic and land bound, but typically only after a bit of celebrating, when, of course, they didn’t happen to have a camera to support their claims. One friend, however, did something the rest of them couldn’t: Paul took a photograph of the beast he witnessed swimming in the lake. A computer enhanced version of the photo later revealed that the beast wasn’t Gog, but rather a moose out for a swim. So, the beast was still waiting to be discovered.
Pushing through the cattails, I peered into the weeds, hoping to see a lake serpent, or family of lake serpents, frolicking. Instead, all I found were two oversized snapping turtles, the size of washtubs, enjoying a romantic afternoon in the midday sun.
Another day, while fishing off the railroad bridge in New¬port, I excitedly told a fellow fisherman standing near me, "Hey, where did those waves come from? Is it Gog?"
"No, stupid! Didn’t you see that boat go by a few minutes ago," the fisherman laughed at me, explaining how oftentimes people don’t see the wake of a boat until after the boat is long out of sight. Needless to say, I felt like a fool.
The spring of 2003 spelled good fishing for my boys and me. We caught some really fine fish and created some great memories. But the one thing we didn’t see was a lake monster. That would have made our day. Frustrated by my inability to see a monster, any kind of monster, land dwelling or aquatic, I decided to go in search of Gog.
"What does one need to go monster hunting?" I wondered. I’ve hunted many things in my life—rabbits, partridges, and deer—but never monsters. Looking at my leaky rowboat, I shook my head. It surely wasn’t made for such an adventure. I needed a nice boat, respectable enough to carry a certified monster hunter and all his gear. I called up Stan, a good friend of mine who owns such a boat. Stan and I met several years ago, and it’s safe to say that his life hasn’t been the same ever since. "Sometimes I think I met the Mad Hatter" he is fond of saying. Why would he say such a thing? Doesn’t everybody go in search of monsters? Heck, I’ve been looking for monsters every since I was a child when I insisted to my parents that the boogie man lived under my bed.
Stan shook his head in disbelief as I told him of my plans to capture Gog on film. I assured him that we and his boat would be safe since I’d been told that this mythical creature wasn’t vicious, but seemed to actually like humans.
Loading up the boat with monster-hunting tools, in¬cluding among other things, a pair of binoculars, and not one, but two cameras, just in case one camera should fail. I wasn’t taking any chances this time.
"Okay, what is that for?" said Stan, as he watched me load a hay fork into the boat. I explained that although rumor has it that Gog is friendly; I wasn’t taking any chances with a beast the size of Gog. Besides that, I reasoned that he, or she, must be one tough monster to live thousands of years in Lake Memphremagog.
Boarding the boat, I told Stan to steer toward Owl’s head, the picturesque mountain just across the border in Canada on the lake’s shores. Knowing there was a deep hole in the lake in front of the mountain, I surmised it would make for a perfect location to spot Gog.
As we sped along, Stan and I scanned the lake’s surface looking for anything out of the ordinary. We’d picked a good night for our expedition. The waves were little more than ripples.
"Stan, look! Over there!" I hollered over the roar of the mo¬tor, pointing toward what appeared to be humps bobbing on the horizon. The humps were headed easterly in the vicinity of the lighthouse, just off of the Lake Road.
Breaking out in a cold sweat of excitement, I told Stan to ease up on the throttle as I wiped the sweat from my eyes and grabbed my binoculars. I peered hard through my field glasses. There was no explanation for what I was see¬ing. Throwing down my binoculars, I grabbed both of my cameras and began to click madly away, making sure I had plenty of pictures to show my friends.
Still not certain exactly what we were seeing, we moved even closer to the beast. Suddenly, the creature made it known that he either wasn’t impressed to see us on his turf, or he viewed us humans as a hearty meal, because, that beast lunged out of the water, heading directly toward the boat. Grabbing up the pitchfork that Stan had laughed at me about, I stood on the stern, ready to fend off the attack, while Stan spun the boat so that we could escape.
No, it wasn’t a monster, or even some unknown lake crea¬ture, instead, it was a monster walleye. So, my best piece of advice to you is, if you’re coming to the Northeast Kingdom to see a monster, you’ll probably go home disappointed, but if you’re coming to look for really big fish, you’ve found the right place. Come fish the Northeast Kingdom where the fish are big and legends never die.
As for Gog and his other monster friends up here in the Kingdom, they, too, will always be part of the local lore—merry myths passed down from one generation to the next.
http://www.tomifobia.com/memjack.html
PHANTOMS AND MONSTERS: Tuesday, October 16, 2012
The Lake Memphremagog Monster
Memphre, a water creature that is said to live in Lake Memphrémagog, has taunted skeptics for more than 180 years. The lake monster supposedly resembles a sea serpent. The following is a recent article about this cryptid:
Lake Memphremagog: The Legend Of Memphre
The border separating Quebec from Vermont runs through dairy fields, traverses a small wood and crosses an abbreviated beach before diving a little over 300 feet under the cold waters of Lake Memphremagog, a 39-square-mile amoeba of glacial water that either does or doesn't contain a 30-foot-long monster. If the lake doesn't contain a monster, its most notable feature is probably its hilly shore, which bursts into riotous color come fall and presents an inviting destination for American leaf peepers exploring the Northeast Kingdom and Montreal homme d'affaires on weekend getaways.
The lake is bookended by two charming towns, Newport, Vermont and Magog, Canada, which display very different sensibilities. Newport has the look of a mill town with a brick main drag and neighborhoods full of small homes for the tradesmen who hang out downtown in greasy spoon diners. The best view in town is from the church and everybody nods or waves to everybody else. Magog is a larger place and many of the Victorian homes just outside the lengthy town center, which contains multiple practical footwear stores and a sex shop, are bed and breakfasts. There is a town park by the water where neighbors walk together and fail to smile at strangers and where a sign reminds visitors to look for Memphre, which is the name of the monster.
Memphre got his name from Jacques Boisvert, who called himself a "dracontologist" and lived in a clapboard house three minutes out of Magog. Boisvert, who died in 2006, was the Canadian ambassador to Memphre. Along with Barbara Malloy, the head of the Memphremagog Historical Society of Newport, he publicized the serpent and, in so doing, the region...
Continue reading at Lake Memphremagog: The Legend Of Memphre [Reprinted above]
The Birth of the Memphremagog Monster
Until the beginning of the 19th century, the only inhabitants of the area around Memphrémagog were the Abenaki...because of the abundance of game and fish. When the first white settlers arrived, they were warned by the Abenaki not to swim in the lake because of the presence of the sea serpent. Among the varied descriptions, it is said to be more or less aggressive and on several occasions, is said to reside in a cave at the base of Owl's Head Mountain, on the shore of the lake.
The first document describing the creature dates back to 1816 and is signed by Ralph Merry IV. He describes four experiences by the citizens of Georgeville and which he finds to be totally credible. He, however, was not a witness to any of these phenomena but only reported the facts as he knew them. He reports what individuals and groups of individuals saw in different areas and at different times. The descriptions usually coincide as to the length and appearance of the serpent like creature. In his accounts Mr. Merry does not refer to the sea serpent but rather to one of the sea serpents of Memphrémagog.
Also, on several occasions since 1847, The Stanstead Journal has published several articles on this phenomenon, some relating numerous sightings which the lakeshore residents have witnessed. These sightings continued throughout the years.
To date, more than 215 sightings have been reported and documented with great care. Each account is signed and recorded; hearsay accounts are simply refused. There are on the average, eight sightings annually which have been confirmed by about twenty witnesses.
In 1961, two fishermen, heading for Newport observed for about forty seconds a black creature, about 20 feet long, swimming partially submerged. According to these men the creature that was about 200 feet from their boat, had a round back and an indescribable head. This scene was accompanied by a strange sound.
In July 1996, four persons witnessed it's presence after observing it for more than a minute. According to them, the creature had several humps, was about 20 feet long and swam about 50 yards between their boat and the shore. This sighting which took place about 7 p.m. is similar to one that took place about 4 p.m. some 10 miles away as observed by three other persons.
The description of a three humped creature coincides with that of September 1994 given by four persons in two different boats. The weather was overcast but the lake was calm not a wave, no wind, they observed for at least three minutes from each of their two boats and object 40 to 50 feet long type of wave shaped like three humps and black in color.
This adventure ended for them when the creature swam under one of the boats and disappeared into the depths of the lake.
Rare are those who can boast having seen the phenomenon on more than one occasion. This is however the case of two Montrealers who after a first sighting in May of 1995, saw the sea serpent again in August of the same year. Better yet, they were able to obtain a film clip which was used in a documentary on the Canada D channel the following October. - vermonter.com
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Woman Recounts Sighting Of Memphremagog Monster
Saturday May 10, 2003
Newport Daily Express
Lake Memphremagog's signature mystery has returned.
Barbara Malloy, a Newport City resident and local historian, said this week she saw Memphre the Lake Memphremagog monster on May 1.
Like Nessie in the Loch Ness of Scotland or Champ in Lake Champlain, Memphre is the stuff of local legend and history.
It's not the first sighting of the creature that many claim to have seen on this long international lake.
Area newspapers like The Stanstead (Quebec) Journal have recorded sightings of something big and elusive in the lake as far back as the 1840s. On Jan. 21, 1847, an eyewitness reported this: "I am not aware whether it is generally known that a strange animal something of a sea serpent ... exists in Lake Memphremagog."
But it was known long before that. According to historical accounts, American Indians told the first Europeans that there was something in the lake.
Malloy first saw it in the waters off Horseneck Island and again north of the island in 1983.
Memphre is believed to look somewhat like a plesiosaur, a water-living dinosaur of the Jurassic period, brown or black in color, with four fins or paddle-like feet, an elongated roundish body and a long neck. It ranges from 6 to 50 feet long[most commonly 20 to 30]. Popular drawings or artwork show his skin color as green, but that obviously depends on the eyewitness.[Emphasis added. The size, shape and colour specified in a consensus of reports is nearly identical to "Champ", the beast of Lake Champlain; see art at bottom-DD]
This time, Malloy said she saw a jet black hump in the water, which bobbed up and down and then disappeared. Malloy said Thursday another Newport resident confirmed the sighting, only she saw a larger and a smaller hump, but the woman did not wish to go public.
Others have come forward over the years to record their sightings with Malloy and other "dracontologists" like Magog, Quebec resident Jacques Boisvert who keep track of such mysteries in this 30-mile-long lake.
Boisvert named Lake Memphremagog's own sea serpent Memphre, which is pronounced with a long "e" at the end, suitable for use in French or English.
A monk at the monastery at St. Benoit-du-lac near Magog coined the term dracontologie for Boisvert. Dracontology, the English version, is a branch of cryptozoology, for all kinds of mysterious creatures of legend, like Big Foot.
The name even meets the requirements of the Quebec French Language Office, responsible preserving and protecting the French language in Quebec, Boisvert said Thursday.
Boisvert, a renowned diver and local historian, had never seen Memphre himself, but said he keeps an open mind. He and Malloy collaborated for a while in the 1980s on publicizing the Memphre legend and history.
Both collect sightings, and have Web sites to keep the information alive.
Malloy has a display of Memphre memorabilia and sighting information in the Emory Hebard state office building on Main Street in Newport City. Boisvert is heavily into promoting the use of Memphre as a tourist attraction in Magog, and speaks and writes regularly about the history of the lake.
Vermont Secretary of State Deb Markowitz is into a little promotion of her own. She has a children's page off the state Web site, featuring drawings and information of both Memphre and Champ.
There have been attempts to photograph Memphre, but there is no definite evidence. Malloy took pictures in 1989, but they show a dark object sticking out of the water and making a wake. Discounters say these pictures could be of other things. One recent photograph turned out to be a moose swimming across the lake.
Yet the stories of Memphre capture and captivate the imagination. And it brings an air of mystery to this already lovely international lake.
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