Connecticut Lake Monster Caught on Video?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 14th, 2008
I’m somewhere between Kentucky and Maine, but thanks to help from Craig, I’m going to post this remotely….
Monster Could be Lurking in Connecticut Lake
NBC — Is there a mysterious creature living in a West Hartford, Connecticut reservoir?
Barbara Blanchfield was taking a few snapshots last Friday when something took her by surprise.
The photos she took depict something just below the surface of the water that appears to have spikes.
“When I saw the tail part of it, which looked ancient the way the spikes are, I just said, “Oh my God, I think I got something here,” she said.
Blanchfield showed the photos to officials with the Metropolitan District Commission, who are now working with their wildlife and patrol department to determine what is in the water.
Officials said the reservoir does not hold drinking water, so there is no cause for concern about contamination.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
While I would really love to have a cryptid less than 10 minutes drive from my apartment I can’t believe in this one. The reservoir is alongside a main road and is one of the most popular locations in the area for walking/hiking, bicycling, picnicing, etc. Thousands of people visit it every year – I’m one of them. And no one has ever seen any monster in it.
Its a log.
My guess is a large snapping turtle.
It’s one of four things:
1. an alligator snapping turtle
2. an alligator
3. a crocodile
4. the most likely, an old log.
Dead deer or cow floating on its side. I see an ear and ribs sticking out of the water.
not sure what to think of this one. I didn’t know there was enough room in Connecticut for a large enough reservoir for something to live in that would cause any many questions. Sorry, couldn’t help it. That “state” is smaller than the county I live in.
Love it!
Unfortunately, this is how most cryptids are initially encountered – randomly, unexpectedly, surprisingly, shockingly!
Fortunately, however, occasionally the witness has a camera and, more importantly, the presence of mind to use it.
Now they’re investigating…
Can’t wait!
The tail (if it is a tail) looks like a crocodile to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Crocodile
However, there was no way to judge scale, so it could be log with vegatation still on it, that happens to look like a crocodile tail. They were still shots, so it could be a log on a rope being pulled through the water.
I’m thinking turtles on a log, and probably maple at that.
the “tail part” could be logs, but pretty gnarled ones… the other part looks a bit too wide and flat to be a log. Then again I could be wrong.
Interesting with all the reports this summer of renegade alligators, I wouldn’t be too surprised if they pull one out but I hope they find what it is, and it’s great to see multiple pictures.
well if its a croc it wont last long with winter coming
Okay, first impressions. Could it be a rotting carcass of something? Those spikes don’t really fit with any fish I know of. Sturgeon have ridges but that is just weird.
Second, I was having problems with my video, only getting blurps and bleeps of conversation so do not know if she saw it moving, as in animated movement, or just something coming to the surface as is suggested in the pictures. If it was actually moving, we may have something weird going on. 🙂
Third, the spikes and the weird flap sticking up at the left end in the two pictures, looks like part of a giant octopus. 🙂 Spikes are actually the suckers of a large tentacle.
Fourth, it’s everyone’s favorite scoftic in a homemade submarine. He had a little trouble with the sticks and the glue.
Ah, geez, I immediately recognized the profile as that of an exotic crocodilian that can’t remember the name of off the top of my head. The crocodilian has a long, slender snout with a ‘ball’ (the raised nostrils) at the end. It is also a particularly spiny and armored looking creature. If you’ll notice in the video, when the thing is surfacing one end has a pronounced ‘ball’ on one end.
But, then, my mind is just matrixing the profile.
Good story, Loren!!!
Looks like a crocodile.
We need more information. Does not look like a log to me—I’m sorry.
Cool beans. Something to bite on…:) 🙂 🙂
browwiw,
The Gharial? (or garial) I don’t see it, to me the “ball” looks like the sun shining through an ear, maybe on a deer carcass.
I am suspicious that the pictures are not all of the same thing. The water is calm, with rings heading out from “it” and water swirls in the first three pix, then there are small waves going across the last shot with nothing to indicate motion. The rings could be from turtles feeding on a carcass, and the last shot of a stick/log elsewhere. Ironic ain’t it? When we get broad shots we want close-ups, when we get close-ups we want wider shots for scale!
Fossilhunter – you know I had not even noticed the rings vs. the ripples. You have a point, if it was moving (or swimming) there would be ripples or waves. However like you mentioned, if it was bobbing up and down, it would be more like circles or feeding motions.
Anyone notice how in one of the pictures (specifically at 1:31) it looks like it has a red dot on it? Eye, maybe? I agree with fossilhunter.
Possibly a crocodile with mange that escaped from a traveling circus run by Tom Biscardi.
The only creature it reminds me of is another cryptid – the Lake Van Monster of Turkey.
Some interesting observations posted by other readers. Many are plausible, one may even be correct. However, I would guess that someone’s Florida souvenir from last year’s vacation has been introduced to this easily accessable reservoir.
browwiw, are you thinking of caiman?
Fossilhunter to the rescue. It was the gharial I was thinking of (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gharial). Note the bulbous nostrils and the very spiky tail.
What’s wrong with all of you? It’s an OTTER, of course!!
They don’t give an indication as to the size of the thing, but it looks like a snapping turtle to me. I’ve seen one with the shell the size of a car tire and the tail, which is very crocodilian, was about two feet long. Unfortunately this poor specimen was run over by a car. She’d come to higher ground to lay her eggs and had probably followed that path for decades.
I watched the video several times. This is clearly a dead deer that is partially decomposed. You can see an ear sticking up out of the water. The “tail” is the exposed vertebral column on it’s side. Most likely gas built up in the tissue and caused it to float up and as the gas was expelled it bobbed back down. The eyewitness did not see it swimming or actively locomoting in any way. I’m a resident of Connecticut and have a background in wildlife biology. When I saw this news story on WFSB Channel-3 (CBS) I watched the video several times then I contacted WFSB and asked if they had any follow ups on this. I told them that I suspected it was a deer and asked if the pond had been dragged. They replied to my email with one sentence: “You confirm what experts are saying”.
To say that it is a log is to completely insult this ladies intelligence.
so yeah there is little turbulence and this one odd looking log decides to dive back into the depths where it resides until the next camera toting victim is to be be fooled?
it seems to have hippo type ears but a crocodile type tail. but the spikes were more pronounced IMO …
very clear pictures too! for something cryptid this offers alot of detail
its an atlantic sturgoen. the riges match and its front fin comes out of the water.
Dead deer with exposed vertebrae……
It didn’t “dive down”.
Okay, honestly, as a water plant operator I have to admit that we are often pulling dead deer out of our raw water source (city lake). Granted, we tend to be quick about it so our deer corpses tend to be bloated ‘floaters’ instead of decomposed. It is possible that since the reservoir in question is not a primary drinking water source a deer carcass could have gone unnoticed for a while.
Still, I really want it to be an exotic mundane creature.
one word…. dinosaur
It looks like the same sea monster they found in White River Junction, Vermont in 1995. They put it in a museum.
It looks like it could be the same sea monster they found in White River Junction, VT in 1995. They put it a museum.
http://www.mainstreetmuseum.org/wiki/index.php?title=History_of_the_Museum – Cached
1.Click on Categories on left hand of screen.
2.Click on 500
3.Click on Teeth
4.Then Click on Sea-Monster