Mud Lake Monster, 1895
Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 2nd, 2009
Hawarden [Iowa] Independent
September 19, 1895
SERPENT OF MUD LAKE.
Wild Story From Western Missouri Started by a Fisherman.
St. Joseph, Mo., Sept. 14. – The serpent in Mud lake, south of this city, has been seen again, this time by Anderson McCoy, a brother of Policeman McCoy. The serpent has been seen a number of times during the past summer and several times it has been caught in nets by fishermen, but broke through the nets, leaving a hole large enough for a horse to pass through. The fishermen have never been able to land it.
McCoy has a strong boat which he uses to hunt ducks on the lake in the season when they are plentiful there. He was out in this boat a few days ago, when something struck it, and he declares it was knocked ten feet into the air. When the boat came down again McCoy saw the serpent swirling in the water a short distance away. He could not see its size or shape, but saw enough of it to know that it is of huge size. His brother’s boats have been struck a number of times, but no injury resulted. The fishermen at the lake are considerably excited about the presence of such a mysterious object in the water. McCoy thinks it is a large fish that got into the lake from the river when the water was high.
Thanks to Jerome Clark.
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.
I get the distinct feeling that there is some exaggeration going on here. It knocked his boat 10 feet into the air? Really? And the witness thought it was a fish that did this? That would be one extremely large and strong fish. I know of no fish even remotely capable of doing that. Surely this must be a tall tale? It diminishes the credence of this report in my eyes.
My guess is that something unusual might have been seen here, but the story was most certainly spruced up a bit in the re-telling. It is hard for me to establish possible fact from embellishment in this account.