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Lake Champlain

Cultural importance to New York and Vermont


The Champ legend has become a revenue-generating attraction. For example, the village of Port Henry, New York, has erected a giant model of Champ and holds “Champ Day” on the first Saturday of every August. As the mascot of Vermont’s lone Minor League Baseball affiliate, the Vermont Lake Monsters, Champ became more prominent after the team was renamed from the Vermont Expos to the Vermont Lake Monsters. Champ has been the primary attraction of the New York – Penn League affiliate since their inception. Several nearby establishments, including a car wash, use “Champ” as a logo.

History of the legend


An account of a creature in Lake Champlain was ostensibly given in 1609 by French explorer Samuel de Champlain, the founder of Québec and the lake’s namesake, who is supposed to have spotted the creature as he was fighting the Iroquois on the bank of the lake. Although no such sighting was recorded by Champlain, a member of his expedition did record a sighting in his diary, and was confused with Champlain in a 1970 magazine article.

A report in the Plattsburgh Republican dated July 24, 1819, titled “Cape Ann Serpent on Lake Champlain”, gives the account of a “Capt. Crum” sighting an enormous serpentine monster.



The Mansi Photograph

Mansi photograph

In 1977, Sandra Mansi took a photograph while on vacation with her family that appears to show something sticking out of the lake. The entire bay of the lake where the photograph reportedly was taken is no deeper than 14 feet (4.3 m). According to Joe Nickell, there are few explanations for how a giant creature could swim, let alone hide, in such shallow water. Furthermore, it has been suggested that the object in the photograph could possibly be a rising tree trunk or log. Rotting trees often gather gas in the process of decay, and sometimes rise to the water’s surface at considerable speed.

Recent reports

Champ reportedly can be seen in a video taken by fishermen Dick Affolter and his stepson Pete Bodette in the summer of 2005. Close examination of the images may be interpreted either as a head and neck of a plesiosaur-like animal and even an open mouth in one frame and a closed mouth in another; or as a fish or eel. Although two retired FBI forensic image analysts, who reviewed the tape, said it appears authentic and unmanipulated, one of them added that “there’s no place in there that I can actually see an animal or any other object on the surface”.


What Does Champ Look Like?

From existing reports, Champ may be endowed with all or some of the following features:

Between ten and 187 feet long.

Head shape:
Flat headed or round headed.
Horned or having “moose-like antlers”.
Elephant ears
A mane (either tan or red).
Jaws like an alligator.

Body Shape:
One to four humps.
Up to five arching coils.
A snake-like body.


Either drab or shiny
Dark head with white body
Black and Gray
Moss green
Reddish bronze
Dark-brownish olive.

Dinner plate eyes
Glowing eyes.

Possible explanations

There are several hypotheses about Champ’s possible identity. Several popular hypotheses among skeptics are these:




Exotic species of large animals


1. Plesiosaurs: Similar to “Nessie” of Loch Ness in Scotland, many people theorize that Champ is a surviving Plesiosaur. Plesiosaurs were a group of Sauropterygian reptiles that lived during the Mesozoic Era, and are thought to have died out around 65 million years ago with Pterosaurs and non-avian dinosaurs. There are, however, a few problems with this hypothesis. One flaw with this hypothesis is that new studies have shown that the neck anatomy of plesiosaurs probably prevented them from raising their heads and necks up out of the water like a Swan, as is often depicted in several sightings and photographs of Champ, including the famous Sandra Mansi Photograph. However, proponents of this hypothesis such as the British cryptozoologist Dr. Karl P.N. Shuker, defend this hypothesis by arguing that a surviving plesiosaur might possibly have evolved an ability to tolerate colder temperatures, as well as a different neck structure.

2. Basilosaurus: Perhaps the most prominent supporter of this hypothesis is cryptozoologist Roy P. Mackal, who is of the opinion that most lake monster sightings around the world can be explained as sightings of surviving Zeuglodons. Zeuglodons, or Basilosaurs, were large, ancient, serpentine whales that lived during the Eocene Epoch. The shape of their bodies appears to fit most descriptions of Champ, especially the ones which describe it as looking like a gigantic sea serpent.


4. Pinniped: Several researchers, including Bernard Heuvelmans and Darren Naish, have theorized that an unknown species of giant pelagic, long-necked pinniped might be responsible for sightings of sea monsters in the world’s oceans. Some researchers have also extended this hypothesis to include reports of lake monster sightings as well, including Champ. A potential problem for this hypothesis is that pinnipeds tend to be very noisy and social animals, therefore making it hard to believe that they could remain hidden in the lake for so long without anybody having ever noticed them. However, this problem could potentially be solved via evolution, since this hypothetical pinniped could behave very differently from known species of pinnipeds.

5. Tanystropheus: This hypothesis was proposed by Champ researcher Dennis Hall, who claims to have seen Champ 20 times. According to Hall, in 1976, his father caught a strange-looking reptile on the shore of Lake Champlain. He then took it to scientists who concluded that it was unlike any known species of living reptile. Unfortunately, however, this specimen was later lost. Hall then saw a picture of a Tanystropheus, and concluded that it was the most likely candidate for Champ. However, there are numerous problems with this hypothesis as well. This is because Tanystropheus was a very specialized species of aquatic reptile from the Triassic Period. This makes it very unlikely that it could have survived all the way to the present-day and still inhabit Lake Champlain.
