4.05.2014

Erie Bessie


On Lake Erie, there is the rumor of a beast. An Erie beast. I grew up on Lake Erie, so I had to share the legend of Bessie with you.





The first recorded sighting happened in 1793. Bessie is snake-like and 30 to 40 feet long and grayish in color. I'll share a couple of sightings with you.

The entire crew of a ship from Buffalo, New York, to Toledo, Ohio, spotted Bessie in July 1892. The crew and captain saw the water ahead of them foaming. “A huge sea serpent” appeared to be “wrestling about in the waters, as if fighting with an unseen foe.” After the thrashing about, the creature stretched out and chillaxed — reported to be 50 feet long and 4 feet  thick — its four foot head stuck up above the water. The brownish creature’s eyes were described as “viciously sparkling” and it had large fins.

Crystal Beach near Fort Erie was the scene of another sighting on May 5, 1896. Four eyewitnesses  watched a 30 foot creatures with a dog-shaped head and pointy tail for 45 minutes.

Ooo! Where will Bessie show next? Was there an eerie beast where you grew up?




The A to Z Blogging Challenge is underway!
If you haven't heard of it, check out the A to Z blog and join in the fun.
Here at Untethered Realms, we're taking on the Challenge as a group. Each day, one of us will be sharing with you a fantastical creature that may be from one of our books, a favorite movie, or something we just came up with as entertainment.

E is for Erie beast.



22 comments:

  1. It sounds as if Bessie is related to Nessie. And probably equally skilled at lying low.
    No eerie beasts here - the politicians scared them all away.

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  2. I believe in every kind of sea monster. We have no idea what lurks way down there!

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  3. Something similar to Loc Ness?
    Interesting.

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  4. I've heard of Bessie. Unfortunately there was no eerie beast where I grew up. The teenagers in town were scary enough!

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  5. Ooo, that's pretty cool. I've heard of Nessie before, but not Bessie until now.

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  6. Hi Mary - an Eerie Beast .. and that video is incredible .. are they for real - who knows .. Eerie is a large lake!

    Cheers and fun to read - Hilary

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  7. I grew up on the lake, EC, and never saw her. Mostly my grandfather talked about sturgeon with eyes the size of cars.

    I do too, John.

    We really don't, Karen. There could be wilder things than a Bessie.

    I suppose it is, Haddock. When researching this, it turns out most lakes have beast stories.

    lol Christine

    I'd think the pollution would have killed it by now, Cherie

    It is a very big lake, Hilary.

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  8. I swam there often when I was a kid and never heard of good ole Bessie. Any more recent sightings? Hmmm wild to think I swam near Bessie

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  9. Oh! I never heard of Erie Bessie! And I'm from Buffalo!! I spent my first 20 years of life there. I love stories like this! Fun post.

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  10. There's something about an underwater dragon, isn't there? We have nothing like that on the Southern tip of Africa though. We don't even have any lakes to speak of...

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  11. Too bad more of these sightings aren't reported. We are afraid of what we don't understand.
    Perfect "E" post.
    Experts

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  12. She's like our Loch Ness monster. I didn't know there was a Bessie!

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  13. Love it! We didn't have a Bessie, but we did have a hollow back behind our house that was actually named "Sleepy Hollow." (I kid you not.) It was private land owned by one man for a long time with a little hunting cabin hidden out in the woods. My brothers told me it was where the infamous Jason Voorhees came from. Great brothers. *rolls eyes*

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  14. I never heard of this before. How cool! Although I wouldn't think so if I saw her myself LOL.

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  15. There have been more recent sightings, Birgit. Seems she doesn't surface that often.

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  16. That's where I'm from too, Angel. Until I moved away to college.

    You should invent a water beast, Fe.

    I'm glad you enjoyed, Dragon Tail. Thanks for stopping in.

    There are many more water beasts, Ellie. There's a whole list on Wikipedia... of course.

    Brothers are fun that way, Crystal. Sounds like quite the story.

    Thank you for covering me while I was off teaching, Julie :D Yeah, I wouldn't have thought it so cool if I ever met her either.

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  17. Ha! Having seen some of the freaky snakes in Lake Erie, I can believe it. What part of the lake did you live by?

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  18. There were Bunyips and Yowies where I grew up in Australia, and here in BC there's the famous Ogopogo in Lake Okanagan.
    Ogopogo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogopogo
    Bunyip: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunyip
    Yowie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yowie

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  19. Spent a lot of time on the Niagara, actually, Kristen, but I grew up in Buffalo.

    Ooo, fun stories, Widdershins

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  20. Bessie sounds just like Nessie. I looked for Nessie at Lochness for a very long time. I thought for sure I could find her. Maybe next time :)

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  21. You have to wonder what creature actually exists far below when so many people have reported seeing Bessie, Nessie and other oddities. It's perplexing and gets me thinking about cracks in dimensions. :)

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What's happening in your dimension?