Water Monster · Alexandria, Virginia · 1840

VA-1840ID case-ae98868888Fallback locationAdded to map Oct 30, 2026

Creature: Water Monster
When: Mar 5, 1840to the day
Where: Alexandria, Virginiafallback location
Reports: 2 documents1 independent

The account

A passenger on the Great Western reports a daily journal entry describing an encounter with a sentient sea serpent that challenged the ship to a race.

Trace the source trail → every document, in time order, and how they connect

We map claims, not creatures: this is what the sources say, not proof. How a case is built

Details

Creature: Water Monster
Where: Alexandria, Virginia, United States
mapped to town level · from the newspaper's printing town, not where it was seen
Fallback location (drawn hollow on the map): this is the newspaper's printing town, not where it was seen.
When: Mar 5, 1840
Account: Not first-hand (retold or reported by someone else)
Backed by: 1 independent source (2 documents; copies and reprints are not confirmations)
Added to map: Oct 30, 2026
Case id: case-ae98868888

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Source trail (1)

Down the rabbit hole → 2 documents, and how they connect

Every link goes to where we found the account. The earliest we found is marked; it is the earliest found, not necessarily the original.

Image 1 of Alexandria gazette (Alexandria, D.C.), May 28, 1840
Newspaper · 1840-05-28
Earliest found, not necessarily the original.

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