Water Monster · Bear Lake, Utah · 1870
UT-1870ID case-b060f38283Added to map Oct 8, 2026
- Creature
- Water Monster
- When
- May 24, 1870to the day
- Where
- Bear Lake, Utahto approximate level
- Reports
- 2 documents2 independent
The account
Witness reports that Marion Thomas and three sons of Phineas H. Cook encountered a large, hairy, serpent-headed creature with flippers in Bear Lake while fishing.
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
- Bear Lake, Garden City, Rich County, Utah, 84038, United States
mapped to approximate level · from the report's own words - When
- May 24, 1870
- Account
- Not first-hand (retold or reported by someone else)
- Backed by
- 2 independent sources
- Added to map
- Oct 8, 2026
- Case id
- case-b060f38283
Place lookups use data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via Nominatim. All credits
Source trail (2)
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 2 of Evening star (Washington, D.C.), June 1, 1870
Newspaper · 1870-06-01
Earliest found, not necessarily the original. - Image 6 of The evening telegraph (Philadelphia [Pa.]), June 8, 1870, (FIFTH EDITION)
Newspaper · 1870-06-08
Further reading
- The Great New England Sea Serpent, J. P. O'Neill (1999)
Account of the 1817 Gloucester sightings and later reports.
Borrow on Internet Archive - On the Track of Unknown Animals, Bernard Heuvelmans (1959)
The founding work of cryptozoology.
Borrow on Internet Archive - Cryptozoology A to Z, Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark (1999)
Encyclopedia of reported creatures.
Borrow on Internet Archive - Abominable Science!, Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero (2013)
Skeptical history of the Yeti, Nessie and others.
Borrow on Internet Archive
Books we have not reproduced: borrow them free at archive.org. Listing a book is not an endorsement of its claims.