Water Monster · Chicago, Illinois · 1881
IL-1881ID case-c3fd6e4a0eFallback locationAdded to map Nov 3, 2026
- Creature
- Water Monster
- When
- Sep 17, 1881to the day
- Where
- Chicago, Illinoisfallback location
- Reports
- 1 document1 independent
The account
Passengers on the steamer Gypsey and others report chasing a large amphibious creature in the Hideim Canal that was shot at but escaped.
See the source ↓ one document so far, so there is no trail to follow yet
We map claims, not creatures: this is what the sources say, not proof. How a case is built
Details
- Creature
- Water Monster
- Where
- Chicago, South Chicago Township, Cook County, Illinois, 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
- Sep 17, 1881
- Account
- Not first-hand (retold or reported by someone else)
- Backed by
- 1 independent source
- Added to map
- Nov 3, 2026
- Case id
- case-c3fd6e4a0e
Place lookups use data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via Nominatim. All credits
Source trail (1)
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 11 of Chicago daily tribune (Chicago, Ill.), September 18, 1881
Newspaper · 1881-09-18
Earliest found, not necessarily the original.
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.