Flap: Bear Lake, Utah, Apr–Jul 1870
3 reports · 4 separate documents
Water Monster (3).
In the 10 years either side we have 10 other reports within 37 miles of here.
The reports, in order
- Apr 1, 1870 Bro. [name] claimed to have been disturbed by the Bear Lake Monster while resting on its banks and sketched its portrait.
Water Monster · Bear Lake, Utah - May 24, 1870 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…
Water Monster · Bear Lake, Utah · rabbit hole - Jul 1870 Witnesses report seeing the head and body of a large creature in Bear Lake that resembled a walrus.
Water Monster · Bear Lake, Utah
Sources: Newspaper (2), Reddit (1).
How we find flaps
- Plain rules, no model: reports within 37 miles and about four months of each other are grouped, and a group counts only when it is at least 5 times what that place usually sees over the 10 years either side.
- A flap needs at least 3 reports from at least 3 separate documents: one article listing six sightings is one telling.
- Copies are not confirmations: a story reprinted in thirty papers counts once.
- Investigator logs (BFRO, NAWAC, the Loch Ness Register) are left out, because a busy field season looks just like a flap.
- Only reports placed to a town or county and dated to the month are used. A flap is a burst of reports, not proof of a creature: panics, hoaxes and newspaper fashions make flaps too.