Flap: Bear Lake, Utah, May–Jun 1874
4 reports · 4 separate documents
Other Aquatic (2), Water Monster (1), Other / Unknown (1).
In the 10 years either side we have 9 other reports within 37 miles of here.
The reports, in order
- May 1874 A Mormon bishop reports seeing a monster serpent inhabiting Bear Lake.
Other Aquatic · Bear Lake, Utah - May 18, 1874 Witnesses report seeing an animal with a flat face and light snuff-colored fur in Bear Lake that dove and resurfaced.
Water Monster · Bear Lake, Utah - Jun 1874 A monster in Bear Lake is described as being five or six feet long with fur, a flat wide face, blue eyes, and horse-like ears.
Other / Unknown · Bear Lake, Utah - Jun 1874 A witness reports a monster at Bear Lake, Idaho, described as five feet long with light snuff color, a flat face, blue eyes, and horse-like ears.
Other Aquatic · Bear Lake, Utah
Sources: Newspaper (4).
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.