Flap: Lake Champlain, Vermont, Jun–Aug 1887
4 reports · 4 separate documents
Water Monster (4).
In the 10 years either side we have 3 other reports within 37 miles of here.
The reports, in order
- Jun 1887 W. H. H. Murray reports seeing a sea-serpent in Lake Champlain which he later identified as a flock of plovers.
Water Monster · Lake Champlain, Vermont - Jul 10, 1887 A party of Charlotte people claim to have seen the Lake Champlain sea serpent during a picnic on the lake shore.
Water Monster · Charlotte, Vermont - Jul 1887 A correspondent reports that a sea serpent seen by picnickers on Lake Champlain has traveled overland to Lake George and was spotted by a farmer driving hay.
Water Monster · Lake Champlain, Vermont - Aug 1887 P. T. Barnum offers a reward for a sea serpent over fifty feet long claimed to be seen in Lake Champlain.
Water Monster · Lake Champlain, Vermont
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.