Flap: Lake Champlain, Vermont, Jul–Sep 1929

The reports, in order

1. Jul 14, 1929 Three youths returning from a fishing trip reported seeing a large serpent-like creature in Lake Champlain that thrust its head above the water and lashed the…
   Water Monster · Lake Champlain, Vermont · rabbit hole
2. Jul 1929 The author reports that Lake Champlain's sea monster has reappeared according to press dispatches, noting that while no one they met had seen it, natives knew…
   Water Monster · Lake Champlain, Vermont
3. Sep 1929 The article reports on the Lake Champlain sea serpent, noting it was first observed by the discoverer of the water and reappeared recently after an interval of…
   Water Monster · Lake Champlain, Vermont · rabbit hole

Sources: Newspaper (3).

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.

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