Summary
For more than two centuries, Lake Champlain on the border of New York, Vermont and Quebec has produced reports of a large unidentified aquatic animal known as Champ. Witnesses have variously described a long dark body, one or more humps, a serpentine or flexible neck and a small head rising above the water. Hundreds of sightings have been reported since the nineteenth century, but the case became internationally famous in 1977 when Sandra Mansi photographed an unidentified long-necked form in the lake. Later video recordings and unusual underwater sounds added further intrigue, yet no specimen or universally accepted identification has ever established what Champ might be.
Additional Notes
The earliest commonly documented Champ report dates to 1819. A Captain Crum was reported in the Plattsburgh Republican as seeing an enormous dark, serpentine animal in Lake Champlain. During the nineteenth century, further reports appeared from steamboat passengers and people living along the shoreline, gradually establishing the lake-monster tradition associated with Champ. A much-repeated story claims that explorer Samuel de Champlain himself encountered Champ in 1609. Modern examination of his writings does not support this version. Champlain described a large armoured fish with a long snout and formidable teeth, generally identified as a gar. The dramatic “twenty-foot serpent” description entered Champ literature much later. The most famous piece of evidence appeared on 5 July 1977. Sandra Mansi was visiting the Vermont side of the lake with her family when she noticed a disturbance in the water and photographed a dark form with what appeared to be a long neck and small head. The photograph was not publicly released until several years later and became one of the best-known lake-monster images in North America. Its subject has never been conclusively identified. The Mansi photograph remains unusual because no obvious photographic manipulation has been demonstrated, but determining the size of the object has proved difficult. The precise location and distance could not later be established with certainty, leaving interpretations of the image dependent on assumptions about scale. In 2003, researchers from the Fauna Communications Research Institute recorded a series of high-frequency underwater clicks at several locations in Lake Champlain while working on a television investigation. The sounds were described as resembling biological echolocation signals associated with some marine mammals, although no known whale or dolphin population inhabits Lake Champlain. The recordings have remained another curious but unresolved element of the Champ story. In 2005, fishermen Dick Affolter and Pete Bodette recorded video of an unidentified object moving through the lake. Two retired FBI forensic image analysts reportedly found no evidence that the footage itself had been manipulated, although they could not establish that the indistinct shape represented an unknown animal. Champ has also become unusually embedded in regional culture. New York and Vermont have both taken symbolic legislative steps protecting the creature, and Champ remains a recognizable part of Lake Champlain folklore and tourism. A New York historical marker at Cumberland Head notes more than 300 reported sightings since 1819.
The Location Today
Lake Champlain remains an extensive lake bordered by Vermont, New York and Québec. Public beaches, parks and boat launches provide ways to explore its shores, but the many reported Champ sightings do not correspond to a single confirmed visitor site.
- Environment
- Lake
- Time of Day
- Various times of the day
- Evidence Level
- Investigated Case
- Visiting the Location
- Free Access, Ticketed, Limited
- Ownership of the Location
- Mixed