Champ: fact or fiction?

Champ is supposedly the monster that lives in lake Champlain. It is said to have a long neck, brownish or blackish skin, and ridges down it's back. Also, Champ has a rounded back, and fins on it's sides.

Many people believe in Champ. Some have claimed seeing it. One person, Sandra Mansi, even took a picture of what she saw. It started out when, in 1977, while eating lunch in St. Albens Vermont, Champ burst out of the lake. Sandra then took a photo. She was going to keep the picture to herself because she thought that people would think her crazy. Then Joseph Zorzynski, a monster hunter, made her to realize that she could bring out her photo and be sane.

Another person who claimed to see Champ was Samuel de Champlain. He saw him in July. Later, in 1947, L.R. Jones saw him while fishing near North Hero Island. He said "Out of the depths reeled a huge dark form..."

Another thing that supports Champ's existence is that lake Chaplain is a good "monster" lake. It has deep shores, meaning that the water level is far below the shoreline. The lake is deep, at an adverage of sixty-four feet deep. Also, it is long, a good hundred and ten miles long, and mostly has narrow shores. It is cold, too. These are the characteristics of a Boreal Forest lake, which would be, by Wedsters definition for boreal:of, relating to, or located in northern regions.

Here's an interesting bit of Champ trivia:

Question: Who offered a fifty-thousand dollar reward for Champ's hide?
Answer: P.T. Barnum.

He wanted to have it as a side show attraction in his circus. Many people looked for champ, but none found him.

Even after the reported sightings, many people think Champ is just a figment of the imagination. Some people think Champ could be mistaken for a lake sturgeon, a very big fish. This would make sense because, in Champlain's time, sturgeon were quite common. Now, though rare, there are still some in the lake. Also, some people think Champ might be a giant eel. Gary McDonough, a ferry captain, claimed to see eels in the lake. But Larry Nashette, a biologist, says that eels don't get big enough in lake Champlain to match Mr. McDonough's descriptions.

Another reason that people are sceptical is that no one has ever seen a dead body of a lake monster. This makes many people wonder about Champs existence. They cannot be immortal, or can they?

Coby Ellingwood

Sources:Water Monsters by Alan Garinger, Illustration from Alien Animals