In 1889, Western Montana's Flathead Lake was home to steamers and passenger ships plying the waterways and it was also that year that the lake officially became home to one of the most mysterious legends that can still raise the hair on the back of your neck.
One of the steamers on the lake that day in the late 1880's was the U.S. Grant, skippered by Capt. James C. Kerr. While piloting the craft, Kerr noticed what appeared to be a whale-like object in front of his rig. Thinking it to be an approaching boat he kept an eye on it. But he soon realized this was not a man made vessel.
This thing in front of him was big, maybe 20 feet, and it was alive. Passengers onboard became frightened by the large object swimming nearby in the water and one gun-toting man pulled out his rifle and shot at it. He missed his mark and the creature dove down into the murky waters of the Flathead. Thus, the legendary birth of the Flathead Lake Monster. Sightings of super-sized fish or unexplainable creatures continue today.
So much so, that in 1990, a file was opened by Montana's Fish Wildlife and Parks Department. Flathead Lake Biologist Laney Hanzel was in charge of keeping track of incoming reports. "I've talked to ten or twelve people that have seen it. They were reputable, not on drugs or drinking," Hanzel said. During his 20-plus years working on Flathead Lake Hanzel said he never saw "the monster" but admits that he did find unexplainable large holes in nets he had set around the lake while studying habitat.
Over the years people from all walks of life, military personnel, doctors, police, lawyers and regular folk have reported seeing something out there. The sightings appear to fall into two categories, large fish and serpent like creatures. In the large fish category, some believe it could be a sturgeon. But even that theory is controversial. In 1955 the late C. Leslie Griffith boasted a catch like no other on the lake. Griffith said he hooked onto a monster sized fish on May 28th at 9 p.m. off the west shore, near Cromwell Island. Five hours later and miles away, following an epic struggle, Griffith said he managed to get the 181-lb., 7-ft. 6" white sturgeon onto his boat. He and a friend hauled the fish to the Dayton Store and Post Office to ask for help loading the fish onto a flatbed truck.
As word got out about the monumental catch, controversy followed. Skeptics declared there were no Sturgeon in Flathead Lake. However, sworn court testimony states that the mammoth sturgeon was caught in Flathead Lake. The fish remains on display today in the Polson Flathead Historic Museum in Polson.
Since that time, no one has landed another sturgeon and experts still disagree on whether or not Flathead Lake is home to the species. But according to Hanzel, the 28 mile long and 15 mile wide lake is large enough and deep enough, more than 380 feet, to sustain a supersized creature. "There's alot of bio-mass in the lake as far as being able to maintain something," Hanzel said. But what exactly, is the lake home to? According to U.S. Army Major (retired) George J. Cote, it's home to something far more sinister than a big fish. In a 1990 letter to the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks, Cote said he and his son have seen something in the waters not once, but twice. "This serpent-like creature is 40-60 feet long with the head and body resembling a snake, with a tail of an eel."
The Missoula resident said he and his son first saw the Flathead Lake Monster on May 25 1985 while trolling for Mackinaw in Yellow Bay. "As we entered the bay, we saw what we thought was the head of a scuba diver next to the shore... We trolled back and forth toward the boat ramp and back out to the mouth of the bay. After fifteen minutes or so we realized that the thing we were watching was not a man, but something else. I remember asking Neal (his son) "what the hell is that thing?" The Cotes trolled toward the undulating object in the water. "At one point its head came up high out of the water and it appeared to be looking at us. I counted six to eight coils of its body on the surface but couldn't see its tail because it was under water."
The creature eventually dove and swam away, leaving the two men shaken and mystified as to what they had just witnessed. Cote said he saw the creature again in 1987 while driving on old Highway 93 near Lakeside. "Look, there is that damn thing we saw in Yellow Bay," he wrote. "This one was quivering as it swam, forward motion...we saw the entire head, body and tail." While in the army, Major Cote was trained in observation and his letter details the creature, even offering a hand drawing of the serpent like monster.
Sightings similar to this have been reported in every decade since the original report in 1889. Former editor of the Flathead Courier and resident Flathead Lake Monster expert, Paul Fugleburg, has been documenting cases similar to Cote's since 1959. He has even written a booklet about the "Montana Nessie." Fugleburg said while it is not unusual to go several years without a sighting of the creature, they do come in periodically. The last documented sighting occurred on August 18, 1998. Over the years it seems the monster has been spotted in all parts of the lake, during all seasons.
While locals and experts disagree over whether the Flathead Lake Monster is a serpent like creature or a supersized fish of some sort, Fugleburg offers these words "There are people whose words I don't doubt. They've been startled by something. What it is, I don't know."