Lake Michigan Monster

**Habitat** | Lake Michigan

The **Lake Michigan Monster**, also known as the **Michigan Lake Monster**, is a water-dwelling entity that supposedly lives in Lake Michigan, sometimes described as a living creature, sometimes as a spirit. Those that have allegedly seen the creature describe it as a large, four-limbed, aquatic carnivore with a thick scaly hide, a rather long tail, clawed yet webbed digits, a short robust neck, and a short head with powerful jaws.

In early to mid 20th century, the entity would become a point of focus among adherents of the pseudoscience of cryptozoology, and young Earth creationism, resulting in numerous expeditions led by cryptozoologists and funded by young Earth creationists and other groups with the objective to find evidence that invalidates or contradicts the scientific consensus regarding evolution. Paleontologist Darren Naish remarks that "the quest for the Michigan Lake Monster is... as famous as it is unconvincing, and is part of the effort by creationists to overthrow the theory of evolution and teaching of science by any means possible". Additionally, Naish observes that "The only people looking for Lake Michigan Monster are creationist ministers, not wildlife biologists."

## History

The first description of the Lake Michigan Monster as an reptile-like beast was in 1878, in Spirits of the Indian Lake, the autobiography of famed wildlife hunter Andrew Hagen. He claimed to have heard from three independent sources about a creature living in Lake Michigan, which was described to them by natives as "half fish, half dragon." Naturalist Witcom Harlington had also told Hagen about similar stories. Hagen speculated that "it can only be some kind of marine reptile, seemingly akin to the pliosaur."

Tales of entities like Lake Michigan Monster, living saurians swimming about in Lake Michigan, are rare; however, there have been multiple tales of cow-sized, scaly-skinned aquatic beasts with four clawed flippers, short necks, and short heads that fed on large prey still living in Lake Michigan. It was only after 1901, when the description of the Michigan Lake Monster surfaced that the rest of the world started interpreting those legends as possessing a pliosaur-like body structure.

   Reports of entities described to be reptile-like in Lake Michigan caused a minor sensation in the mass media, and newspapers in Europe and North America carried many articles on the subject in the early 1910s; some took the reports at face value, while others were more skeptical. It is notable that Western Europe and the Americas were going through a pop cultural interest in dinosaurs and other extinct animals, of which the Liopleurodon was one of the most popular marine reptiles. This could have contributed to both the reports as well as the tendency for newspapers to claim the reported beast was a pliosaur.

In 2001, BBC broadcast in the TV series Lake Monster a collective interview with a group of native Americans, who identified the Lake Michigan Monster as a gar while looking at an illustrated manual of wildlife. Large gars are largely absent from much of Lake Michigan, and the Lake Michigan Monster may be a mixture of mythology and folk memory from a time when large gars were once commonly found in the area. In 2016, a photograph of the supposed creature surfaced online, being identical to the cryptid reported from the area; however, biologists and zoologists are skeptical about the authenticity of the infamous photo.

## Explanations

* The Lake Michigan Monster may be a living pliosaur, similar to Liopleurodon. However, this is considered as a flimsy excuse, since it is most similar to outdated pliosaur reconstructions, not how they really looked in life; real pliosaurs like Liopleurodon were bulky animals with smooth skins, finned tails, lacking armored plating on their backs and tails or claws on their digits, while the Lake Michigan Monster is described as a being scaly with armor plating, a highly-exaggerated short snout, lacking a fin on its tail, and having clawed digits on its flippers.
* The Lake Michigan Monster may actually be a spirit being with supernatural powers, but spirits are not considered scientifically plausible to exist in the natural world.
* The entire story may have been hoaxes by cryptozoologists just to get more famous and possibly to try to overthrow the theory of evolution; however, the living pliosaur would actually strengthen the theory of evolution rather than denying.