FIELD FILE · PEND-OREILLE-PADDLERLAKE & SEA MONSTERLOCAL LEGEND

Pend Oreille Paddler

Also known as The Paddler, Lake Pend Oreille Monster

A dark, wake-making shape in Idaho’s deepest lake – a monster often blamed on giant fish, hoaxers, and the Navy’s secret submarine tests.

Lake Pend Oreille, in the forested Idaho Panhandle, is Idaho’s largest lake and one of the deepest in the United States – more than 1,150 feet deep in places, carved by Ice Age glaciers and floods. Locals sometimes call it the “Big Hole.” It is also home to the Pend Oreille Paddler, a lake monster with an unusually tangled history of sightings, hoaxes and military secrets.

Fishermen told of big, unexplained shapes in the lake from early in the 20th century, but the monster talk really began in 1944. That was the heyday of the Farragut Naval Training Station at the lake’s south end, then one of the largest naval training centers in the world. A civilian at Bayview reportedly watched a dark, scaly serpent move through the water through binoculars for some fifteen minutes. Not everyone was impressed: in 1970 a longtime Kilroy Bay resident told a reporter that most of the monster talk “mostly comes from a bottle.”

The creature got its name in 1977, when a girl was reported to have been “attacked” by a monster near Sandpoint City Beach and a photograph of the “creature” circulated; journalists dubbed it the Pend Oreille Paddler. In late 1984 the picture was exposed as a 12-foot papier-mâché catfish built for a Sandpoint play in 1974. Meanwhile, North Idaho College English professor James R. McLeod and anthropologist Richard “Duke” Snyder led a student cryptozoology club in a multi-year study of the lake, published by McLeod in 1987 as Mysterious Lake Pend Oreille and Its “Monster.”

McLeod’s team concluded that something might be out there – perhaps a very large fish – but also suspected the Navy knew more than it said. The suspicion is understandable: the lake’s cold, quiet depths are still used by the Navy’s Acoustic Research Detachment at Bayview to test large-scale submarine models, and many locals think the Paddler stories were convenient cover. The most famous modern sighting came on Memorial Day 1985, when Coeur d’Alene teacher Julie Green chased a “gunmetal gray” object near her boat. Reports have been rare since a photo circulated online in 2007.

Type

Lake & sea monster

Status

Local legend

First reported

1944

Best-known location

Lake Pend Oreille, North Idaho

Also called

The Paddler, Lake Pend Oreille Monster

Reported in

Idaho

What witnesses describe

Variously described as a dark green or nearly black serpent with shiny scales and an undulating motion; a large, gunmetal-gray object breaking the surface; or simply a big, dark shape with a bumpy back beneath a boat. Many reports describe a large wake.

Where and when it’s seen

The deep southern part of Lake Pend Oreille, especially between the Green Monarch mountains and Bayview – the deepest water in the lake – and around Sandpoint at the north end. Reports span spring through fall.

Notable sightings

1. 1944A serpent off Bayview Bayview, Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho

   During the Farragut Naval Training Station era, a civilian reportedly watched a dark, scaly creature undulate through the lake for about fifteen minutes. The account is usually cited as the start of the monster legend.

2. 1977The Paddler gets its name Sandpoint City Beach, Idaho

   A young girl was reported to have been attacked by a lake monster, and a photo of the creature circulated, which journalists named the Pend Oreille Paddler.

3. Late 1984The papier-mâché catfish Sandpoint, Idaho

   The 1977 photograph was revealed to show a 12-foot papier-mâché catfish made for a play performed in Sandpoint in October 1974.

4. Memorial Day 1985Julie Green’s chase Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho

   Coeur d’Alene teacher Julie Green reported a large, gunmetal-gray object surfacing a few hundred yards from her boat and gave chase before it disappeared.

5. 1987McLeod’s study published Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

   James R. McLeod published the findings of North Idaho College’s cryptozoology club, suggesting a large deepwater fish and questioning what the Navy knew.

What could explain it?

• The U.S. Navy has tested submarine models and sonar on the lake since the 1940s; surfacing test vehicles or secrecy around them may explain some sightings and rumors.
• Large fish have been suggested, including white sturgeon, though sturgeon are not known to live in the lake itself (they do occur in nearby rivers); big lake trout and other fish certainly do.
• Waterlogged logs, debris and wind-driven waves are common on such a large lake and easily misjudged at a distance.
• The 1977 “attack” photo was a hoax using a papier-mâché catfish stage prop, and some sightings were likely exaggerated or embellished.

Legend, culture and tourism

The Paddler is a favorite piece of North Idaho lore, covered by the Sandpoint Reader, the Coeur d’Alene Press, the Spokesman-Review and even Sandpoint High School’s student newspaper. Its mix of monster, hoax and Cold War secrecy makes it a regular topic for local tours, talks and folklore classes.

Places to visit

Where it’s reported

Idaho

Pend Oreille Paddler in the news

No recent headlines about the Pend Oreille Paddler. Our news desk checks every day — see all cryptid news.

First published October 13, 2026 · Updated October 14, 2026