STATE FILE · NY
Cryptids of New York
What cryptids are in New York? The best-known are Champ, Bigfoot, Seneca Lake Serpent and Silver Lake Serpent.
New York’s best-known cryptid lives in Lake Champlain, the long, deep lake it shares with Vermont and Quebec. “Champ,” described as a long-necked creature with dark humps, has been reported since the 19th century; a widely repeated claim that explorer Samuel de Champlain saw it in 1609 is a later misreading of his journals. Port Henry, on the New York shore, keeps a roadside sign listing reported sightings and celebrates Champ Day each summer, and in the early 1980s both the New York and Vermont legislatures passed resolutions to protect the creature. Skeptics suggest lake sturgeon, gar, otters, logs and wind-driven waves.
Cryptids reported in New York
LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1819
Champ
Lake Champlain, New York–Vermont border
A long-necked monster said to live in Lake Champlain, made famous by Sandra Mansi’s 1977 photo and protected by local and state resolutions in the 1980s.
REGIONAL LEGEND
HOMINID · 1958
Bigfoot
Pacific Northwest forests, reported across North America
North America’s most famous cryptid: a huge, hairy, upright ape-like being reported from the Pacific Northwest to Florida since the 1958 “Bigfoot” tracks.
WIDELY REPORTED LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1899Seneca Lake Serpent
Seneca Lake, Finger Lakes, New York
A toothy serpent said to have been rammed and killed by a Finger Lakes steamboat in July 1899, only for its body to slip away into 600 feet of water.
LOCAL LEGEND LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1855Silver Lake Serpent
Silver Lake, near Perry, Wyoming County, New York
A “horrid” serpent reported by fishermen on Silver Lake, New York, in July 1855 – famously blamed on a hotel owner’s canvas-and-bellows hoax.
HOAX / DEBUNKEDThe legends of New York
Upstate’s forests feed a strong Bigfoot tradition. In August 1976, teenagers on Abair Road in Whitehall, near the southern tip of Lake Champlain, reported a hairy, 7–8-foot creature; a local police officer and a state trooper later said they saw it too, making it one of the most retold sightings in the Northeast. Whitehall has embraced its Bigfoot ever since. The six-million-acre Adirondack Park and the Catskills produce further reports, as do rural pockets of western New York.
Downstate has its own oddity: the “Montauk Monster,” a bloated carcass that washed up near Montauk, Long Island, in 2008 and went viral before most experts identified it as a decomposed raccoon.
Hotspots
Lake Champlain village with a Champ sighting board and a summer Champ Day.
Site of the 1976 Abair Road Bigfoot encounter, one of the Northeast’s most famous.
Six million acres of forest, lakes and mountains with recurring Bigfoot reports.
The 120-mile lake on the Vermont border where Champ is said to swim.
Long Island beach town where the 2008 “Montauk Monster” carcass washed ashore.
Sightings timeline
- 1819First newspaper report Champ
A newspaper account described a huge serpent seen in the lake, the earliest printed report usually cited for Champ.
- July 13, 1855The fishing party’s monster Silver Lake Serpent
Two boys and five men fishing from a boat reported a horrid-looking creature rising near them. The report set off a summer of sightings and a rush of visitors.
- 1857The Walker Hotel fire Silver Lake Serpent
According to local tradition, the Walker Hotel burned and searchers found the scorched wire skeleton of a serpent in the ruins, exposing the hoax.
- 1883Sheriff Mooney’s sighting Champ
Clinton County sheriff Nathan Mooney reported seeing a large serpent-like animal, and his account was followed by a rush of further eyewitness reports. P. T. Barnum offered rewards for the creature in 1873 and again in 1887.
- Late July 1899The papers have their doubts Seneca Lake Serpent
After first carrying the dramatic accounts, Geneva newspapers blamed the heat wave and the lake’s wine cellars, and noted that no one had followed up the story.
- July 14, 1899The <em>Otetiani</em> rams a monster Seneca Lake Serpent
The steamboat’s pilot and captain spotted a 25-foot object that turned out to have a head and teeth. The captain rammed it, and crew briefly roped the carcass before it slipped away and sank.
- July 5, 1977The Mansi photograph Champ
Sandra Mansi took a single Instamatic photo of what appears to be a long neck and head beside a hump about 150 feet offshore. It was published in the New York Times in 1981; the negative was never found.
- 1980–1983Safe-haven resolutions Champ
Port Henry declared its waters off-limits to anyone seeking to harm the creature around 1980–81, the Vermont House passed a protective resolution in 1982, and New York legislators adopted a similar measure in 1983.
- 2005The fishermen’s video Champ
Two fishermen filmed something moving just below the surface. Reviewers disagreed sharply on what it showed, and one of two retired FBI image analysts who studied it said he could not see an animal.
- May 31, 2009The Oakledge Park cellphone clip Champ
Eric Olsen filmed a long, low object moving through the water at about 5:30 a.m. and posted it online, where it drew tens of thousands of views in days.
- 2013Most recent recorded sighting Seneca Lake Serpent
The Geneva Historical Society’s tally of at least 20 reported sightings runs up to a report in 2013.
- 2024Legends & Lore marker Silver Lake Serpent
The William G. Pomeroy Foundation unveiled a roadside marker recounting the sea serpent legend.
Latest from New York
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Videos
ARCHIVE.ORG3:07
Patterson–Gimlin film (unedited)
Roger Patterson and Bob GimlinThe original 1967 Bluff Creek footage – the most famous and most debated minute in Bigfoot history. Marked public domain on archive.org.
ARCHIVE.ORG4:59
The Film That Made Bigfoot A Star
Oregon Public BroadcastingOPB’s short documentary on how the Patterson–Gimlin film turned a regional legend into a global icon – and the hoax claims around it.
▶ VIDEO
Sts’ailes Sasquatch Days in Harrison Hot Springs
Tourism Harrison River ValleyShows the festival celebrating the Sts’ailes people’s Sásq’ets, the being behind the word “Sasquatch” (no archive.org equivalent).
ARCHIVE.ORG16:46
Cryptid Review Show Episode 1 – Champ
UVMtvA light student-TV overview of the Champ legend made in Burlington, on the lake’s shore.
ARCHIVE.ORG2:00
Champ Video Discussion
VCAMBurlington community-media participants discuss the 2009 Champ cellphone video.