Bear Lake Monster
A Utah Ghost Story
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
If you travel to Bear Lake in Utah on a quiet day, you just might catch a glimpse of the Bear Lake Monster. The monster looks like a huge brown snake and is nearly 90 feet long. It has ears that stick out from the side of its skinny head and a mouth big enough to eat a man. According to some, it has small legs and it kind of scurries when it ventures out on land. But in the water - watch out! It can swim faster than a horse can gallop - makes a mile a minute on a good day. Sometimes the monster likes to sneak up on unwary swimmers and blow water at them. The ones it doesn't carry off to eat, that is.
A feller I heard about spotted the monster early one evening as he was walking along the lake. He tried to shoot it with his rifle. The man was a crack shot, but not one of his bullets touched that monster. It scared the heck out of him and he high tailed it home faster than you can say Jack Robinson. Left his rifle behind him and claimed the monster ate it.
Sometimes, when the monster has been quiet for a while, people start saying it is gone for good. Some folks even dredge up that old tale that says how Pecos Bill heard about the Bear Lake monster and bet some cowpokes that he could wrestle that monster until it said uncle. According to them folks, the fight lasted for days and created a hurricane around Bear Lake. Finally, Bill flung that there monster over his shoulder and it flew so far it went plumb around the world and landed in Loch Ness, where it lives to this day.
Course, we know better than that. The Bear Lake Monster is just hibernating-like. Keep your eyes open at dusk and maybe you'll see it come out to feed. Just be careful swimming in the lake, or you might be its next meal!
You can read a longer version of this spooky Utah folktale in Spooky Southwest by S.E. Schlosser.
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Comments
I like that one. I saw it in Moses lake Washington, near the sand dunes.
Posted by: Zach509 | July 20, 2010 04:23 AM
ho...i wanna see that...will see shortly...
Posted by: bharath | July 25, 2010 10:55 AM
thats a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig fat lie! I went to bear lake 10 times and i didn't see him at all.
Posted by: mckaylee | July 26, 2010 04:30 PM
I have seen him
Posted by: Anonymous | August 3, 2010 12:45 AM
I've almost got killed by
the monster
Posted by: adam | August 5, 2010 12:08 PM
i dont know what to believe but i guess its pretty interesting.
F.Y.I im going to bearlake on saturday!
Posted by: melissa | August 5, 2010 09:35 PM
good luck adam
Posted by: aprill | August 10, 2010 11:32 PM
I wanna go swimming in bear lake i'm not scared of a stupid snake! It's probably a lie!
Posted by: bessie | August 14, 2010 04:37 AM
This is a true story. We are going to scotland to see the monster in lochness.
Posted by: Arden & Ava | August 26, 2010 08:20 PM
im superstitiuos so to you people whos going to bear lake good luck and dont swim in the water you might just be risking your life
Posted by: Anonymous | August 28, 2010 12:39 PM
This is the best! im using it for an audition!
Posted by: Yea,,, | August 28, 2010 01:13 PM
cool. have u actually seen it or is this just a stupid joke cause we r into this stuff and if its true we would like to check it out
Posted by: lunatrix & bellatrix | August 29, 2010 08:39 PM
this story is pretty funny and i like how you said he left his riffle and said that the bear ate it
Posted by: malik | September 2, 2010 10:49 AM
where is bearlake?
Posted by: sophia | September 3, 2010 03:17 PM
i would rather not do that
Posted by: aideen | September 4, 2010 04:19 AM
iam at bearlake and i seen it
Posted by: simone | September 9, 2010 03:16 PM
Awsome
Posted by: amaiya scott | September 11, 2010 02:34 PM
Great Story!
Posted by: amaiya scott | September 11, 2010 02:42 PM
im not going to bear lake EVER!!!
Posted by: punkprincess | September 12, 2010 01:32 PM
hi that was a cool story i rilley like thatstory
Posted by: ethan | September 15, 2010 11:30 AM
thiS storie is the greaties storie i ever read I LOVE IT KIA......
Posted by: kia | September 16, 2010 05:40 PM
i loove it i went to lake george and i saw it
Posted by: Anonymous | September 27, 2010 03:37 PM
put some pics cuz it will mix with ur story so awsoooooome it sent me to the bathroom
Posted by: dark | October 1, 2010 09:12 PM
it was pretty good
Posted by: Anonymous | October 20, 2010 01:50 PM
awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | October 21, 2010 10:54 AM
Hmm...I doubted the story about the sharpshooter still can't shoot it down
So I think he wasn't pro at all...^^
If the monster were real,why don't the governor sent some pro divers to prove
it?
Posted by: samuel | October 25, 2010 02:52 AM
One day i was swimming and it bit my leg off ..................................... talk of a tall tale
Posted by: Colin | October 25, 2010 11:49 AM
dont die
Posted by: Anonymous | October 27, 2010 08:27 AM
that is just a tall tale of course it could be real u never know
Posted by: desiree | October 29, 2010 09:09 PM
this is a lie. i mean hurricanes and throwing monsters
Posted by: sam | October 30, 2010 03:02 PM
I will capture that monster
Posted by: calvin | October 31, 2010 07:13 PM
i think its not true-+
Posted by: mia | November 1, 2010 06:51 PM
u guys never seen it because it comes out at night to hunt i live in utah by bearlake about 4- 6 miles and 4 girls went missing while they were camping there like some animals it prombley dosent come out at day time and stays in the water
Posted by: abby | November 5, 2010 06:30 PM
ive seen it on TV, its a show called Lost Tapes and it was when these girls went to Bear Lake for a Birthday, they stayed after dark and then it like came out and started attacking them! 2 of the girls are still missing today even though the lake has been rake-searched, i dunno about you, but you couldnt pay me enough to swim in that lake!! What if it is real? Seemed pretty real to me!! I sugest that someone puts up a camera, leaves it there all night and see whats on it when they come back. Then we might have some actual footage of the creature, even tho ive already seen it, it kinda looked like a massive elephant trunk... gah! SCARY!
Posted by: Mew~Suika | November 5, 2010 10:53 PM
you dudes are crazy its not real
Posted by: jonathan | November 17, 2010 01:42 PM
what if they caught it... just put a large net over the whole lake and reel it over, see if there is a bearlake monster
Posted by: anOnymous | November 26, 2010 09:05 AM
This story made me never want to swim again :)
Posted by: Anonymous | November 27, 2010 04:58 PM
the monster has been shown in discovery channel.. a group of girls has been killed by the monster..
Posted by: dwight | November 28, 2010 07:18 AM
omg thats so cool i would love to see the loch ness monster so bad.
Posted by: kate | December 6, 2010 11:13 PM
i would definitely want to go to bear lake in the summer. i just hope i see it and live to tell the tale.
Posted by: jacob | December 8, 2010 09:19 AM
Schlosser your tall tales are sooooooooo goood
Posted by: dhruvdesai | December 8, 2010 02:07 PM
this is wierd
Posted by: Michal | December 8, 2010 02:09 PM
SO GOOD
Posted by: BLAINE Wittrock | December 8, 2010 03:33 PM
It awsome man
Posted by: Jamshed | December 11, 2010 05:54 PM
awsome
Posted by: lyn-z | January 1, 2011 10:50 PM
cool story loved it
Posted by: Anonymous | January 4, 2011 09:24 PM
pretty cool dont want to run in to that
Posted by: nickhinkle | January 5, 2011 09:59 AM
this is a wierd story
Posted by: terd | January 6, 2011 10:18 AM
looks like i'm going hunting in utah!
Posted by: cole shnider | January 9, 2011 02:19 PM
Freaky
Posted by: Josh | January 10, 2011 09:50 AM
omg i loved this so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | January 12, 2011 09:48 AM
Im gonna go there at dusk, and get eaten, so you might here something on tv about it.
Posted by: Bob | January 26, 2011 09:32 AM
that waz so good
Posted by: luis rivera | January 27, 2011 09:05 AM
ok first of all if there iss a lochness monster isnt there a way that this is true? i mean they could be the same monster couldnt they?????
Posted by: me | January 29, 2011 11:20 AM
this is a good story
Posted by: Anonymous | January 31, 2011 10:25 AM
I saw this monster on Lost Tapes...freaky.
Posted by: Ultima | February 3, 2011 10:50 AM
omg so cool!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | February 9, 2011 04:25 PM
These stories are fun while they don't happen to me.
Posted by: ideamaker | February 26, 2011 12:36 PM
I work at bear lake scout camp and I have seen the bear lake monster and seen what Izzie can do. She's scary, but awesome. Just don't go swimming after 10pm...
Posted by: Moni | February 28, 2011 06:07 PM
I want to go there and check it out.
Posted by: Stephen Leever | March 6, 2011 03:06 PM
I want to move it some were it will be happy.
Posted by: Caleb Leever | March 6, 2011 03:18 PM
Well maby i will go and stay the night there with a few guns and a trip wire around my camp that trigers a bunch of flood lights, after theres a few bullet holes in it then i might think about the one thing it did wrong, it came after me.
Posted by: none | March 8, 2011 05:24 PM
it cant be the loch ness monster. nessies been around for millenia!
Posted by: a british person | March 11, 2011 07:16 AM
Ive seen it when we were boating i saw a huge white thing in the water just for an instant it was about 9' and 15' long was all i could get because it was just a quick glimpse. o btw the gov or Mayer wont tell you because they will just get people scared off and hunters will try to ketch it, and they don't want a panic it will also ruin the tourist attraction they also have fish that is only located in bear lake.
Posted by: stuff | March 15, 2011 12:23 AM
i dont think its true though
Posted by: Donny | March 18, 2011 12:05 PM
good
Posted by: Anonymous | March 30, 2011 03:21 PM
this was awesome
Posted by: lola | April 12, 2011 04:07 AM
This is a epic story!:)
Posted by: Cody Burks | May 26, 2011 08:35 AM
I normally have good ideas for this type of thing... and I do!
Drain the lake out !
If its real it will be there along with the bodies!If its not there... where the heck did those girls go????
Posted by: Anonymous | July 3, 2011 05:56 AM
wow i would be so scared to go swimming in that if the monster is really real.. but good story tho. (:
Posted by: Anonymous | July 26, 2011 08:48 AM
This stuff sounds pretty awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: autumn | July 30, 2011 02:07 PM
That was a amazing story.
Posted by: Dominque Jones | August 6, 2011 01:29 PM
It seems to me that the lake should not be called Bear Lake Utah it should be called Monster Lake. That is after all what the tourists come for, and not the bears, or at least that is me so!!
Posted by: Kirsten | August 7, 2011 05:53 PM
WOOOWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Brittany | August 12, 2011 09:29 AM