{"id":2648,"date":"2017-05-01T14:32:36","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T19:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/?p=2648"},"modified":"2019-11-08T15:49:02","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T21:49:02","slug":"brief-history-lake-mendota-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/brief-history-lake-mendota-monster\/","title":{"rendered":"A brief history of the Lake Mendota Monster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long before the spikes of Lady Liberty\u2019s crown<\/a> punctuated Lake Mendota\u2019s horizon, a different barbed spine disturbed the waters.<\/p>\n

Since the 19th century, Madisonians have claimed to have spotted a sea serpent upwards of 25 feet long traversing the waters of both lakes straddling the isthmus. Newspaper reports from the period described a snake-like monster with a broad, flat-topped head and a long, spiked tail.<\/p>\n

In the 1860s a couple was canoeing across Lake Mendota toward Governor\u2019s Island when they accidentally bumped a log with their oar. Suddenly, the water began to churn and the \u201clog\u201d disappeared into the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a monster of some sort, we have no doubt,\u201d one of the canoers later wrote. \u201cWe were not too long in deciding that retreat was the better part of valor and we resolved to say nothing about the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

But word spread, and serpent sightings picked up toward the end of the century. In 1892, boaters and spectators from the shore watched the serpent \u201cundulating in an up and down motion\u201d across Lake Monona toward Esther Beach.<\/p>\n

In 1899, the Racine Daily Journal<\/em> reported that two women spotted the creature while boating. \u201cThey started for shore and the serpent, apparently as much frightened as they, plunged, they say, into the depths of the lake, making a great deal of foam.\u201d<\/p>\n

An anthropologist of Wisconsin folklore, Charles Brown, described two sightings<\/a> in 1917: In one, a fisherman off Picnic Point \u201creceived the fright of his life\u201d when a \u201clarge snake-like head, with large jaws and blazing eyes\u201d emerged from the water before him. In another, the serpent tickled the feet of two women sun-bathing behind a frat house.<\/p>\n

But despite its fearsome exterior, the serpent was a gentle giant. Brown wrote that it was \u201ca rather good-natured animal, playing such pranks as overturning a few canoes with his body or tail, giving chase to sailboats and other lake craft, uprooting a few lake piers and frightening bathers by appearing near beaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the skeptics thought perhaps \u201cthe reputed serpent [was] only a large pickerel, or perhaps a gar fish, with a collection of artificial baits clinging to its head.\u201d<\/p>\n

The friendly monster was named after the Algonquin hero-god Winnebozho, the creator of plant and animal life. Legend has it that the creature left by way of the Yahara River, but by the time he\u00a0had departed he\u2019d garnered a lasting nickname: Bozho<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long before the spikes of Lady Liberty\u2019s crown punctuated Lake Mendota\u2019s horizon, a different barbed spine disturbed the waters. Since the 19th century, Madisonians have claimed to have spotted a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5155],"tags":[19,455,456,504],"yoast_head":"\nA brief history of the Lake Mendota Monster | The Bozho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Since the 19th century, Madisonians have claimed to have spotted a sea serpent upwards of 25 feet long traversing the waters of Lakes Mendota and Monona.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/brief-history-lake-mendota-monster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A brief history of the Lake Mendota Monster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Despite its fearsome exterior, the serpent was a gentle giant.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/brief-history-lake-mendota-monster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bozho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thebozho\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-01T19:32:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-08T21:49:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Onion-Mendota-Monster.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"A brief history of the Lake Mendota Monster\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Despite its fearsome exterior, the serpent was a gentle giant.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Mendota-Monster-tw.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@thebozho\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@thebozho\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Bozho\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Bozho\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thebozho\/\",\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/thebozho\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thebozho\"],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/logo.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":280,\"caption\":\"The Bozho\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thebozho.com\/\",\"name\":\"The Bozho\",\"description\":\"Seeing things. 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