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A Monster Worth While

A Bear Lake Tradition That Is Worth Preserving
By J. H. Paul University of Utah

THE delightful fable of the once famed Bear Lake monster is so good that it ought to be retained. That amazing dream, myth, or perception-that prince of stories-should be kept alive as a tradition; not necessarily as something that was possibly true, but as something that has in it the stuff of endless fun and innocent amusement. For notwithstanding its apparent absurdity as a fact of science, who can say that this supposed monster was not there, an actual descendant of some pterodactyl, or ichthyosaur, or dinosaur, from geological ages of the past?

This strange creature was seen, or supposed to have been seen, mostly on moonlit nights, its gigantic and serpent-like form now and again disturbing the usual peace of the serene and sleeping waters of the lovely and quiet lake. And please don't tell me that there was nothing in it!

The Bear Lake Monster

AMONG my earliest recollections are pictures of the fireside group in my father's home in Salt Lake City, reading in the Deseret News of about the year 1875, detailed and circumstantial accounts of this gigantic reptile. For one after another of the early inhabitants had managed to obtain casual glimpses of it. Sometimes it had the head of an otter, sometimes that of a cow. Occasionally it would lift its serpent-like form partly out of the water, displaying a long neck, and the body, apparently many yards in length, judging from the long line of ruffled water in its wake, could be dimly made out following the head, as the creature swam swiftly across the lake or disappeared into its depths.

Stories That Ought to be True

IF some of these stories are not true, they ought to be true; for they have brought thrills to the hearts of youth; and many a gray-beard has shaken his head in troubled doubt as he has heard of these incredible but detailed accounts given by reliable persons. At all events the stories may contain quite as much truth as parts of the material that we require the youth of the nation to read and to ponder as "history."

We are wont to fill our heads with matter no more certain and possibly much more misleading and mischievous. And so, I say, let's keep the tales of the monster of the sky-blue waters, if only for story-telling contests at campfires. At the worst they contain as much truth as most of the fishing yarns told there, while they have a scientific basis that ordinary fables do not possess.

For just suppose that a few descendants of any long-necked race of lizards of the Mesozoic seas could somehow have lived on, possibly surviving in Lake Bonneville and being transferred in some unknown way to the little strip of Bear Lake waters. While I cannot imagine just how anything of the kind could have taken place, can anyone say positively that something like this might not have happened?

Sea-Serpents of Science