Turtle Lake Monster

The Turtle Lake Monster is an alleged cryptid inhabiting Turtle Lake, in West Central Saskatchewan Canada. The Monster is usually described as a creature 3–9 metres long, scaly, with no dorsal fin and a head resembling a dog, a "sea horse" or pig. Natives are said to be nervous about the attention the Monster might bring and say its simply a massive Sturgeon that left his home and lives in Turtle Lake. About once a year someone claims to have had an encounter the beast.^[1] Reports date back to pre-settlement days when the local Cree had a legend about people who ventured into the monster's territory vanishing without a trace.^[1] There is speculation that the Monster sightings may be attributed to sightings of an unusually large lake sturgeon,^[2] or a relict population of prehistoric plesiosaurs.^[1]

Ben Blatz suggests a theory: millions of years ago when Saskatchewan was covered by a prehistoric sea, there lived a variety of dinosaurs, including one called plesiosaur. A few plesiosaurs adapted and survived in Turtle Lake. One of their descendants is responsible for frightening the boaters.

There was also a report ^[1] of man seeing the creature while on the Lake with his grandson and daughter. They say they saw the Monster about 12 metres away, saying "Its head came up, its back came up and it sort of rolled over we never saw the tail and its head looked like a seahorse."

Gord Sedgewick - Fisheries Biologist, Ministry of Environment has written: Much has been reported and written over the years about the Turtle Lake “monster” (although nothing has been reported in recent years). Over the years, people fishing in the open water have reported sightings of a big “thing” swimming near their boat. Could it have been a lake sturgeon? Lake sturgeon inhabit the Saskatchewan River system, and the outflow from Turtle Lake flows via the Turtle River directly into the North Saskatchewan River. It is not inconceivable during some years of very high outflow that sturgeon could have found their way from the North Saskatchewan up the Turtle River and into Turtle Lake. Sturgeon have a very long life span, so the few that may have entered the lake could have stayed there for many decades. And of course, the longer they lived in the lake, the larger they grew. Sturgeon are bottom feeding fish, so they wouldn’t often be sighted near the surface. The presence of a few lake sturgeon is the most plausible explanation for the numerous reported sightings of a “monster” swimming in the waters of Turtle Lake. Having said this, sturgeon have never been caught in any test netting surveys, nor in any commercial fishing nets, so there is no conclusive evidence of their presence in the lake. However, there are similarities between Turtle Lake and Candle Lake in regards to their connection to the Saskatchewan River system; in the case of Candle Lake, a few large lake sturgeon have actually been caught which verifies they were able to find their way upstream and take up residence in the lake. But for Turtle Lake we’ll likely never know for sure! ^[3]

A logical explanation is that when waves from more than one source collide, they have much higher peaks and troughs. From the shore this can be misinterpreted to be the humped back monster moving through the water.

Possible Images

Air photo, taken summer of 2011 or 2012, of the monster's(?) path across the lake

The "head" of the monster is located at N 53° 39' 34" W 108° 36' 30" in Township 54 Range 18W3.View the large scale image
When examining the image, note the "trail" left behind. A motor boat would not leave the same path, nor is there a wake.
Satellite Imagery from Here.com may also show the monster at rest. See the Monster

Footnotes

See also

• Manipogo - a lake monster from neighbouring Manitoba.
• Ogopogo - a similar lake monster from British Columbia.
• List of cryptids