Again, Bear Lake
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 11th, 2006
I enjoy reading stories about new sightings of Lake Monsters as much as the next guy, but what is up with retreading stories from the 1800s, so often? There’s been another local Utah article written about the Bear Lake Monsters. It revisits the same old stories that you perhaps have read before. What I find surprising is they hardly ever talk about the Utah Lake Monster sightings that are known from the 21st century, as documented elsewhere and mentioned by, for example, Karl Rose.
There is no disputing that evidence for the Bear Lake Monsters was established by early leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 19th century. It is compelling and interesting. Likewise, it is obvious the newspapers there seem to love repeating these stories, over and over again.
The Utah incidents have been recycled so many times, I’ve written several blogs about this media phenomena, even one asking the obvious question:
Why Bear Lake Again?
April 30, 2006
Here are two others I’ve written this year:
Meandrous Monster Migrates to Utah Lake
May 7, 2006
and
Great Bear Lake Monster
January 30, 2006.
If you don’t know about the case, certainly, read up on it. At least once. 
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Maybe they’re just bored and they can’t find anything else to write an article about or maybe they think that a story about a lake monster will be popular. You would think that people would find it a little more interesting to read about a lake monster sighting that was more recent.
Could this be some unknown aquatic mega-sloth remnant? Reports of similar creatures come out of South America.
WHOLELY INEXPLICABLE, OR HOLY OBVIOUS?
I think you’ve probably answered this one yourself, Loren, in your actual piece: in that part of the world, the fact the Bear Lake Monster was witnessed by the original Mormon settlers augments the Monster’s own already innate ’supernatural glamour’ and ‘ethnological aura’ with a sort of ‘Founding/Pilgrim Fathers charisma’, as well as bestowing upon it something of the nature of ‘Holy Writ’.
On a non-cynical level, it’s probably not disimilar to my City’s ‘Liverpool Echo’ not missing an opportunity to get in a reference to The Beatles, no matter the story - on a cynical level, it’s probably meant to go down well with local Mormon business people as sources of actual or potential advertising revenue.
I agree about the repetition, when it comes to almost ANY subject, including Fortean ones. I practically cringe at the name Roswell, but for reasons having NOTHING to do with DISBELIEF - I just can’t stand hearing it that much. But I can’t help being prejudiced about Bear Lake, Utah, because I first knew of it from a favorite lake monster book, one of several “alien animal” ones I first read that year (including “Alien Animals” itself).
True, but aren’t local Mormons still seeing this thing? And to answer the sloth question, it’s more likely to be a Giant Beaver, a Pleistocene animal whose Ice Age range would have included the region. They have been seen in other areas, even a man-made lake, nearby, which isn’t surprising, given their ability to walk about on land.
On a separate note, I find it interesting how many sightings speak about the aggressive nature of this beast, a feature consistent with Native American legends about Giant Beavers as well.