Comments on: Connecticut River Monster

By: ange33

ange33 — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 21:36:02 +0000

I was born and raised in East Deerfield. It is in MA, and on the banks of the CT river. The main road is River Road. The Rice family is well known to the locals. This is a small farming town, right off of Deerfield, MA. I saw many strange things in the river while growing up, but they were usually huge eels or carp.

By: Steleheart

Steleheart — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:16:49 +0000

Dr. S., Yes I know I made that clear already, thank you

By: Dr. Strings

Dr. Strings — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 01:48:51 +0000

Steleheart, East Deerfield is situated in the northern third of Massachusetts in Franklin County, on the west bank of the Connecticut River, northwest of Montague and northeast of Deerfield, very close to and on the eastern side of I-91. It’s about 2-3 miles south of Turners Falls.

By: Steleheart

Steleheart — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:02:20 +0000

Billgreen2010, if you are from Bristol, could you tell us where East Deerfield is exactly? My wife is from Burlngton and has never heard of it. Thanks.

By: Steleheart

Steleheart — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:56:58 +0000

Thank you Loren,

We must point out that when stories were transcribed back about 100 years ago, editors did not have the benefit of digital cut and paste functions we take for granted today. It is also likely that when this story was reprinted in Iowa, it was already a couple years old.

While late in 19th century, stories about this cryptid came mostly out of CT, it is entirely believable that a creature of the reported size could cruise for long distances up the river. Personally I think that coming out of MA as opposed to CT, this story gives even more credence to the cryptid.

I did not find any persons with that name in CT at all, but that is just crude searching from my desk. Imagine treking out to Deerfield, Ma to the library and tracking down the Col. and his sons, possibly finding some old anecdotal news article. What a long strange trip it would be, haha. That is the kind of research that helps, rather than dismissing old stories as not credible.

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:42:56 +0000

As Steleheart and others imply above, the eyewitness is from East Deerfield, which no doubt is East Deerfield, Massachusetts, which is on the Connecticut River and at a large railroad junction. Probably that is the town, which should have been credited as the focus of these events.

By: Dr. Strings

Dr. Strings — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:56:48 +0000

Just for the record, I happen to have been born and raised in Connecticut, having lived here my entire life, and I have never heard of a Deerfield or East Deerfield. A paper map and Google map search turned up nothing, as has a Google web search. There are landmarks and roads that come up on the Google map(such as Deerfield Apartments, etc.), which may have led the one poster to believe East Deerfield is located on the outskirts of Hartford. My career has had me all over the state for 20 years with my face in map books, so I do know most of the state very well. To my knowledge, East Deerfield, Connecticut does not currently exist. I suppose if it did exist at some point it could have been re-named, but I couldn't find any evidence to support that. It certainly is in Massachusetts, much closer to the Vermont border than the Connecticut border, so it seems like a pretty big mistake for a journalist to make. It could have been misplacement of the name, but mistakes like that would prompt one to question the entire account, certainly. I did find something very interesting in my search, a New York Times article about an alleged sighting of a sea serpent in the Connecticut River at Cromwell(roughly 15 miles south of Hartford) printed nearly a full eight years before the above article: It's quite the tale, so judge for yourself.

By: rondaily

rondaily — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:54:15 +0000

Lauren Coleman, You are right and I was wrong.I totally missed the date of the article. Thank you for your courteous correction. I also see that you are credited with posting the article. I’m a big water creature fan (have visited Loch Ness). Would love to know more about this story.

By: billgreen2010

billgreen2010 — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:43:09 +0000

where this creature was sighted is realy not too far from me in bristol or so but close enough wow. keep me posted ok

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:52:25 +0000

Ironically, it is some of those “sober,” “unimaginative” people like Austin Rice who make some of the most credible witness. Because of their “unimaginative” natures, it then becomes unlikely that they would “make something up.” Not saying they couldn’t, but it tends to be less likely they would. Great story!!!