Sharlie, Lake Monster
Sharlie is a cryptid that is believed to inhabit Payette Lake near McCall, Idaho. Other names for this reptile-like creature are Slimy Slim or The Twilight Dragon of Payette Lake.
Native Americans believed that an evil spirit lived in the lake before western settlers arrived in the area.
The first documented sighting of the creature was in 1920 when a group of workers saw what they thought was a log, but it began to move.
In August 1944, several groups of people reported seeing a 30 to 35-foot serpent with a dinosaur-like head, humps and shell-like skin.
In September 1946, twenty people claimed to see a creature dive in and out of the water leaving a wake behind it like a small boat.
In 1954, a contest was held to name the serpent the lived in the lake. “Sharlie” was the winning name submitted by Le Isle Hennefer Tury from Springfield, Virginia.
Dozens more sightings were reported from 1956 on until the last claimed account of Sharlie in 2002.
Gary S Mangiacopra is a cryptozoologist who published an article in 1980 comparing Sharlie to Champ, Lake Champlain’s legendary lake monster. The title of the article was, “A Preliminary Report of Possible Large Animals in the Payette Lakes of Idaho.”
Image Caption: What Sharlie the Payette Lake Monster may look like, image of a Cryptocleidus. Credit: Nobu Tamura/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0, 2.5)