The Untold Story of Champ , livre ebook

State University of New York Press - Robert E. Bartholomew

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

152 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

"The lake surface was glass. My girlfriend and I were fishing from our anchored rowboat in about fifteen feet of water, facing the New York shore. 'Ron, what's that?' I turned. About thirty feet away I saw three dark humps … protruding about two feet above the surface. The humps were perhaps two or three feet apart. They didn't move. We didn't either. We watched in disbelief for about ten seconds. The humps slowly sank into the water. There was no wake, no telltale sign of movement. Unexplained. Eerie. Unsettling." — from the Foreword by Ronald S. Kermani

Scotland may have Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, but we have Champ, the legendary serpent-like monster of Lake Champlain. The first recorded sighting of Champ, in 1609, has been attributed to the lake's namesake, French explorer and cartographer Samuel de Champlain. This is pure myth, but there have been hundreds of sightings since then. Robert E. Bartholomew embarks on his own search, both of the lake firsthand and through period sources and archives—many never before published. Although he finds the trail obscured by sloppy journalism, local leaders motivated by tourism income, and bickering monster hunters, he weighs the evidence to craft a rich, colorful history of Champ. From the nineteenth century, when Champ was a household name, to 1977, when he appeared in Sandra Mansi's controversial photograph, Bartholomew covers it all. Real or imaginary, Champ and his story will fascinate believers and skeptics alike.
List of Illustrations
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. From Out of the Blue: The Early Memoir of a Sea Monster

2. The Serpent, Or at Least Its Tale, Resurfaces

3. The Comeback Critter: The Fall and Rebirth of a Legend

4. Awash with Controversy: Shonky Journalism, a Controversial Photo and a Monster Dispute

5. Egos, Obsessions, and the quest for fame: The Monster Hunters

6. In the Eye of Beholder: The Search of Answers

Endnotes

Sujets

Local history

Region

History of the Americas

Regional

Informations

Publié par	State University of New York Press
Date de parution	04 décembre 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781438444857
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1648€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Also by Robert E. Bartholomew
Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking (with Benjamin Radford)
“… a good entertaining introduction to critical thinking for the general reader and for undergraduates.” — Contemporary Psychology
“… fast-paced and intriguing … anyone with an interest in the odd or in critical thinking should read.” — Statesman Journal
“… you are certain to be amused and amazed in equal parts … an entertaining and enlightening book.” — Psychology Today
Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior (with Hilary Evans)
“… a work of immense erudition and scholarship but also a thumping good read.” — Simon Wessely, King's College London
“… an absorbing and authoritative read and an extremely valuable reference for anyone interested in the field of psychosomatic medicine.” —Keith Petrie, University of Auckland
“… quite possibly the most important contribution to the world of Forteana … in a very long time … The book is indeed scholarly; but it is also highly informative, insightful, illuminating and witty.” — Nick Redfern, author of Keep Out! Top Secret Places Governments Don't Want You to Know About
Little Green Men, Meowing Nuns and Head-Hunting Panics: A Study of Mass Psychogenic Illness and Social Delusion
“The book will interest any reader … it is extensively documented and food for thought.” — Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences
“… well-documented information to those interested in mass psychosocial phenomena, and as fascinating leisure-time reading to the general public.” — Wolfgang G. Jilek, Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia.

THE UNTOLD STORY OF
CHAMP
A Social History of America's Loch Ness Monster
ROBERT E. BARTHOLOMEW

P UBLISHED BY
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
A LBANY
© 2012 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press www.sunypress.edu
Excelsior Editions is an imprint of State University of New York Press
Production, Laurie Searl Marketing, Kate McDonnell
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bartholomew, Robert E.
The untold story of Champ : a social history of America's Loch Ness Monster / Robert Emerson Bartholomew.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-1-4384-4484-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Champ (Monster) 2. Champlain, Lake—History. 3. Champlain, Lake, Region—History. 4. Champlain, Lake, Region—Social life and customs. 5. Legends—Champlain, Lake, Region. I. Title.
QL89.2.C53B37 2012
001.944—dc23
2012003676
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ILLUSTRATIONS 0.1 Cover. Sketch by Jonathan Clark. 1.1 During summer 1870, the serpent was spotted by passengers of the steamship Curlew north of Crown Point, New York (Jonathan Clark sketch). 1.2 Artist depiction of the Champlain Monster snatching a calf from the Dresden shoreline during the Great Serpent Scare of 1873 (Jonathan Clark sketch). 1.3 P. T. Barnum, the great showman, offered $50,000 in 1873 for anyone who could produce the carcass of the Champlain Monster (Jamilah Bartholomew sketch). 2.1 During the nineteenth century, newspaper editors commonly asserted that alcohol was the main stimulus for appearances of the Champlain Sea Serpent (Jonathan Clark sketch). 2.2 In about 1870, some fifty workers at the Clark Quarry rushed to the shore of Ligonier Point at Willsboro, New York, to see a massive creature “moving with great speed …” (Jamilah Bartholomew sketch). 3.1 “Georgie” was the creation of Henry Watrous who caused havoc on Lake George between 1904 and 1905 by scaring boaters with his wooden lake monster operated by pulleys (Paul Bartholomew photo). 3.2 During the latter eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, there were numerous reports of the Champlain Monster ramming boats. Artist depiction of a close encounter by Jonathan Clark. 3.3 The snake-like creature witnessed by Harold Patch off the Champlain Islands on a picturesque spring day in 1960 (Jamilah Bartholomew sketch). 4.1 Sandra Mansi's controversial photo reportedly taken in July 1977 at Lake Champlain. When it was released in 1981, it caused a global sensation (credit Sandra Mansi). 4.2 Blow up of the Mansi photo (Photo credit Sandra Mansi). 4.3 Dr. Phil Reines addresses the press conference at the 1981 “Does Champ Exist?” Conference. (Gary Mangiacopra photo). 4.4 Panel of experts at the August 29, 1981, Champ conference. From right to left: Roy Mackal, Joe Zarzynski, Sandra Mansi, Phil Reines, George Zug, and J. Richard Greenwell (Gary Mangiacopra photo). 4.5 Photo of Joe Zarzynski with Sandra Mansi in 1981 (Gary Mangiacopra photo). 4.6 Champy is the official mascot of the Burlington-based Vermont Lake Monsters minor league baseball team (Shane Bufano Photography). 5.1 Joe Zarzynski assembling a sonar tripod near Button Bay in 1980. He believed that this was the most likely site of the Mansi photo (Paul Bartholomew photo). 5.2 In 1999, U-Haul launched a promotion campaign involving Champ (Ben Radford photo). 6.1 Orville Wells sketch of his 1976 sighting on Treadwell Bay just north of Plattsburgh, New York. 6.2 Depiction of the encounter by the William Lavally family who reported being attacked by a strange alligator-like creature during October 1884 (Sketch by Jamilah Bartholomew). 6.3 The plesiosaur (top) and zeuglodon (bottom) are thought to have been extinct for at least 60 million years. They are the two leading candidates put forth by cryptozoologists for Champ (Photo credit: Fortean Picture Library). 6.4 On the evening of June 14, 1983, Dick and Tim Noel reported seeing a dark snake-like creature upwards of twenty-five feet in length and four feet high. It bears little resemblance to a Zeuglodon or Plesiosaur. Is it an oversized eel, an unclassified species or an optical illusion? (Sketch by Jamilah Bartholomew). 6.5 Artist interpretation of a sighting by Donald Mears off South Hero Island in 1959 (Sketch by Jamilah Bartholomew). 6.6 When noted fraud investigators Joe Nickell (left) and Ben Radford (right) interviewed Sandra Mansi, they could find no obvious evidence of a hoax, though many unanswered questions remain (Ben Radford photo). 6.7 Captivated by the lure of Champ, Australian researcher Paul Cropper traveled to Port Henry to experience the legend firsthand. Cropper stands in front of the sighting board erected by the Village (Paul Bartholomew photo). 6.8 Famous “Surgeon's Photo” snapped in the 1930s, was long held to have been the best lake monster photo in existence until it was unveiled as a hoax in 1994. It was actually a toy submarine fitted with a serpent's head. (Source: Fortean Picture Library).
FOREWORD
“There are some very strange things in this lake.”
A 75-year-old merchant marine, who had crisscrossed the oceans on freighters, swept his hand toward Vermont and let that sentence hang in the air.
I was 13 and standing on the shores of Lake Champlain for the first time in my life.
My family had purchased a summer home at Crown Point, New York and the sailor was filling me in on the basics of fishing the southern end of this beautiful and mysterious lake.
Transfixed by what I had just heard, I could barely breathe. What he said sounded more like an omen than a warning.
Little did I know at my young and impressionable age that the sailor's words would weave themselves into my work as a newspaper reporter as I chronicled the flurry of fascination with all things related to Champ, the Lake Champlain “monster.”
My healthy skepticism about Champ would continue unchecked until 7:10 AM July 2, 1983.
The lake surface was glass. My girlfriend and I were fishing from our anchored rowboat in about fifteen feet of water, facing the New York shore.
“Ron, what's that?”
I turned. About thirty feet away I saw three dark humps—maybe 12 inches thick—protruding about two feet above the surface.
The humps were perhaps two or three feet apart. They didn't move. We didn't either.
We watched in disbelief for about ten seconds. The humps slowly sank into the water. There was no wake, no telltale sign of movement.
Unexplained. Eerie. Unsettling.
Get ready for the same spine-tingling, thought-provoking ride as Robert Bartholomew guides you through 400 years of facts, fantasy and controversy surrounding Champ.
Bartholomew has culled interesting and pertinent information from personal journals and correspondence, newspaper archives and interviews with major players in the Champ saga to give us an unvarnished look at a landscape filled with scientists, common folk, and hustlers.
Like any solid reporter, Bartholomew asks the tough questions. He draws you into the vortex of egos of the Champ researchers. He chides his media colleagues for sloppy reporting. He acknowledges the cheerleading by chambers of commerce along the lake that have hitched their wagons to the tale of Champ.
It's all in here, and more.
Wheth