Lake Hopatcong Monsters
By Cole Herrold
New Jersey is known for several things in
the Fortean world; the infamous Jersey Devil, for example, of the Pine Barrens,
is sort of the state mascot of all things weird there. There are numerous
reported ghost roads filled with phantom hitchhikers, ghostly apparitions, and
the occasional demon. UFOs and Men in Black have been reported there as well,
and one particularly weird MIB report happened there that was interconnected
with the infamous Mothman flap. There are semi-transparent mantis men,
creatures seemingly ripped from the pages of mythology like the Blackwood
Pigtaur and the Blackwood Centaur, Lizardmen and Gatormen, Bigfoot, Monkey Men,
and even dragons. The one thing, though, that New Jersey is not exactly known
for is aquatic monsters which is not accurate, to say the least, there had been
several reports of sea serpents in areas like Cape May and near Atlantic City,
and another strange creature known as Tommie was said to of roamed the Tom's
River. Of all of them, though, there's one lake, in particular, that is said to
be the most active in regard to aquatic anomalies, and that is Lake Hopatcong.
Lake Hopatcong is the largest lake in the
state of New Jersey and is nestled between both Sussex and Morris Counties and
is approximately 4 square miles in total area. This lake was enlarged in the 18th
century when a dam was erected in the Musconetcong River on the south end. This
caused the water to rise by about 6ft which caused the original bodies of water
in the area known as the Great Pond and Little Pond to come together to form
the Lake Hopatcong that we now know today.
Tales of something large and mysterious
lurking in the depths of the waters were first said to of been rumored by the
Lenape Natives who had lived for a time along the shore of the lake, yet
specific accounts seem to have gone unreported. Yet as the area began to be
more and more utilized and used as a commercial zone, sightings and possibly
dangerous interactions with a mysterious creature became more frequent and led
to an overall acceptance of a colossal creature that locals have come to call
"Hoppie." The earliest reports of this creature outside of the
ambiguous Lenape acknowledgment of the creature began some 200 years ago when
people coming around the area of the lake reported seeing a large, colossal
form break the surface with a gigantic splash of the now pond joined lake. The
creature was said to have a giant elephantine body so large that it could make
"an ox look like a fawn" and a large, long neck ending in a
horse-like head that was topped with a pair of large, colossal pair of 10ft
long antlers. The creature was so ferocious in appearance and assumedly in
behavior that the creature caused excessive panic to anyone in the region, and
this was added to the fact that the creature was also capable of leaving the
lake and walking on land. This reign of terror seemed to of gone on for some
time until a harsh winter hit the region, and the creature afterward had seemed
to of disappeared. The locals were both curious and at peace at the sudden
departure of the creature, but they still wondered just what happened to the
creature. They wouldn’t have to wait long for an answer as a group of Lenape Natives
passing through the area told just what happened to their semiaquatic neighbor.
The Natives would state that during the winter, the creature was crossing the
now frozen lake, and as it reached a particularly thin patch, the creature
broke the ice and had proceeded to fall into the frozen water of the lake,
where the creature seemingly perished. Whether the creature's death was due to
the temperature of the lake or some physical trauma to the body of the
creature, the Natives did not say. A short time later, while the lake had
dethawed, several of the locals took a boat out to the area where the creature
was said to of died and, upon peering into the water, could see the slowly
rotting remains of the colossal monster. Its skull and antlers being the most
noticeable feature that they could make out in the creature's watery grave.
This dead body clearly, however, was not
the end of the creature as in pure classic monster film fashion, the "Son
of" or "Daughter of" Hoppie would continue to be reported in the
Lake. The next report of a large aquatic monstrosity in the lake occurred on
November 11, 1999, when a witness known only as Pete and his unnamed friend
were hanging out at the lake. The two had spent most of the chilly day on the
lake and, upon deciding to call it a day, began to work their way towards the
shore. Getting very close to the shore, the two hopped onto a deck and began to
pull the boat into the shore. As the two strained to pull the boat in, Pete
noticed that as he looked out on the water, he saw a colossal black 6-7ft wave
come straight towards their dock. This colossal wave eventually hit their dock,
and the impact of the water onto the dock was so strong that it almost knocked
them off into the dark water. As they followed the direction of where the wave
was headed, the two noticed a large object bobbing up and down in the lake. As
they stared, they at first thought the object was a buoy but wondered just how
a buoy would have made it to that area since they had never noticed one before.
During this time, Pete's neighbor had left his home after seeing the colossal
wave splash on the nearby dock. The trio of men debated about the form seen in
the water the neighbor from a much safer distance than the other two, and when
the buoy hypothesis was brought up again, Pete's neighbor said that this was
impossible since the object was much too big. They watched as the object
eventually submerged and hid in the murky water disappearing from sight
altogether. During this time, the unthinkable happened to Pete's friend for
some untold reason, be it fright, loss of balance, or some other possibility
Pete's friend ended up plunging into the murky depths and disappearing for a
brief period of time. When his friend resurfaced, he was some 10ft away from
the dock and noticeably terrified as he cried out that during his time
underwater, something had grabbed him and pulled him away from the dock. They
were able to get his friend back to land and assumedly were more than hesitant
to go back into the water for years later.
Now there had been rumors for years later
of something strange and bizarre lurking in the lake, and these reports did not
go unnoticed as they would be collected by the Fortean magazine Weird NJ;
on one occasion, the magazine received a letter from a man residing in Sussex
County who claimed that he had seen and experienced the creature on the lake
countless times starting from when he was a boy. The witness stated that the
reason he chose to write the letter was that creature was large and carnivorous
and that while he did not want the creature hunted, he wanted others in the
area to be aware of the creature and to be careful when swimming, boating, and
fishing in the area. He claimed that the first time he saw the creature was
when he was a boy fishing with his uncle. While out, he saw a bunch of
splashing on the water and saw a large, colossal creature that released
chirping sounds from a mouth filled with curved backward-facing razor-sharp
teeth and began to hit the water with large paddle like fins. His uncle would
later tell him more about the creature as he too had experienced it multiple
times on the lake and noted that the creature had a habit of swallowing hooked
fish, which he had experienced firsthand, and that upon biting them would swim
away, remaining submerged the entire time. This unnamed letter writer would
detail a full wildlife fact file on this creature and the knowledge of the
behavior of the creature. The creatures he claimed are covered in brown and
green slimy scales; they are usually about the size of a large dog but can
reach the size of a cow with a long slender snake-like head and neck; they have
forked tongues, long thin tails, and also have paddle-like fins that are tipped
with claws. The creatures also have a terrible odor that smells like rotting
fish or sulfur. The man would claim that the creature was not dangerous while
left alone, but he does know that the creature is carnivorous as he had seen
the creature on one occasion swallow two geese whole and that on one occasion
it attacked his dog, which tore threw his beloved pet like a chew toy. On that
occasion, the dog attacked the creature when the man was out fishing. The man
was reeling in a large fish he had caught on the line when the creature rose
from the depth biting the fish he had just caught. At this moment, the dog
seeing that his owner's quarry was being intercepted, rushed out into the water
and began to attack the creature in an attempt to have it drop the fish. The
creature turned and proceeded to drop the fish and attack the dog, and in a
brief skirmish, the creature ended up killing and eating the dog. As the man
watched as the creature continued to consume his canine, he saw a peculiar
behavior as the creature would spit out the bones, something one would indicate
as a sign of intelligence. This creature, he realized, is an ambush predator
and frequently utilizes the shoreline to capture and eat animals coming near
the water, much like a crocodilian. He noted that the creature tends to do this
more before and during the first light of day. It was in this interaction that
he realized the potential danger this creature could have towards humans and
shuddered to think about what the creature could do to children. He did note
that the creature did not seem to be aggressive to creatures initially outside
of fish, as in the two times that the creature did attack another organism, it
was in self-defense, and this includes the instance with the geese. The man
also noted that this creature was not alone and seemed to have a mate and that
these creatures seemed to be more active on nights of a full moon. The
creatures do have offspring as well, which are about the size of ducks and that
the larger of the offspring tend to hang out towards Lify Island. He, while
knowing the animals were breeding, he had no clear indication as to the
breeding population or the exact number of creatures in the lake. The creatures
have a preference of hanging out near-deserted tree-lined coves and rarely near
docks; however, on at least one occasion, he did encounter the creature
stealing his fish while fishing off a dock. It's from this that he recommends
people to avoid deserted coves, especially at sunrise, and to stay at home at
night, especially during the late fall and early spring, which is the
creature's mating season and also when they appear to be more aggressive. The
creature's the man would claim had unique eyes; they were a shiny color, and
that these eyes are so bright that they can be seen even when the creature is
underwater. His uncle would claim that these eyes have difficulty in seeing
those wearing green camouflage. He would claim that the creature would also
have a habit of hanging around deserted cove areas known for being local
lover's lanes and "smooch parks" and that the creature had a habit of
waddling ashore and peering into the windows of cars. The man ended up after
becoming seemingly an expert on the creature, christening the beast Xepeciup
Uqsejtjux Cemupiz or simply Cemupiz, which according to him, was the native
name for the creature, which means "flesh-eating lake monster" and
that the natives who knew of the creature forbade the killing of it seeing it
as a sacred creature. During his research of the creature, he claimed to of
captured the creature on camera; the photo he took came from a disposable
camera from a Pathmark. He also, much like the native tribes, feels that we
should protect the species from overall assault and extinction and that we
should also attempt to protect others from the creature by making the public
aware of the creature.
To this day, there are people who whisper
about the creature, but as for officially documented sightings, there are none.
The creature, however, has been picked up by the region as a kind of mascot for
the tourist trade, not unlike Nessie or Champ and the other various lake and
river monsters across the world. Just what the Lake Hopatcong Monster is, is
difficult to establish as looking at the descriptions over the years, there
seem to be several different creatures reported. This indicates a couple
different things; the first would obviously be that this could be simply an
urban legend. We have no official interviews or study of this creature, and all
the sightings are either anonymous or so antediluvian that we do not have a way
to find the beginning of the account. This could also explain why in the 1700s,
the creature was described as being a semiaquatic deer monster, whereas now
it's more of a traditional lake monster with notable plesiosaur-like features
since that is what is ingrained in the culture of lake monsters.
Let's say, however, that all of the
reports are accurate and that what the witnesses saw actually occurred. Right
off the bat, I would say Cryptid as there are no UFOs associated with the
creatures, and the fact that they can be killed, at least in regard to the
original antlered version, implies a more physical existence as opposed to some
ethereal entity like an Ultraterrestrial, tulpa, thoughtform, ghost, demon,
faerie, or any other ethereal option. Now just what could this creature be,
though, if it is a physical animal. Interestingly enough, with the original
account and upon reflection while writing this, perhaps what was seen was not a
lake monster or anything we would associate with a lake monster but perhaps a
surviving Megaloceros. Megaloceros are giant elk that are approximately 7ft in
height at the shoulder with an antler spread of, interestingly enough, almost
10ft, so exactly the same as the creature initially reported. The large
elephantine-like body would make sense if the creature was wadding in the
water, and perhaps this creature, much like moose, was capable of diving or
surviving for some periods of time in and around water, adding to the lake
monster mythos of the creature. Now I love this theory, and I will say that while
Cenozoic prehistoric survivors are more likely than, say, Mesozoic era
survivors, there is one major problem with this particular possible
identification, and that is that Megaloceros was a Eurasian species from what
we know in the fossil record hence the other alias the Irish Elk, so one has to
wonder if this is the case just how one of these colossal creatures managed to
get their way to New Jersey.
Now, as for the modern Lake Hopatcong
Monsters, they seem to be more akin to plesiosaurs or some other type of
aquatic reptile which the closest Id argue based on description Id have to say
would be a Tanystropheus or some smaller variation of a giant turtle. Yet
unlike other cryptids like Nessie or Champ, where the lakes became landlocked
shortly over time, ergo trapping such prehistoric remnants in the lakes. Lake
Hopatcong did not have that, at least in the same way as the others; the lake
does flow into another body of water, the Musconetcong River, which itself is
home to another creepy critter known as the Musconetcong Mantis Man (see entry
for more information) yet this leads into a possibility that perhaps the river
allowed some creature to enter the lake back before the area was dammed and
then afterward the creatures were trapped there. Now, of course, this is all
speculation, and the creatures would, of course, have to follow such biological
rules as the 50-500 rule, which, if the size of the creatures given is
accurate, does not seem likely for a lake only 4sq miles in total. So perhaps
these creatures are more terrestrial than we realize.
One problem with lake monster reports from
smaller lakes obviously is population if these creatures are, in fact living in
the local. But perhaps lake monsters are more terrestrial in behavior and
utilize lakes as feeding, breeding, and hiding spots. I've mentioned this
before with Aquatic humanoid cases as well as with cryptids that appear to be
more like giant snakes like Raystown Ray or the Wolf Pond Monster since there
are reports of similar giant snake-like creatures seen on land. Now I venture
this option again since where are all of these dinosaurian or reptilian-like
cryptids going? They cannot be hanging out in the lake wed see them more often,
so I wonder perhaps these creatures spend most of their time on islands or
woodlands surrounding lakes. There are several cases throughout the years of
colossal reptiles or quadrupedal dinosaurs living in the woodlands, yet much
like these lake monsters, they are exceptionally rare; it's from this I ponder
whether the two are interconnected and that when these creatures are seen on
land its because they're moving to another water source or that they are
utilizing other resources in the area. This is not an altogether farfetched
idea; there are reports of dinosaurian-type creatures on land in areas where
river and lake monsters are reported. I covered the Astor Monster, a
ceratopsian-type dinosaur that lived both on land as well as the St. Johns
River, and the William Lake Lizard, a colossal seemingly monitor type reptile
that charged a car in 1973. So, such reports have occurred that do seem to lend
credence to this idea, but of course, the accurate identity of such creatures
is anyone's guess.
Another possibility I feel that needs to
be addressed is the possibility of a time slip. Time slips in regard to
cryptids are, to me, hit or miss as when looking at sighting reports of
creatures said to be from another time like Pterosaurs, for example, they often
are missing important features such as feathers or bright colors and this to me
seems to be more evident of losing a feature through years of evolution to
adapt to a certain environment or possibly a totally new species. Now there is
an ever-shifting view on prehistoric life as we are always finding new features
or rediscovering how these organisms were actually built since fossils are
basically puzzles without instructions or original artwork to compare to hence
why some dinosaurs like Spinosaurus are drastically different in form compared
to how we originally thought they were built. So perhaps the reason these
creatures were seeing seem to not match with our current animals is that they
are accurate animals that are dropped here through a time slip but again, just
what they'd be is anyone's speculation.
Another possibility for these creatures,
of course, would be the interdimensional route; if these creatures are popping
in and out from another dimension, then that would explain why we don't see
them as much or why there's no evidence for their existence. The
interdimensional aspect also offers an outlet for all sorts of possible
evolutionary lineages that we currently are unaware of, and in the infinite
dimensions of the multiverse, there is guaranteed to be at least one where a
creature like this would exist. Now just the how and whys these dimensional
shifts would occur is anyone's guess, but it is certainly much more likely than
many of the other alternative Fortean ideas out there.
With New Jersey Cryptids, there is perhaps
more skepticism when one thinks about the state and the incredibly high populated
areas therein, but when one actually drives through the state, especially the
backroads, it is entirely possible for things to remain hidden there. The same
can be said about the waterways. We as a species are always discovering new
animals or new ecosystems that we did not know were at the tip of our fingers.
Perhaps we will find out that there might be some hidden glen or grotto where
these creatures remain elusive; its interesting to note that many feel that
there are certain waterholes that are seemingly bottomless in New Jersey known
as Blue Holes, and many legends are interconnected with them one of the most
famous is that they have underground caverns in them that reach to other places
in the state perhaps Lake Hopatcong has one such entry/exit way. We can only
guess and speculate, as with almost all cases. I've thought of checking the
lake out myself on numerous occasions, so perhaps there might be more to this
case, but until then or until more information can come to light, this is all
we know about the infamous Hoppie.
Quick Facts:
Species/Potential Species: Reptile,
Mammal, Fish, Multiple Creatures
Location: Lake Hopatcong, Sussex, and
Morris Counties, New Jersey
Sighted: Lenape legends around the 1700s
to at least 1999 to possibly modern times
Works Cited:
Jersey Devils, Bizarre Beasts And Other
Creatures of Weird NJ By Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman
Monsters of New Jersey By Loren Coleman
and Bruce G. Hallenbeck
Weird NJ By Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman
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