What Lies Beneath

With camping season upon us, I’ve been trolling the internet for various campfire-worthy spooky stories. We like to pack up our gear and head to the nearest body of water on the long weekends — take a dip, lounge on the beach, swim out to the docks. There’s nothing like a still black lake in the wilderness to inspire a fright — especially when you can’t see two feet below you in the water. It’s easy to imagine the brush of seaweed as reaching fingers, straining to grasp your ankles and pull you down below.

Love it.

I’m a huge fan of monsters, so today, I’ve unearthed a resource to finding the various beasties that live in the bodies of water near you.

Lake Monsters of America, via Atlas Obscura

Atlas Obscura has an excellent post with highlights from Nebraska, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, and Wyoming that outlines a handful of water-dwelling monsters that populate the United States. While you might be more familiar with the land and forest-dwelling creatures like the Mothmen or the Chupacabra, we would be remiss to not take a peek in the bodies of water that surround us. While there might not actually be anything living in our lakes and rivers, there sure are a lot of legends that suggest otherwise.

You’ll find a collection of sea serpents, giant squid, fish monsters, massive turtles, and something called an Eel Pig which resembles a composite creature too unnatural to describe.

Check out the artist’s renderings at Atlas Obscura.

Anyone feel like going for a swim?