Is it just a local legend, or something real beneath the surface? For centuries, Lake Champlain has been home to stories of a mysterious creature known as Champ. Fact, fiction, or something in between?

For generations, stories have surfaced of a mysterious creature gliding through the waters of Lake Champlain, described as serpentine, elusive, and impossible to forget. Nicknamed Champ, this lake monster has drawn the attention of locals, skeptics, cryptozoologists, and even sonar scans. But is there truth behind the legend? From Indigenous folklore to 20th-century tourism, we delve into the murky depths of this creature’s history and the question that refuses to be answered: what’s really out there?

Edited by Maxwell Holechek