American Bestiary

Also known by the contest-winning name 'Isabella', and occasionally referred to as the water devil by locals.

It is a massive, cream-colored beast measuring 30 to 50 feet in length. It possesses a large undulating body, short 18-inch legs, and a bizarre head resembling a cow, otter, crocodile, or walrus minus the tusks.

Endemic to the freshwater depths of Bear Lake, straddling the Utah-Idaho border.

An elusive aquatic predator that swam faster than a locomotive and actively marauded along the shoreline. It proved entirely immune to massive capture efforts involving baited hooks on thick cables.

A massive lake-monster craze gripped the region in 1868 after Joseph C. Rich published articles in the Deseret News. Twenty-six years later, Rich finally confessed the entire phenomenon had been a 'wonderful first-class lie' to generate excitement.