A new report from Lake Champlain has revived the enduring question of whether the United States has its own answer to Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster.
Guests at Marine Village Cottages near Point au Roche said they noticed an unusual shape cutting through the water during a visit to the expansive lake on August 7.
Beth Haig said she was the first member of the group to notice what appeared to be a mysterious creature, according to the Adirondack Explorer.
“At first it looked like a wave, but then you could see something serpent-like,” Haig recalled. “It moved up and down as it traveled across the lake, and it was large.”
The sighting, reported near the New York-Vermont border, quickly led to renewed speculation that the group may have seen Champy, the legendary creature said to live beneath Lake Champlain’s surface.
Hailee Finkle, who was with Haig at the time, managed to record a 24-second cellphone video before the unexplained shape disappeared.
“I’m definitely more of a scientific person, but it was strange seeing it in person,” Finkle said. “I’m trying to believe it could be something beyond a scientific explanation.”
Susan Sisti, Haig’s mother, said the figure appeared to move across the lake at roughly the speed of a small motorboat.
Guests at Marine Village Cottages near Point au Roche said they saw an unusual object moving through the water, raising fresh speculation that it could be Champy, the legendary Lake Champlain monster
Susan Sisti said the mysterious figure traveled across the lake at about the speed of a small motorboat
The Champy legend has helped inspire local businesses along Lake Champlain while attracting tourists to the scenic waterfront
Champy is frequently likened to Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster, one of the world’s best-known mythical creatures
“It was almost as if an alligator was partly submerged,” Sisti said. “The front looked like the top of its head, and then there were several raised sections behind it.”
She added that the shape appeared to be “at least three or four times” larger than any alligator she had ever seen—while noting that she had never encountered an alligator in Lake Champlain.
Tales of Champy have circulated for centuries, helping fuel themed cafés, souvenir products and distinctive storefronts around Lake Champlain. The legend also remains a draw for visitors exploring the picturesque lake.
More than 100 alleged Champy sightings have been reported. The earliest account is often linked to Samuel de Champlain, the founder of Québec and the lake’s namesake, who reportedly encountered the creature in 1609.
The explorer described it as a five-foot gar with a body “as big as my thigh,” a head as large as two fists and silvery-gray scales reportedly so tough that a dagger could not pierce them.
Other accounts have portrayed Champy as everything from a gigantic sea serpent to a dragon-like animal. In 1819, a man identified as Captain Crum told The Plattsburgh Republican that he had seen a 187-foot black serpent in Bulwagga Bay.
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According to the newspaper’s account, the creature had a seahorse-shaped head, “three teeth,” a white star on its forehead, a red band around its neck and huge eyes described as being “the color of peeled onion.”
Like the Loch Ness Monster, Champy remains a powerful part of local folklore despite the lack of credible scientific evidence confirming that either mythical creature exists.
Filmmakers Kelly Tabor and Richard Rossi allegedly spotted the sea creature on camera in early June this year. Experts have said the sighting could have been an illusion (Stock Image: Loch Ness Monster)
Filmmakers Kelly Tabor and Richard Rossi allegedly spotted the sea creature on camera in early June this year.
They documented a gigantic, mysterious shape in Lake Champlain, which viewers said is proof that Champ exists.
‘To see our hometown legend of Champ being debated and celebrated from New York to Tokyo is an incredible honor for our entire lake community,’ Tabor told the outlet.
‘When I saw it, I saw it was like a skinny neck, and that the body got larger,’ Tabor told the Daily Mail.
‘It looked like the skinny neck was oscillating back and forth, as if it was grazing underwater. My eyes were just popping out.’
Rossi said it is always good to get footage of any sightings checked by experts.
‘It’s exciting to hear about new sightings. We encourage all new sightings to go through a vetting process of having scientists with PhD degrees examine them as we our doing with our sighting,’ he told the Daily Mail.
The duo is now working on The Secrets of Lake Champlain, the sequel to their movie Lucy and the Lake Monster.
The movie is in post production and is expected to be ready for release to theaters nationwide in 2027. ‘We look forward to sharing it with all of you,’ he said.
Despite the alleged sightings, many people remain sceptical that Champy exists.
Experts have said that large lakes can often create optical illusions, Adirondack Explorer reported.
It can be floating logs, swimming animals, clumps of seaweed and unusual light conditions that create the appearance of something far more mysterious than reality.
However, both New York and Vermont governments have said that the creature ‘should not be disturbed, injured or harassed’ if it exists.
As for the recent sighting, Haig said she doesn’t believe the sighting was Champ but it was still interesting.
‘I grew up on that lake. I’ve never seen this before,’ she said.
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