The Lake Elsinore monster is a sea serpent sighted at the small town of Lake Elsinore, California
Etymology
The creature is colorfully referred to as Elsie, a play on Nessie, and occasionally "Hamlet" after the name of the lake.
Description
Elsie is always noted as looking like a cross between a plesiosaur, a creature from the age of the dinosaurs, and a serpent.
Sightings
In 1934, a C. B. Greenstreet along with his wife and children reported seeing it. He described it as 100 feet long with a thirty foot tail. He also stated that waves as high as light posts washed on the shore in its wak1. 1967 saw a family boating on the lake capturing a view of the monster. It supposedly rolled by them making dark high humps in the water. In 1970, Bonnie Play, a local resident reported seeing the creature twice. It was described as being roughly 12 feet long and about 3 feet wide. It had a series of humps and a long dinosaur like head, the creature was swimming is an up-and-down motion.
After the 1970 sighting, 3 state park officals reported seeing the creature surface about 50 feet from their boat.
Place
Lake Elsinore was named after the Danish city, Elsinore, in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Besides a lake monster, Lake Elsinore is rumored to also have ghosts, UFO's, satanists, vampire cults, and even a group of ten citizens who claim to all have known each other in past lives and have all been mass reincarnated.
Theories
- The entire lake went completely dry in 1954, and no serpent was discovered or seen at this time. Those who argue Elsie's existence, claim the creature wandered into a nearby cave in the hills and resided there until the lake was refilled.
- Some people believe that a rupture in the suplphur springs on the north shore of the lake produced a big enough black bulge of mud in the water that it was mistaken for a lake monster.