Many stories have been told of a mysterious creature that lives in Spirit Lake. Native American creation legends reference a great flood, comparable to the Bible’s story of Noah’s Ark. The scaly underwater being, said to have the power to cause floods, is believed to have retired to the bottom of Spirit Lake long ago.
Though it also gave healing powers to the Native people, non-Indians interpreted the underwater spirit as the Devil.
The Anishinaabeg, specifically the Pembina Band of Chippewa, established historic claim to the Graham's Island area in the early 1800s. Fur trade accounts mention their annual Grand Medicine ceremonies held there.
Sightings of a serpentine-looking creature in Spirit Lake have been recorded in newspaper accounts since the 1880s.
On this date in 1914, The Devils Lake World reported another sighting of “the much talked about sea serpent” near the Chautauqua grounds on Graham’s Island.
Three people, rowing their boat, found themselves within ten rods of the creature. According to their account, it surfaced, lifting a head over two feet long, broad, and snouted like an alligator’s, though notably wider. They estimated the entire beast stretched nearly twenty feet, with a long, powerful tail slicing through the water.
The water churned violently around it, rocking their boat enough to make them fear for their safety. With both fascination and alarm, they watched as the creature glided away, sometimes submerging completely, other times revealing its formidable head above the waves.
The witnesses: a respected doctor and two prominent women from the area steadfastly insisted on the truth of what they had seen, leaving even the skeptical editor of The Devils Lake World convinced that something extraordinary had indeed stirred beneath the surface of Spirit Lake.
Since then, some have speculated that the “sea serpent” might have been a landlocked sturgeon or perhaps a natural weather phenomenon creating vapor visions. But others insist it is something far stranger, maybe even the same legendary being woven into generations of lakeside lore.
Dakota Datebook by Lise Erdrich
Sources:
- Devils Lake World, July 16, 1914, Page 1
- DEVILS LAKE, N.D. (KXNET) Devils Lake Sea Monster, October 26, 2024
- https://www.kxnet.com/news/top-stories/what-is-the-devils-lake-serpent-an-ever-changing-enigma/