162. Pepie, The Monster of Lake Pepin

0:07 In 2008 in Lake City, MN, a local businessman by the name of Larry Nielsen offered up a $50,000 reward to anyone who could provide proof of a creature that dwelled in the depths of Lake Pepin, a lake within the Mississippi River that separates the state of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Spanning 40 square miles with an average depth of about 21 feet, Lake Pepin is said to be a mixture of the remnants of an ancient glacier lake that slowly rescinded at the end of the last Ice Age and the sediment build up from the end of the Chippewa River. The 22 mile long and two mile wide body of water stands between Bay City, WI and Reeds Landing, Minnesota while also touching the Wisconsin towns of Pepin, Maiden Rock and Stockholm, as well as the Front and Neck State Park and the town of Red Wing, MN.

1:01 Lake Pepin has had many claims to fame throughout history, some of them good, such as being the birth place of the sport of water skiing when brothers Ren and Ralph Samuelson discovered that if you strap long pieces of pine board with upturn tips to your feet and held onto a rope that was tied to a boat, your days on the water could not only become more dangerous but also incredibly fun. But unfortunately, some of the events that Lake Pepin is famous for are not so good. Events such as the Sea Wing disaster of 1890 when the 135 foot rear wheel rafter known as a Sea Wing sank during a freak storm that left 98 of its 200 passengers dead at the bottom of Lake Pepin. And some things that the lake is famous for are just paranormal in nature.

1:48 Around the year 1800, a lovesick native woman, known in most modern retellings of the story as Princess Wynona, leaped to her death from the 400 foot Cliff known as Maiden Rock down to the large rocky shore below. The event has been thought of as the origin event for many strange happenings in the area. People over the years have reported hearing a woman singing a native song that has become known as Winona's Death Song. Visitors claim to have an overwhelming feeling of dread and sadness come over them when in the vicinity of the famous Cliff, only to feel normal again when they leave the area. Even though the lake is known for some pretty dark stuff, the highways along both shores of the lake provide beautiful sights of the area's ecology to anyone who is looking for a drop dead view, which is considered by some as the best in the Northern Midwest. But it was from the shores of this lake that many throughout history have laid witness to a monster that's true. Identity has remained a mystery since before the local Native American Mound builders told of its presence and stories dating back before the establishment of America. Today we dive into the chilly waters of the northern Mississippi River in search of the truth behind the legend of Pepe, the Monster of Lake Pepin, and Welcome back to Infinite Rabbit Hole Imagine.

3:08 This line represents the time present 1985 Future Past prior to this point in time somewhere here in the past, the timeline you've gone into this tangent creating a Swift 1985 alternate to you here. Einstein. Reality for everyone else. Welcome back to the Infinite Rabbit Hole. I'm your host, Jeremy, and today we're diving into the murky, cold waters of Lake Pepin, which separates the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota.

4:05 Why, you ask? Well, there's two reasons why. One is because there was a little girl who reached out and said that she was a huge fan of the show. Her name is Scarlett. After she reached out, I asked her what she would like me to cover and she said that she wanted to hear more about Lake Monsters. So here it is. Scarlett, this one's for you. My second reason is because, well, I just moved to this area and I'm only about an hour northeast of Lake Pepin. Actually, I would say an hour, maybe a stretch. So in order to discover a little bit more of my local lore, I dove into this incredible opportunity with a book from one of my absolute favorite researchers by the name of Chad Lewis, who went to college right here in my new hometown of Menominee, Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin Stout.

5:05 Well, without further ado, everybody here is my presentation on Pepe the Monster of Lake Pepin. See you on the other side. Historical accounts. It is hard to say exactly what the natives in the area specifically believed when it came to the creature now known as Pepe, but due to native accounts and stories being orally recorded, which commonly creates opportunity for misinterpretation, lost the context and details and tweaks to the information. What we do know is that the local tribes of the Dakota and the HO Chunk blamed any upturned canoe, missing hunter, or lost child on the creature. They believed that it was evil and went out of their way to stay clear of its presence. It wasn't until the first settlers in the area arrived that we began to see written accounts and descriptions of the monster of Lake Pepin.

5:56 In the years of 1679 and 1680, French explorer Father Louis Hennepin embarked on an expedition through the entirety of the Mississippi River under the request of then King of France, Louis the 14th, who is commonly referred to as Louis the Great. Father Hennepin was specifically tasked with documenting the unfamiliar fauna and flora that the Mississippi had to offer. And when he arrived at the mouth of the Minnesota River, Hennepin was shocked to witness what he described as a serpent quote as big as a man's leg and seven or eight feet long. Although this particular account cannot be tied directly to the legend of Pepe, due to the Minnesota River only being a tributary and the account not occurring directly in the vicinity of the lake in question, it goes to show that there were accounts that could be early descriptions of the creature or others of its kind.

6:48 According to Chad Lewis and Noah Voss's book Pepe the Lake Monster of the Mississippi River, the earliest account published in local newspaper was in August of 1867 when a party of Saint Louis raftsman encountered an unknown creature in the waters of the Pepin. Although many sources will list an encounter from April of 1871 in which Giles Hyde and See Paige Bonnie claimed to have spotted the creature somewhere in the water. This is where we get the description of Pepe being between the size of an and a rhinoceros. A peculiar detail that is also added to this article is that there was reference to other sightings that had taken place prior, but there were unfortunately no details on these.

7:31 The last historical account listed in Lewis and Voss's book was from July 14th of 1875 in the Pierce County Herald newspaper, where there were not just one but two reports of the creature in the waters of the pep. The first only listed that the creature was spotted in the the waters opposite of Lake City with no real details to help us paint the picture of the scene. But the second helped make up for the lack of detail as it described how a man known as Mr. Hewitt and his two young boys were moving their skiff from Lake City to Wakota when the group witnessed a quote dark, strange looking object coming out of the water to a height that the witness described as about 6 feet.

8:14 Once the creature protruded from the water to his maximum height, they receded back into the water and the group never saw it again. Modern accounts in Lewis and Voss's book Pepe the Lake Monster of the Mississippi River. Lewis makes note of an account from Fall around the year of 1980, when a man by the name of Chuck Stone, while with his children, embarked the jetty near Pepin Marina witnessed the event that caught him completely off guard. As the family was fishing, Chuck watched as a few birds flew low over the top of the water when he observed a long creature come directly out of the water, snatch one of the birds in its open mouth, and descend back into the water without making a sound.

9:00 The event that only lasted a few seconds would paint itself in his memory, and when asked about his account in an interview with Lewis in 2014, Chuck described the creature as being 10 to 12 inches thick and moved in a way that was completely unfamiliar to any fish that was known to jump out of the water. The creature went directly up and directly down without creating a large splash or any noticeable sound. In 1983, Shelley Shambino and her brother Adam took off for Lake Pepin to spend the day water skiing. Little did she know that this would be the last time she ever set foot in the waters of the lake ever again. The mood of the day quickly changed as Shelly, who was in the water at the time, began yelling and screaming.

9:45 Adam frantically helped the sister into the boat as Shelly continued to cry and scream that there was an enormous something in the water with her. She would later describe the creature in interviews with the Rochester Post Bulletin, Pioneer Press, and the TV show Monsters and Mysteries in America, that what she saw was a creature that was completely black and bigger than the boat that they were using to pull each other that day. It is her belief that her life was in danger at the moment, a moment that would permanently change her view of Lake Pepin. In October of 2009, local water tourism business owner Rodger Garlitch witnessed the creature Bob its head up and down while sticking out of the water.

10:25 Prior to the incident, Rodger would stop certain tours in the middle of the lake to allow for tourists to take a dip if they wished. That choice was quickly rescinded after his sighting, as he now fears that it could be extremely dangerous if he were to allow customers to swim under his watch. Evidence. In the December 3rd, 1987 edition of the Duran Courier Wedge, a picture was published which depicted what seemed to be a humped creature with a long neck off the coast near Maiden Rock. The anonymous photographer was apparently in the area to capture pictures of Swans when this much different creature arrived on the scene. Although the authenticity of this photo is incredibly hard to validate, so is the proof that it is a hoax.

11:11 Lewis mentions in this chapter of his book that there are many red flags surrounding this particular picture, and I would highly encourage anyone interested in the subject to read his book, as there's a very good outline of issues that Lewis encountered when researching this infamous photo. In August of 2004, a man by the name of Steve Raymond snapped a picture of a large animal moving along the top of the water as he and a friend were fishing from a boat. The picture depicts what Raymond claims to be a green creature with a yellowish underside traversing through the men's position. The photo has never been disproved and seems to show a creature with a long neck and humped back. It is Raymond's best description that the creature resembles the mascot of the Sinclair gas stations, which would be a Brontosaurus.

11:58 On July 8th, 2009, an anonymous motorist pulled over on the side of the road to take a picture of what looked like a large creature swimming against the current. In the summer of 2009, Larry Nielsen pulled over on Hwy. 61 in Lake City and snapped a picture of something, creating a wake that looked as if it was traveling against the current. He snapped one picture from the side of the road before heading down to the shore to try to get a better view, But when he arrived, whatever was making the wake had disappeared. Larry would later OfferUp a $50,000 reward to anyone who could prove the existence of Pepe and uncover the mystery of its identity. On Labor Day weekend in 2009, researcher Heidi Freer and a crew, which consisted of cameramen and sonar operators among some others, took off on an expedition to attempt to prove the existence of Pepe.

12:48 At the very beginning of the search, the crew had a hit on the sonar equipment that measured an object between 30 and 35 feet that was not stationary. Diver Corey Brawl suited up and entered the water to attempt to confirm what the object was, but to his dismay, whatever it was seemed to be interested in him too. A close call with the object left Brawl swirling in the water uncontrollably, while a video recording seemed to capture a wave of activity from the view of the boat. This video can be seen on the Pepe episode of the TV show Monsters and Mysteries in America, others in the Mississippi. There have been sightings of water serpents in almost every general portion of the Mississippi River at some point in the history of humans traversing its waters, which goes to show that whatever had made its presence known in Lake Pepin may not be alone.

13:42 The year of 1877 was evidence enough that river serpents were not only A cause of concern for only one portion of the river. In September of 1877, along the shores of Saint Genevieve, Missouri, a group of men traversing the river witnessed what they described as a 75 foot serpent laying out on a sandbar in the river. The men took potshots at it with their pistols, which ultimately seemed to not face the creature in the least bit. Eventually the men watched as it lazily entered the water and disappeared from their sight. Also in September, off the coast of New Madrid, MO, a ferry was seemingly attacked by an at first unseen force.

14:24 The first time that the boat was hit, one man fell overboard, and the second time it was described that it felt as if the boat was completely lifted out of the water before being dropped. Without the help of modern flashlights, the men were able to make out the silhouette of an an enormous creature that had a bill or snout shaped like a Pelican. It was the belief of the man that the tail of the beast was what had hit the boat. The following month would bring a better description of the creature by the Memphis Reveille. The newspaper reported numerous sightings of the creature and also described it as having a Pelican shaped bill, but added that it also had a quote head like a bulldog, a slimy Serpentine neck, and a body like a whale. A few months later, in January of 1878, a whole crew of men were traveling off the shore of Lake Providence, LA when a thunderous splash caught all of their attentions. Something was making a beeline directly towards the ship and it was big.

15:24 All but the two men who were stuck on the top of the boat's roof took shelter inside. The two men on the top of the boat, however, described what they believed to be a 65 foot long snake shaped creature with a long black tuff of what looked like hair around its neck in the shape of a mane. The creature was travelling with its head sticking out eight feet above the water line and the ripples of its tail were following at a distance of about 55 feet. This creature was also described as having a bill or snout shaped like that of a Pelican. Also in January of 1878, another encounter was listed in the Perryville Union from the area of Perry, MO. Another short article mentioned to creature matching other descriptions from years prior from the vicinity of Muscatine, IA in June of 1886.

16:15 So what is it? Obviously the biggest question to those that believe in not only Pepe but lake monsters and sea serpents as a whole is of course, what is it? And just like with any unknown subject witnessed by someone, the answer lies within three different possibilities. It is what the witnesses say it is, and in this case an aquatic serpent, or it is something other than what is reported. And of course there's the possibility that the claim is false. I want to look at the middle option first. What if what people saw or seeing is something other than what they believed Pepe to be? What if this was a really large case of misidentification?

16:57 What could be the blame for the beast? Let's start with the water itself. As is the case with many water creatures from around the world, the most common explanation is thrown into the mix by naysayers that it is all a trick of the eye and the witness only saw a wave that they didn't quite perceive correctly. I can see this being a slight possibility, but probably find this to only possibly be the answer on a case by case basis. So I'll knock off a few sightings here and there with this explanation that it was just a weird wave. I personally think that we can knock off a few more if we include inanimate objects such as a tree limb or a piece of debris, but yet again, I don't think that this fills in all the holes and can only explain away a handful of sightings at best.

17:40 What about another form of misidentification? What about another animal? With the specific area around Lake Pepin housing an amazing number of animals, most that can in some way, shape or form create a situation that could trick the eye into thinking it saw a water serpent. It's not hard to believe that a decent handful of sightings of Pepe could be accounts for misidentification of another living critter. Semi aquatic animals such as otters, Beavers, ducks, snakes and muskrats all call this area home and all create wakes in the water that could be perceived as coming from an unknown source. But yet again, we find that not all of these creatures can be to blame for some of the more intriguing sightings. Such as someone witnessing a long thin creature lifting out of the water to snag a bird in mid flight, or a six foot neck and a head swimming when thrashing a bow. Yes, many species of duck, geese and Swans all have long curved necks, but the size of these animals don't match the descriptions of Pepe.

18:37 And what about animals under the water? Lake Pepin is home to over 120 different species of fish, some of which can get pretty darn big. A few examples of fish that could be misidentified as a large lake monster, if you from above, are the blue catfish, northern Pike, and of course the most commonly blamed fish for water monster sightings, the lake sturgeon, which have been recorded coming from the waters of Minnesota and Wisconsin over the length of seven feet and weighing over 200 lbs. Another set of animals that could be misidentified if seen from above are snakes and eels. Both the bull snake and the American eel can be found in and around Lake Pepin, and both species have been known to be upwards of 6 feet in some cases, but the problem here wouldn't necessarily be the length of the animals, but rather the girth. Many reports of Pepe claim that the animal's seen, or at least the animal's neck, is somewhere in the ballpark with foot and circumference.

19:32 This is obviously never going to be matched by a more than American snake or eel, especially at only 6 feet long and it's Max. So yet again, the animals we see in both above and below the surface of water. I would have to say that yes, many of the sightings of Pepe throughout history could be perceived as being a water serpent of sorts, but we still cannot match a good bulk of the stranger ports that seem to match not only the creature's typical description, but also do so through a period of well over 150 years. OK. Now let's talk about the first option. What if Pepe is what people are saying it is? What if it is a lake monster? What kind of Cryptid would it be? Well, there are many people who would quickly jump on the plesiosaur train as the answer to the Pepe mystery, as do many people when it comes to Nessie.

20:22 But the plesiosaur was a lung breathing creature and therefore needed to break the surface of the water, often in order to breathe. If Pepe or even the Loch Ness Monster was a plesiosaur or any other lung breeding animal, we would have much more evidence of its existence. In fact, due to the champion of the breath holders among the lung breeders, the caviers beat whale who can hold his breath for up to three hours any other of its kind would have to vastly surpass that time in order to uphold this amount of secrecy. But what if the Cryptid that we are looking for isn't one from the past, but rather a new species altogether? In the early ages of cryptozoology, a Dutch zoologist named AC Odsmans classified a new type of long neck seal that he believed could be the answer to the mystery.

21:12 Odmans named it Megophius megophius with a simple common name of long neck. This would later be built upon by the father of cryptozoology himself, Bernard Wavelmans, where the zoological or cryptozoological classification, if you will, was gifted the taxonomical title Megalatoria logicalis, more commonly referred to simply as the Mer horse. Both cryptozoological creatures were then later combined as individual subcategories in the Coleman Hugh classification system of sea serpents and lake monsters into a primary category of the water horse. In the now commonly used Champagne system, the water horse is classified as either a long neck sea serpent one or a long neck sea serpent two, both of which are described as long neck pinnipeds. More commonly known as seals.

22:08 These water horses are the best explanation for what the phenomenon of the lake monster actually is, that being a completely new species that may have habits and an anatomy that is unfamiliar to modern science. For example, these creatures may fight or create their own underwater caverns of sorts in which they prefer to live within, or possibly have a biological mechanism that allows them to pull oxygen out of the water other than the gills that are seen in fish, which would help them stay hidden. Some will make the argument that the likes of animals such as Pepe, Nessie and Champ are of another classification in the Champagne system known as the Multiple Humped Sea Serpent, which is described as a possible reptile. The issue here is that if these creatures were reptiles, then they most likely would not be able to survive a winter like that of Wisconsin or Minnesota.

23:00 Now we got to dive into the third option. What if the people are claiming false events, otherwise known as hoaxes? I believe that this is as tough of an option to explain as any other, to be honest. On one hand, in modern times we have many different forms of technology that we use on a daily basis and to think that something living in a specific area such as Lake Pepin would have been found by now. The Department of Natural Resources constantly looks for invasive species and monitors such species as well as many others. The technology used to do so would be the same technology that would capture proof of the creature that we know as Pepi. Unless Pepe wields incredible intelligence that far surpasses every other animal in the world not called mankind, then the animal would most likely have no idea what a camera, hydrophone or the technology in sonar is and therefore would not notice stand clear such devices. Every other animal in the water seems to be completely oblivious to being watched at all times, so I can personally see how some would feel that the creature could be a hoax. Another layer to add is that the local businesses in the area would benefit from having an attraction in their lake like that at Pepe.

24:14 Looking at the tourism that places like Loch Ness or Lake Champlain attracts and you can easily see why many of the locals who own businesses may have their own sightings of the creature. But how does any of this explain the native stories about an incredibly dangerous animal living in the waters of Lake Pepin? Well, it doesn't. But what natives did have built into many of their stories and lore is the idea that we are familiar with today, which takes the form of a sort of boogeyman, a story that is told in order to dissuade anybody from the area that they thought was dangerous. Now, to be clear, I do not necessarily believe this to be the case. When talking about the natives of the area of Lake Pepin and the mysterious creature talked about in their time, I am simply reporting on ideas with evidence.

24:58 I do, however, believe that the best evidence of the creature's existence at a specific point in history lies in the period of the first settlers. During this period there were more than a few mentions of an unknown creature thrashing around in the Lake Pepinaria. This helps build the beliefs that the natives were talking about a real life animal and their stories and warnings, and also helps me believe that maybe some of the more modern sightings may hold at least a little bit of weight. In the times of the first settlers, it was extremely important to maintain your honesty about everything and anything in your life. This concept was held dear due to preserving your reputation, which meant a whole lot more than it does now. In a modern world where most people wouldn't trust a politician to babysit their goldfish, a person's word was tied directly to their trustworthiness, to the population and directly reflected their popularity and value within their communities. So the historical journal entries that explain the sightings of a strange hulking serpent in the water of the area helps me swallow the Pepe pill when it comes to a creature at least at one time living in the water of Lake Pepin. But then again, what if these were also just another case of misidentification?

26:08 Honestly, we will never know unless someone were to claim the $50,000 reward that is still offered to this day for the proof of the creature. But how? I would like to revisit 2 of the previous points made briefly before we close out this presentation. The questions were asked if Pepe could possibly be a known or unknown animal. So let's say that one of these are true. But either way, the animal that is seen in Lake Pepin is not something that would normally call the place home. How would it get there? Well, on January 24th of 2008, a 5 foot female bull shark was captured under the frozen surface of the lake by divers working with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

26:53 The animal was tagged and released back into the frigid water. But how did this shark that is normally found in warm, shallow saltwaters all around the world find its way all the way to Lake Pepin? Well, the truth is that the bull shark have been spotted in many places that would not be considered as quote UN quote home for them. But these animals have been found to not just live in saltwater, but also in brackish and freshwater rivers connected in some way to the ocean. I look at this as proof that the roughly 50 locks and dams that span the 2348 miles of the Mississippi River will not be what stops an animal from getting from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Pepin. I say this as there are unfortunately many different sources out there that claim this to be impossible, and obviously it is not due to this lone bull shark. And this is only one example.

27:46 Not only did this example prove the existence of one shark in the waters of Lake Pepin, but also brought the earlier discovery of three shark teeth in the nearby Minnehaha Creek in the outskirts of Minneapolis, MN almost an hour to the northwest of Lake Pepin on March 26th. The same year the DNR of Minnesota took the evidence of the living shark in January and the teeth in the Creek to begin an investigation. Surely enough, there were two juvenile sharks that were ultimately transported to the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley where they were named Lenny and Frankie. This was not a one off set of events. The first documented bull shark captured in the Mississippi River happened in September of 1937 in Alton, IL, but this would not be the last, as there have been a handful of counts since north of Saint Louis in the very early ages of the United States, many different bodies of water throughout this land were thought to be the homes of mysterious creatures.

28:48 Many were described as eel, whale, fish, or serpent like. But many of these accounts quickly vanished in the early 1900s, with only a handful of them surviving until today. Pepe being one of those accounts, but unfortunately lost clout in the community of researchers and enthusiasts. When compared to the likes of Champ of Lake Champlain, Bessie of Lake Erie, Normie of Lake Norman in North Carolina, and Whitey of the White River in Arkansas, all of which are found strictly within the borders of the United States, this list grows exponentially. 1 stepping into other parts of the world. So it's easy to see why the story of Pepe may get covered up by the plethora of others that are said to roam their very waters. The evidence of this creature's existence, whether it still exists or not, is there.

29:35 It is tangible that Pepe had, at least at one time in history, donned the waters of the Mississippi and Lake Pepe. I found this particular creature incredibly interesting, mostly due to my family and I moving to western Wisconsin, where I find myself within an hour of this storied lake monster. Who knows? Maybe one day my family and I will take a trip to the area to spend some quality time together in the mild summer of the northern Midwest. My sons and I could toss a line in the waters of this storied lake in hopes of that walleye that keeps growing with every occasion, which gets talked about while my wife and daughter shop and eat lunch on the Wisconsin shore. Maybe, just maybe, I've done enough to convince a young listener to follow her curiosity.

30:20 And maybe it will be Scarlett who will lay her eyes on history and find herself in the presence of Pepe the Monster of Lake Pepin. That is my coverage of Pepe the Lake Monster of Lake Pepin and I would like to say thank you one more time. To one of my absolute biggest fans, Scarlett, thank you for recommending a water monster. I really do appreciate that. I hope you enjoyed this. This was an absolute pleasure to do and I love to hear that you are enjoying the show. Until next time travellers, I'll see you in the next fork of The Path of the Infinite Rabbit Hole. Goodbye.

31:10 I would like to thank you once again for tuning into the Infinite Rabbit Hole Podcast. Please make sure to give us a follow in one of those beautiful five star ratings on your podcast player of choice. If you would like to join the conversation and stay up to date on all things infinite rabbit hole, head on over to Facebook and search for the Infinite Rabbit Hole Facebook group. You'll know it's us when you see the logo. If you would like to help contribute to the 'cause, there are a few ways to do so. First, head on over to anchor dot FM forward slash infinite Rabbit hole and click on the subscribe button where for $5 a month you'll get access to all our old episodes that we'll never see the free spotlight ever again.

31:53 It's horrible stuff, but if you're into that kind of thing and go check that. Second, head on over to infiniterabbithole.com and click on the IRH Merch shop tab and grab yourself a sweet T-shirt, sticker or whatever else you see that you wouldn't mind on. Until next time, travellers, I'm Jeremy and I'll see you with the next fork in the path of the Infinite rabbit hole. This line represents the time as of 1980. Five Future Past. We're prior to this point in time somewhere in the past. The timeline into this cancel creating an alternate 1985 alternate near Einstein.