Sea serpents are known to lurk in the depths of Lake Mendota and Lake Monona, re-surfacing only to shed a scale, tickle the foot of an unsuspecting sunbather or frighten a fisherman at Picnic Point.
Not to be confused with the water spirit of the Ho-Chunk Nation, reports say they’re 20 feet long. They have snake-like heads, large jaws, long tongues and blazing eyes. The one in Lake Mendota ( named Bozho ) is rather curious, and loves to prank rowers by overturning canoes or uprooting piers. Lake Monona’s resident monster is a bit more sinister and is said to have an appetite for dogs.
According to legend, at least.
Stories of the infamous serpents began to circulate as early as 1897, says Wisconsin Historical Society’s (WHS) public programs manager, Jenny Pederson, who will share this story and more in WHS’s “Madison’s Hidden History: From Myth to Mystery” walking tour on Thursday, Oct. 24, and Saturday, Oct. 26.
“WHAT-IS-IT IN THE LAKE?,” a reporter from the Wisconsin State Journal (WSJ) asked in June of that year, right after a man named Eugene Heath claimed to have fired two shots at the creature in Lake Monona. The WSJ reported that, “Bullets Had No Effect on Its Hide.”