Lakeside Park
Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States
Lakeside Park is probably one of the more tranquil spots in Fort Wayne, Indiana. But in the summers of 2009 and 2010 the residents of this small Midwestern city began reporting sightings of something big in the park's namesake lake.
Until 1908 when the area was transformed into lakes, the park was simply dry land that was prone to flooding from the St. Joseph River, which it abuts. But then the pockets were permanently filled, and now form a chain of small lakes. But could they support a monster, and could that monster stay hidden in the middle of Fort Wayne, Indiana?
The sightings
Hannah Ramsey, who from the news reports sounds like a young girl, was walking her dog by the pond in late June and was near a small bridge next to a building when she saw a large fish-like creature about six feet away near the shore.
“It was really weird,” she said. “It had a snake’s tail. It was really long and really big in the middle and it had fish scales. . . . It stayed there for a couple of minutes, but it wouldn’t turn so I could see its face. It was acting like it was strangling a fish or something.”
Hannah's mother, Laura, thought it was a giant carp. Park visitors feed bread to the ducks, some of which sinks and attracts fish. The lake has fish in it (fishing is allowed with a permit), so there is at least an ecosystem down there. In the past, Laura had seen two gigantic carp near the shore.
| Kenner's photo. |
In the summer of 2009, photographer Larry Kenner was trying out a new camera in the park and saw a strange creature near the pillars surrounding the rose garden.
“It looked bigger than a snake. It had a lot of girth,” he said. “But it was long.”
“Some friends say, ‘Oh, that’s a carp,’ ” Kenner said, “but it kind of slithered through the water.”
“Some friends say, ‘Oh, that’s a carp,’ ” Kenner said, “but it kind of slithered through the water.”
It does look like it could be a carp.
When Kenner posted his photo on Facebook, friends who had lived near Lakeside Park for year started sharing stories of strange things they'd seen in the pond.
Park officials, when asked in July 2010, hadn't heard of the monster.
Maybe Fort Wayners just had monster envy for Churubusco, Indiana, where a turtle the size of a car supposedly lurks deep in Fulk Lake. Check it out here.
Lakeside Nessie news on Aquabeasties: 7/10
