Champ

Champ

The 1977 "Mansi Photograph," the best-known piece of purported Champ evidence.

CLASSIFICATIONCryptid / lake monster

REGIONLake Champlain, Vermont/New York/Quebec border

FIRST REPORTED1609 (traditional attribution to Samuel de Champlain); modern sightings from the 19th century

STATUSUnconfirmed

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Champ (also affectionately known as Champy) is a cryptid said to inhabit Lake Champlain, on the border of Vermont, New York and Quebec. Typically described as a long-necked, serpentine creature broadly resembling a plesiosaur, Champ is frequently compared to — and sometimes called the American counterpart of — the Loch Ness Monster. Both the Abenaki and Iroquois peoples native to the Lake Champlain region had their own pre-existing traditions of a creature in the lake, with the Abenaki referring to it as Tatoskok.

Origins

Champ's name is popularly, though disputedly, traced to explorer Samuel de Champlain, who is widely said to have recorded an encounter with a large serpent-like creature in the lake in 1609. Modern sightings became more consistently documented from the 19th century onward, with the New England Historical Society estimating over 300 reported sightings across the lake's history, though cryptozoologist Nick Valenzuela has put the figure closer to 600.

The Mansi photograph (1977)

The single most famous piece of purported Champ evidence is a photograph taken on 5 July 1977 by Sandra Mansi on the Vermont shore of Lake Champlain, showing a dark, long-necked shape rising from the water. Mansi did not come forward publicly with the photograph for roughly two years, reportedly out of fear of ridicule. Analysis by the University of Arizona's Optical Sciences Center found no evidence the image had been deliberately tampered with, but the analysts were unable to identify what the photograph actually depicted. The original negatives were subsequently lost, and a 2013 Skeptical Inquirer investigation by Robert E. Bartholomew uncovered previously unreported documentation raising further questions about the circumstances surrounding the photograph.

Investigations

Joseph W. Zarzynski, a New York social studies teacher, founded the Lake Champlain Phenomena Investigation in the 1970s and has researched the case for decades. In 1979, Zarzynski and side-scan sonar operator Jim Kennard detected a large object moving at a depth of around 175 feet near Whallon Bay, New York, though a school of fish could not be ruled out as the source. Zarzynski has estimated any such creature would more plausibly measure 12 to 15 feet, closer to the scale suggested by the Mansi photograph, rather than the 30-to-50-foot figures found in some more dramatic witness accounts.

Skeptical investigator Joe Nickell examined the case in a 2003 Skeptical Inquirer article, part of a wider body of skeptical literature — alongside Bartholomew's 2013 photograph investigation — that has questioned the evidential basis for Champ's existence.

The 2024 Tabor–Rossi footage

On 11 August 2024, independent filmmakers Kelly Tabor and Richard Rossi were flying a drone over Bulwagga Bay, near Port Henry, New York, while shooting scenes for their independent film Lucy and the Lake Monster; reviewing the footage afterward, they said they noticed a large, dark shape moving behind their rowboat. The footage received relatively little attention until picked up by national tabloid outlets roughly two years later, in 2026. Producers of the History Channel series The UnXplained with William Shatner subsequently described it as the most compelling visual evidence of Champ since the Mansi photograph.

The footage's promotion has been closely tied to Tabor and Rossi's own commercial film projects — Lucy and the Lake Monster and its 2026 follow-up, The Secrets of Lake Champlain — and the "scientific evaluation" of the footage circulated alongside it was self-commissioned and distributed via press release rather than published through independent peer review. As with the Mansi photograph decades earlier, the footage's evidential weight rests substantially on the credibility and circumstances of its source rather than on any independently verified analysis to date.

Legal protection

Champ is one of relatively few cryptids to have received formal legislative protection. The Vermont House of Representatives passed House Resolution 19 in April 1982, protecting any such creature in the lake from wilful acts resulting in death, injury or harassment; both houses of the New York state legislature passed similar resolutions the following year. The Vermont Senate passed a further "Champ Resolution" in 1986, additionally calling for serious scientific inquiry into any unusual animal in the lake — an inquiry that has not, to date, produced confirming evidence. New York's protective legislation was itself updated and reaffirmed in 2018.

Cultural legacy

Champ has become a significant regional icon across the Lake Champlain area, celebrated through statues, local business branding, historical markers, and the annual "Champ Day" festival. The creature has also been the subject of numerous television documentaries, including episodes of MonsterQuest and the CW's Mysteries Decoded.

EVIDENCE ASSESSMENT

★★☆☆☆

Unconfirmed

SUMMARY

No physical evidence has been independently confirmed as belonging to an unknown species, and the case's two best-known pieces of visual evidence have each faced significant scrutiny over their circumstances.

SUPPORTING EVIDENCE

Hundreds of reported sightings spanning pre-colonial Abenaki and Iroquois tradition through the present day; the 1977 Mansi photograph, found by technical analysis to be untampered with though unidentified; inconclusive 1979 sonar contacts; the widely-circulated 2024 Tabor–Rossi drone footage

COUNTER EVIDENCE

The Mansi photograph's original negatives are lost and a 2013 investigation raised further questions about its circumstances; the 2024 drone footage was promoted alongside the filmmakers' own commercial film projects and a self-commissioned, non-peer-reviewed evaluation rather than independent scientific analysis; no physical specimen has ever been recovered

CONCLUSION

Champ is nonetheless notable among cryptids for having received genuine, repeated legislative protection in both Vermont and New York, reflecting the case's strong regional cultural significance independent of its unresolved evidential status. The 2024 footage adds to a long pattern in this case of visually compelling but ultimately unverified material emerging from sources with a direct interest in the sighting being taken seriously.

View evidence methodology

See also

• Cryptid
• Loch Ness Monster
• Joe Nickell

External links

• Skeptical Inquirer — New Information Surfaces on 'World's Best Lake Monster Photo'
• GoAdirondack.com — The Legend of Champ