Legends are found in every walk of life, every country and even every state now seems to have their very own tales or accounts of anomalous phenomena. From inexplicable flying objects, ghastly tales of ghostly hauntings, to sightings of unknown creatures that defy explanation. At times the rendition of a story tends to change over time with the retelling. Whether certain details are simply forgotten or embellishments have been added is always a possibility. As is often the case, one is often left to ask themselves is there any validity to the claims or are they simply scary tales told around the campfire? I myself, have found that most legends tend to have at least some iota of truth to them, especially dealing within the world of Forteana. My home state of New Hampshire, known as the 'Granite State', is known for many unexplained accounts and events over the decades. The following, albeit short story or should we call it tale, is one such purported account of something monstrous dwelling within a lake.
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| Dublin Lake, NH |
On the surface, Dublin Lake (Also known as Dublin Pond or Monadnock Pond) looks like any other peaceful and inviting, recreational lake in New Hampshire. It covers roughly 241 acres and reaches depths of around 100 feet and is located in the southern part of the state. Although it has been rumored that there are caverns at the bottom, and at least one old-timer says she heard it was rumored to be bottomless, I think we can safely say that that is simply a myth. It is a relatively cold lake as it is spring-fed by mountains. It offers fishing, boating, swimming, scuba-diving, etc. All the summer activities most folks enjoy and could want. I myself grew up fishing there many times as it's annually stocked with trout besides having numerous other species such as bass, pickerel, bullheads/catfish, perch, smelt, etc. Now at 100 feet deep, one would hardly think of something 'monstrous' being able to stay hidden, in comparison to the likes of say, Loch Ness which is nearly 800ft deep or Lake Champlain, which is roughly 400ft deep. Nonetheless, that doesn't seem to deter tales of purported something(s) living in the lake as the following account states:
The tales seem to originate and date back to a relatively meager 40-something years ago in the late 70's to 1980's, compared to hundreds of years like other lake monster reports. As the story goes and as legend has it, a man who was free diving in the lake went missing. Days later he was found naked in the surrounding woods, incoherent and 'babbling' about monsters.
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| Practicing dive team in Dublin Lake |
Another slightly differing rendition of the account is that while using a diving bell a diver, finding the tether not long enough, descended manually to the bottom to search the purported caverns, only to disappear and be found naked in the woods by hikers days later, yet again babbling incoherently about monsters. Be that as it may, a NH Fish & Game Conservation Officer going on 22 years now, also with the Search & Rescue dive team since 2007, stated that he has never been called to the lake for missing divers during his time of service and to his knowledge has never heard of any from former officers. As one woman who had taken and received her diving certification in the lake stated, I didn't see much of anything besides some fish but said she hadn't gone any further that 20-30 feet deep, but would love to explore it further one day.
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| Dublin Lake, Dublin, NH |
What is one to make of this particular account? I myself tend to be more on the urban legend side of the fence as there has not been 'evidence' or more information about the account to ascertain any real validity to it. BUT, as always within the Fortean field I will keep an open mind, especially around the dark, watery depths!
With acknowledgment to the Monadnock Ledger -Transcript newspaper of Southern New Hampshire.
Beau Patrick Carrington
(Fortean Researcher)
