DESERT SEA SERPENT
by
Michael A. McKeever
Beware of the
giant serpent warned the Paiute Indians. Their people had seen it uncounted
times over uncounted years. It was, they said, so huge it could easily swallow
a man whole. And it was silent as it swam the lake, giving no warning as it
approached and then just as silently vanishing beneath the waves. Do not go out
on the lake, they said ominously, but stay safely on its shores.
The lake is
called Pyramid Lake after its barren islands that water and wind carved into pyramids.
Once it was part of a vast primeval inland sea covering much of the western Nevada desert. Today at
188 square miles it is still an impressive lake, the sky above it alive with
flocks of birds. It is surrounded by the Northern Paiute Reservation.
The Paiutes
were not the only ones to see the giant serpent. Early white settlers reported
seeing it as well. With each sighting both the tale and the monster seemed to
grow in length. Finally in late 1869 a mining engineer named Spence arrived at Pyramid Lake
Spence, a
methodical man, set to work taking water samples and searching the shoreline
for certain white crystals. Finding them, he mixed the crystals with chemicals
and lit the mixture with a match. A flickering green flame meant it was borax.
Spence had
heard stories of the giant snake but he dismissed them as nothing more than
wild tales spun over campfires. After all he was an engineer, a man of science
and mathematics, not given to nonsense.
Planning to
search the lake’s far shore, he set out with two assistants in a rowboat. The
assistants, having also heard stories of a monster swimming snake, were
nervous. But Spence urged them on. Rowing steadily, the men pulled out into the
middle of the lake. It was a calm day and the surface was as flat as a sheet of
blue glass. The only ripples came from the boat and its oars.
Suddenly
one of the assistants gasped and pointed with a shaking finger. There, basking
in the sun, was the sea serpent! Hundreds of feet long, its serpentine body was
covered with scales that shimmered in the desert heat. Making no move toward
the men, it bobbed gently in the water.
The
ever-cool Spence encouraged his frightened men to row closer. Then he noticed
something odd about the scales. With each ripple of the water some of them
seemed to float away. A slight breeze came up and more of the scales fell off
into the water.
The three
men sighed in relief. They knew they were safe. The sea serpent was in reality
nothing more than a huge floating conglomeration of fresh-water worms. Clinging
together they had been molded by the water into a long floating tube. But
whenever a strong wave or a puff of wind came up the worms untangled. Seen from
a distance it did indeed look as if a giant snake had slipped beneath the
surface.
Spence
mentioned the phenomenon in his report and like the “giant snake” itself in a
brisk wind, the legend of the desert sea serpent unraveled. Yet some were still
not convinced and the sightings continued.
In 1883 a
group of women saw the “serpent” shimmering in the sun. It was, they
breathlessly reported, as big as a balloon and had a mouth as wide as a road.
Six years later some fishermen described the creature as having an alligator’s
body but with a seal’s flippers and a frog’s mouth. It also, they insisted,
swallowed entire schools of trout. A 1925 description added that the monster’s
head had “hideous horns.”
Of course
today everyone knows perfectly well that there is no desert sea serpent, that
mining engineer Spence was right. It’s only a hodgepodge of worms clinging
together, pushed this way and that by wind and waves.
But, just
in case, in 1959 the Nevada State Assembly officially placed the creature under
the protection of the state. Henceforth and forever, by Nevada State Law, the
“Pyramid Lake Monster” may not be “molested, hunted or captured.” Just in case.
