Sherman Lake: Creature of the Deep

By Abby Reisterer

Throughout history, there have been urban legends that are told for generations: almost every country, state, and city around the world has its own unique legend. According to Jan Harold Brunvand, author of "Encyclopedia of Urban Legends", an urban legend can be described as, "All those bizarre, whimsical, 99 percent apocryphal, yet believable stories that are too good to be true ... too odd, too coincidental and too neatly plotted to be accepted as literal truth." Though a majority of the time they are specific to a singular region there are common ones: Bloody Mary, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness monster to name a few. The Loch Ness monster, for example, is a "large marine creature believed by some people to inhabit Loch Ness, Scotland ... which they compared to a dragon or prehistoric monster" (Tikkanen). Though its origin is Scotland, it's told in the U.S. as well. Along with popular legends, there are the ones that very few people have heard. Stories saved for clubs, schools, or a campfire specifically told to scare or explain small things that occur.

Sherman Lake YMCA is a summer camp located in Augusta, Ml that has been open to kids ages 4-17 since 1995. For 10 weeks of summer, kids of all ages come for the activities and community that the camp offers. Things like archery, rock climbing, arts and crafts, swimming, campfires, and boating. Though all of these things are fun, it's always more fun when you can put a mystery into a child's mind.

When I was a camper, the most infamous urban legend that was told to us every year was the legend of the boat turner/eater. 12-year-olds and younger heard it as "turner," whereas 13-year-olds and older were told "eater." The first day you arrive at camp you are told that when you see bubbles appear on the water's surface you have gone too far out and woken up a gigantic, tentacled monster that will come up from the bottom of the lake and flip/eat your boat (if you are old enough to hear eat, you are to be eaten with it). They say that you have 30 seconds to turn around and get as close to the shore as you can to be safe -- since the monster is too big to be in shallow water

The only time I ever questioned this story was when I turned 13. This was the year we were old enough to hear eat instead of just flip. After confronting my counselor, she promptly told me and my cabin mates that the monster was only interested in teenagers since we had more meat on our bones. So, when we were younger, the monster would flip our boats only to find that we were too young and return to the depths of the lake. She added that if we still didn't believe her, we could ask her boss who experienced it herself. As the nosey teenagers we were, we asked the second we saw her next. Without hesitating, she told us that when she was 16, she didn't listen to her counselors and went out too far, going directly towards the bubbles that emerged. Her boat was flipped, but luckily for her, she had been training on the swim team for years. She followed up by showing us a nasty scar on her leg that went from the middle of her calf to the back of her knee. Instantly terrified we did not question the story again.

At 17, I became a counselor at Sherman Lake and still hadn't questioned the story. I had heard it for years and saw proof that someone had truly experienced it. However, on the last day of staff training, we had our swim test and waterfront qualifications, which included boating. Before we got in the water for the kayaking portion of the test they told us that we should try to avoid the bubbler, it helps the fish and decreases the amount of algae growth. The bubbler turned out to be what I believed was the sea creature that pulled children into the water. We were told the basics of the infamous story that I had heard so many times before. After the training course, I felt silly for believing that story for all these years. Then I remembered that I had seen a scar as evidence. Now that I knew the story was just a piece of fiction, I wondered how my boss had gotten a scar that worked so well as backup evidence. Turns out, it was a scar from surgery she had after a swimming accident. An accident that took place nowhere near Sherman Lake.

Curious if I was the only one to believe it all of these years, I asked one of my coworkers, Lucy, if she was as convinced as I was. Thankfully she said, "Not originally, but after Heather (our boss) showed her scar, I was so scared that I ended up not even boating the next 4 summers." Knowing that she had been as convinced as me gave me some relief. As scary as it was at the time, the intentions were nothing but positive.

This story is still told to campers year after year and my boss continues to tell her story to the campers who challenge it. The legend of the tentacled boat flipper/eater may not be true, but by telling it consistently we are not only helping keep the lake healthy, we are keeping the kids safe. The legend serves as a reason for campers to not go out too deep. Even with lifeguards in the water with them, drowning risks are significantly decreased when they stay in shallow water. The story is just a fun way to add entertainment while increasing their safety.

Brunvand, Jan Harold. Encyclopedia of Urban Legends. ABC-Clio, 2012.

Tikkanen, Amy. "Loch Ness Monster" Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, inc., 1 Mar 2024, www.britannica.com/topic!Loch-Ness-monster-legendary-creature