Cressie

In Canadian folklore, Cressie is the nickname given to an eel-like lake monster said to reside in Crescent Lake, Robert's Arm, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The name is a portmanteau of Crescent Lake and Nessie, the nickname given to the Loch Ness Monster. The monster has been described as resembling a large dark brown eel around 15 feet in length with a long, sleek body.[1] The earliest Cressie sightings date to the 1950s, but Cressie is still spotted regularly.

Though there are reported sightings of Cressie as early as the 1950s, some have linked the legends to earlier Indigenous legends of the woodum haoot ("pond devil") or haoot tuwedyee ("swimming demon")[2], however others caution that this attribution has seemingly been copied from source to source without any verification of its connection to Cressie or the area of Newfoundland and Labrador in which Cressie is found[1].

There have been no photographs of Cressie, and all information relies on local oral history. According to local folklore, an elderly resident of Robert's Arm was startled while berry-picking by a giant serpent in the lake.[2] In one of the earliest dated sightings in the 1950s, two woodsmen were on the shores of the lake when they noticed an upturned boat, and fearing for its occupants, they hurried towards it. However, as they approached, the boat turned out to be something large, and slick, which slipped below the waters of the lake.[2]

On July 9, 1991, Fred Parsons and his wife reported seeing a large snakelike creature swimming in Crescent Lake. He described it as a long, sleek body without a significantly large head, which was laying level with the water.[1]

In September of that same year, a resident of Robert's Arm was returning to town when he noticed a disturbance on the surface of the lake. As he watched, the object dropped beneath the surface and then rose again. He described it as "a black, fifteen foot long shape pitching forward in a rolling motion much as a whale does but with no sign of a fin."[1] It sank out of sight and did not reappear.

During the summer of 2003, several town residents say they saw the creature swimming after at least a year with no reports, which had led some residents to speculate whether Cressie had died[3]. In these reports, Cressie was said to resemble a snake-like creature with a fish-like head.

There are other reports that divers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have allegedly described seeing "giant eels as thick as a man's thigh" in the lake while investigating a drowning death.[1] According to reports, scuba divers conducting an underwater search for the body of a downed pilot in the mid-80s found themselves surrounded by a school of vicious gigantic eels, though they were able to escape, leading some to believe that perhaps these eels were Cressie's babies[4].

In the winter, large holes often appear in the ice that covers Crescent Lake, leading some to speculate that the holes were created not by something falling into the lake, but by something bursting through the ice[4].

According to skeptics there are several natural occurrences can explain "Cressie" sightings.Giant eels have been touted as one of the most likely candidates. Several Robert's Arm residents offer as evidence of the eel hypothesis previous sightings of giant eels, and high numbers of eels appearing in eel traps in the lake.[1] In an article from 1993 called Have You Seen Cressie?, author R.A. Bragg suggests that eels do not stop growing during their lifetime, and perhaps this is the cause of Cressie's size[2].

Others, such as skeptical investigator Joe Nickell speculate that perhaps the dark-colored northern river otter is responsible. He claims the river otter

"swims both under water and at the surface where its wake can make it appear much longer, and moves in an undulating (rising and falling) manner...In addition, multiple otters swimming in a line can give the effect of a single giant serpentine creature slithering with an up-and-down movement through water".[5]

Still others suggest that Cressie is not a living creature at all, but instead a large log. The bottom of Crescent Lake is reported to be covered in wooden logs from when logging took place in the community.[4] For decades, Crescent Lake was used to transport more than half a million cords of pulpwood that was harvested from the surrounding areas and shipped to paper mills[1]. Some speculate that bubbles of gas from the decomposing wood lifts these logs to the surface of the lake[1].

In 1991, the town of Robert's Arm erected a statue of Cressie at the entrance to the community, along with a storyboard which describes the alleged sightings.[4] This statue greets tourists to the area, and is depicted with distinctly dragonlike features including green scales, a row of plates along its back, and fearsome teeth[1].

Cressie has featured in several of Robert's Arm's Come Home Year celebrations. The 1995 Come Home Year commemorative book includes several poems which refer to Cressie, including this passage by Jim Payne:

"I suppose you've heard of Cressie the monster in the lake

If you get too handy she'll give her tail a shake

She'll set you boat a-rocking and you won't believe your eyes

And people will make fun of you and say you're telling lies"[6]