By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
It may not have the fame of the Loch Ness in Scotland, but Burlington’s Browns Lake apparently has a sighting of something … out of the ordinary.
In the recently published “Lake Monsters of Wisconsin,” author Chad Lewis opens his recounting of various lake creatures with “The Amphibious Lake Demon of Brown’s (sic) Lake.”
The account details a letter to the editor received by the Burlington Standard in August 1876, related several encounters with a monster of some sort in the lake.
The first account was the report of “something like a log twenty feet long” in the water. When the two men who sighted it went to find it, it was nowhere to be found.
There are other accounts of women being frightened from the water, a man seeing “the very old devil” in the bushes, and other accounts.
The letter along with a story appeared in the Aug. 10, 1876 edition of the Burlington Standard. An editorial response discredited the stories, saying instead it was a mammoth pickerel that had been seen on and off for the previous 25 years.
There is further history of the story in Lewis’ book, which also shares the story of “Jenny, The Monster of Geneva Lake,” as well as “The Lake Delavan Giant.”
Lewis said he considers himself a folklorist, and “I found sometimes the weirdest things happen right in your own backyard.”
“I found this was a very unique place,” the author explained. “There was no other place in the United States thought to be inhabited by these creatures.”
He also said the creatures seem to have disappeared in recent years.
“I was curious why so many people saw them back in the 1800s and early 1900s,” Lewis said.
Burlington Historical Society Vice President Don Vande Sand said he was well aware of the stories.
“Sure,” Vande Sand said. “In fact, in the book Carol DeMarco wrote, ‘Lake of the Shing Arrow,’ there’s probably five or six pages in there (about the lake creature).”
He recalled the report coming from a letter from a carpenter at the carpenter’s camp on Browns Lake, and the various descriptions that followed.
However, he takes the report with a grain of salt.
“I’m always skeptical of exaggeration,” Vande Sand said.
Lewis’ book is available through On the Road Publications in Eau Claire. To reach the author, email him at [email protected].
“I’m always interested if people have stories, or their own sightings,” Lewis said.
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