Chessie (1986 Coloring Book made by U.S. Fish and Wildlife)
For some reason, all the best pictures of this cryptid seem to be cartoons with no life-like ones. Maybe just my bad luck. As you can tell, we have another water monster, which seem to be really common around the world. So, what is Chessie?
Reports say this is a sea creature, which is about 30 feet long and as thick as a telephone pole. It has passed by swimmers and fishermen with no signs of aggression. In 1943, it was said to have a football/horse-like head that it could turn nearly all the way around. Chessie was recorded in 1982 and was seen as a brown ‘creature’ slithering through the water like a snake. Finally, it appeared 5 feet away from a car on the shore in 2014 as was said to be black in color with no fins and a football-shaped head. So, the sightings tend to keep the head shape and serpentine body.
An interesting twist on Chessie is that it became an environmental icon in the 1980’s. A push for maintaining the Chesapeake Bay’s health had this cryptid as the mascot. Part of it was because sightings had it be friendly and non-threatening. Maryland even made a state law in 1985 to protect Chessie even though nobody could prove it actually existed. As silly as it sounds, this got a lot of people into protecting the environment, especially the water, which was difficult in the wake of ‘Jaws’ coming out.
Now, there was one picture taken of Chessie, but it didn’t match the rest of the sightings because it wasn’t a serpent. In 1980, a picture was taken of a creature in Chesapeake Bay (Maryland) and it ended up being a manatee from Florida. It’s an unusual discovery, but apparently manatees will occasionally swim all the way up the eastern coast. Another manatee was rescued in 1994 and named ‘Chessie’ before being returned to Florida. It has returned to the area several times between 1994 and 2011.
So, not a ton of lore on Chessie, but certainly a bunch of interesting stories.
Legends of Windemere 
I never heard of this one! How hilarious that a law was made to protect a creature no one could prove existed.
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Seems like a great use of political time to me. 😊
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Real or not, if she inspires people to caring about the environment I am a fan.
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Same here.
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Thanks.
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Very similar to Nessie and Morag (Loch Morar, Scotland). Not to mention Garry (Loch Garry, also Scotland). There’s also Muckie, a creature said to inhabit the deepest lake in Ireland, Muckross Lake.
While nothing has ever been definitely found in the many investigations, in 1972, a photograph was released of what appears to be a large flipper. However, that image has been digitally enhanced, and looking at the original, it isn’t clear at all.
However, no one has yet explained why tales of large, unknown creatures appear in deep lakes all around the world.
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Probably the same reason dragons show up in all cultures. Common natural events trigger the imagination and create the most believable explanation. Whale and dinosaur bones being found on shorelines would increase the lore. For rivers and lakes, we tend to forget that they can hold large animals, especially if they connect to the ocean. Catfish and reptiles like turtles (some can get 7 feet long) can trigger lore too.
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But wouldn’t it be fun to find these creatures really do exist?
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It would be. Though I’d be scared what some humans would do.
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Yes. I read a book once about these ‘mythological’ creatures. The last sentence was ‘It’s we who are the monsters.’
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Interesting that Chessie became an environmental mascot. Smoky Bear, Woodsy Owl — and Chessie!
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I wonder if that’s happened elsewhere with cryptids.
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