Now or never: The Madrona sea monster
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Given the rarity of monsters - especially fresh-water ones - and my own lousy luck in these adventures, I took this snapshot of what, again, may be a line of ducks, although at least one of these "humps" looks uncannily like the familiar form of the Loch Ness monster. Appropriately, I found this uncommon creature near Ivar's Salmon House.
It was a late February afternoon, 1947. A gardener named Thomas (no first name given) saw it first. While trimming a hedge beside the A.B. Barrie home above Madrona Beach, Thomas looked out over a placid Lake Washington and saw "the hump." Almost immediately, Mrs. Barrie saw it, too - a "large, crinkly backed object" swimming south towards Leschi. "It was about 100 feet long but I could only see the middle, which was about 25 feet ... I thought its tail and head were submerged."
Corroboration for the first sighting of the Madrona Sea Monster needed someone who could both keep clam and see it again. Enter the historic opportunist Ivar Haglund, the owner then of two aquariums, one on Pier 54 beside his Acres of Clams restaurant, the other in Vancouver, B.C. Needing specimens, Ivar offered a $5,000 reward. Needing evidence, he took a photograph that he claimed "clearly shows an uncommon creature." Ivar explained that at first he thought it was ducks in a single file. "I took a picture anyway. Five minutes later the thing submerged and didn't come up again."
Other sightings followed. Ray Lichtenberger of Ray's Boathouse in Ballard claimed to have seen it heading out to sea. A.T. Goodman, assistant lockmaster, said a clever monster could have made it through the Chittenden Locks by hiding beneath a vessel. One authority announced that "sea monsters can survive on salt water, fresh water or bourbon and water." Certain that they favored fresh tuna and that the monster was headed for Vancouver, Ivar equipped aquarium attendants there with gill nets and sliced tuna.
In early March, United Press reported that Madrona had been sighted heading for open ocean. Ivar was dismayed. "I've spent the past 24 hours scanning the waters of Puget Sound along with every fisherman I know. All we've seen is debris. I don't know which I saw the most of - flotsam or jetsam." In the end Haglund found consolation in philosophy. "Who are we to say that from the boundless depths of the ocean all the mysteries have been uncovered and brought to the surface?"
Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and occasional flights of fancy.