 Lake Timiskaming, as viewed from Devil's Rock Lookout | |
| Sub grouping | Lake monster |
|---|---|
| Other name(s) | Old Tessie, Monster of Lake Temiscamingue |
| Country | Canada |
| Region | Lake Timiskaming, Ontario/Quebec |
| Habitat | Water |
The Mugwump (also: Old Tessie [1] and Monster of Lake Temiscamingue [2] ) is a lake monster which has been alleged to live in Lake Timiskaming, [3] on the border of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
The name "mugwump" comes from an Algonquin word, the exact meaning of which is unclear. In a 1979 communication on the creature, New Liskeard mayor Jack Dent reported that the name translated to "fearless sturgeon" in English. [3] The word had already been used many years prior, when Puritan missionary John Eliot took it to mean "duke" or "centurion" in translating the Bible into Anishinàbemiwin in 1661. The Vermont American, a newspaper published in Middlebury, Vermont, indicated it meant "leader" in 1828. [4]
In the 1880s the term became a political label for the "Mugwumps", Republican Party politicians in the United States who switched parties during the 1884 presidential election to support Grover Cleveland. Charles Anderson Dana, editor of the New York Sun newspaper, popularised the term in this context, [5] [6] deriving it from the Algonquin word mugumquomp or mugquomp, meaning "important person"[ citation needed ] or "war leader". [7]
Though Dana meant to make a sarcastic jab at the former Republicans who did not support their own candidate, the term was appropriated by the men it had originally been used to mock and became both popular and widespread, to the point that it is still used from time to time in the 21st century. [8] The term also occurs in the 1959 William S. Burroughs novel Naked Lunch and in the 1962 Roald Dahl children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , both times to describe fantastical creatures.
It remains unknown which elements of political and cultural history, if any, influenced the naming of the creature which Dent documented, referencing "a very old Indian legend", in 1979. [3]
Another cryptid dubbed "Mugwump" allegedly resides in a marsh in Ventura, Iowa. [9]
When interviewed in 1995, a witness recalled the Mugwump as having a round head and nose like an animal. Two ice fishers alleged to have seen a black, glistening head through their fishing hole in 1982; they noted that it had protruding eyes, one of which was trained on them and gave the impression it was sizing the men up. Another ice fisherman reported that he'd seen the creature completely out of the water one winter night, that it had a head similar to that of a dinosaur, and that it was long enough to curl around a number of fishing huts at once. A married couple which claimed to have witnessed the Mugwump swimming in 1978 reported that it had a humped back and no fins. Chuck Coull, the first human to have his encounter with the Mugwump documented and published, claimed the animal looked like a human-sized sturgeon. The creature is popularly depicted as having the body of a serpent and the head of a horse. [10]
Jack Dent claimed in 1979 that a descendant of Chief Wabi (aka "Big Wabi") had informed him of the creature which lived in the lake. According to Dent's source:
... the mugwump was reputed to be the length of four Indian braves. Putting the average height of a brave at about five feet ... the mugwump was probably over 20 feet long. [3]
Others have reported on the creature's size differently, with more conservative estimates putting it at the size of a human and a 1978 account putting it at a minimum length of 15 feet (4.6 m), and other stories suggesting its scales alone were the size of a saucer. Lake Timiskaming, which is a widening of the Ottawa River with an average depth of 36 metres (118 ft) and maximum depth of 220 metres (720 ft), has been described as a natural habitat for a creature of such a size by enthusiasts. [11]
Other lake monsters in the region have been described as being similar to whales and large eels, [12] often with a horse- or dog-like head and measuring between 15 metres (49 ft) and 30 metres (98 ft) long. [13]
On one occasion when the animal was spotted outside of water, a snake-like trail was allegedly found in the snow nearby. No other lake monsters in Ontario have been reported to move about on dry land, [13] leading to conjecture that the animal sighted crawling on the land might represent a different animal than the Mugwump. [3]
The exact population of the Mugwump is also disputed. Although often referred to as a singular creature, it was suggested in a 1982 interview with Kate Ardtree that there were multiple Mugwumps living in Lake Timiskaming. [3] Regular sightings of the Mugwump in summer months gave rise to the idea that the creature spawns in July and August. [14]
The most common explanation for the Mugwump is that it is a large sturgeon. While sturgeon are already large fish, the refraction of light through still or calm water can cause the size of objects to appear distorted, giving them the appearance of being much larger than in reality. As the creature is most often sighted during calm conditions and almost never seen outside of the water, [14] it is possible that many Mugwump sightings are actually misidentifications of large fish. Other suggestions have included descendants of prehistoric animals such as the nautiloid Orthoceras , [14] the plesiosaur Elasmosaurus , [3] the whale Basilosaurus , [1] and the early amphibian Ichthyostega ; groups of otters swimming in single-file lines; [13] logs floating just below the surface of the water, also known as "dead heads"; and waves created in the wakes of motorboats or during small earthquakes.
The earliest reports of the creature for which there is documented evidence came in the 1970s, but reports of the Mugwump are said to go back much further. Chief Wabi, aka "Big Wabi", was a resident of Murray City (present-day Notre-Dame-du-Nord) on the Quebec side of Lake Timiskaming in the late-19th century and early-20th century. [15] According to former Mayor of New Liskeard Jack Dent, a descendant of Chief Wabi recounted his nation's encounters with the Mugwump going back generations. In an 1879 canoe voyage along the Ottawa River and across Lake Timiskaming, the voyageur Sha-Ka-Nash described how his Anishinaabe guides made offerings of tobacco at sites like Devil's Rock to an otherworldy creature living in the lake:
So we put off and sailed down the big Lake Témiscamingue. When we came down to the big steep rocks on the west side the Indian crews had a great talk in their own language, and everyone who used tobacco, put a little in the water in front of the steep rocks, the writer adding his quota with the rest. I never learned the real significance of the performance, but anyone who passed on the lake with a loaded canoe in front of those rocks will know that such practice was very advisable to court the favor of the water sprite. [16]
European traders and settlers reported in the 19th century that when out on the lake in canoes they would regularly hear unexplained noises coming from the underside of their boats, explained as being fish following the shadows of the canoes from one end of the lake to the other, keeping tabs on them for the supernatural creatures which also resided there. [16] One account suggests that locals collected saucer-sized objects from the lake in the 1920s and 30s which were believed to be the Mugwump's scales. Reports of other cryptids, such as Bigfoot, also began to emerge in the region around this time. [17]
The first written documentation concerning the creature is from Jack Dent, reporting on the assertions made by his unidentified source in the North Bay Nugget on 20 April 1979. [3] In the same article, Dent claimed that he had first been made aware of the creature ten years earlier in the late-1960s, and that the presence of such an animal in the lake could provide a boost to the town's tourism industry. Weeks later, journalist Mike Pearson published an account of Chuck Coull's early-1960s encounter with the Mugwump across two articles in The Temiskaming Speaker, sparking a brief local obsession with the creature that would last several years.
Though no official scientific investigation was done on the Mugwump, local newspapers attempted to capitalize on interest in the Mugwump by featuring many news articles and columns centred around it. The publications, including The Temiskaming Speaker also engaged in tabloid journalism to sensationalize the mystery, the most blatant being the 1982 article 'Tessie the monster stirs scientific world' which featured three explanations for the creature presented by three fictional cryptozoologists. The journalist most central to reporting on the Mugwump was Ada Arney, who usually wrote about the creature under the pen name "Alice Peeper" but also used other aliases including "Dr. Pablo von McDonell" and "Mary Wollstonescraft Sheltey". Arney occasionally claimed to be in contact with an anonymous biologist, who offered suggestions that the Mugwump was a prehistoric animal. Arney briefly ran a column, 'Of monsters and things', in The Temiskaming Speaker as the media cycle began to move on and interest in the Mugwump died down. Running from 10 February to 31 March 1982, Arney signed off on her final column about the mysterious creature with the following:
So if you follow the path of the flowers to Devil's Rock, chances are you may well see the monster as she swims by, forever seeking for her beloved. [3]
Even after the initial media interest waned, sightings of the Mugwump were reported regularly in the Baie-des-Pères on the eastern side of Lake Timiskaming in the 1980s, particularly in Ville-Marie, Quebec, and along Vieux-Fort Road in the summer months. [14] Sightings of the monster have continued into the current day. A video capturing a possible sighting of the creature was uploaded to YouTube on 28 July 2015. [18]
| Events | |
|---|---|
| Sighting | Newspaper article |
| Dates | Events [3] [14] | |
|---|---|---|
| 1920s – 1930s | Locals collect saucer-sized objects, allegedly Mugwump scales | |
| early 1940s | John Cobb, a tug boat operator, spots the creature while transporting logs across Lake Timiskaming at night and notes that it has a round head and nose | |
| early 1960s | Chuck Coull and his father approach what they think to be a "deadhead", a person floating in the water near Burnt Island; once they're close, it flips over and swims away | |
| 1978 | While watching Lake Timiskaming, Ernie Chartrand and his wife spot something rapidly approach the shore before suddenly turning around and returning to deeper waters | |
| 20 April 1979 | First written documentation – New Liskeard mayor Jack Dent's article 'A monster called Mugwump' in the North Bay Nugget provides a description of a creature said to be living in Lake Timiskaming and names it 'Mugwump' | |
| 2 May 1979 | Mike Pearson publishes his first article on Chuck Couell's encounter with the Mugwump near Burnt Island in The Temiskaming Speaker | |
| 9 May 1979 | Mike Pearson publishes a second article on Chuck Couell's encounter with the Mugwump near Burnt Island in The Temiskaming Speaker | |
| 1980s | Mugwump sightings become regular in summer months in the Baie-des-Pères | |
| 2 February 1982 | The Temiskaming Speaker publishes an article written by reporter Ada Arney under the pseudonym "Alice Peeper" on Kate Ardtree's second-hand experiences with the Mugwump | |
| 10 February 1982 | Ada Arney, under her pseudonym "Alice Peeper", publishes the first 'Of monsters and things' column | |
| 17 February 1982 | Ada Arney publishes two stories of ice fishermen encountering the Mugwump in The Temiskaming Speaker under the pseudonym "Alice Peeper", that of Roger Lapointe and Dan Arney who had observed the creature through their fishing hole; and of a man who saw the creature completely outside of the water | |
| 24 February 1982 | The Temiskaming Speaker publishes 'Tessie the monster stirs scientific world' by Dr. Pablo von McDonell (a pseudonum of Ada Arney) and 'Temiskaming monster early amphibian?' by Alice Peeper (also a pseudonym of Ada Arney) | |
| 3 March 1982 | Ada Arney, while writing in The Temiskaming Speaker under her pseudonym "Alice Peeper", congratulates herself for working to advocate for the Mugwump's rights in Haileybury | |
| 31 March 1982 | Ada Arney, under her pseudonym "Alice Peeper", publishes the last 'Of monsters and things' column | |
| 9 August 1995 | Dariene Wroe reports on John Cobb's 1940s encounter with the Mugwump in a Temiskaming Speaker article | |
| 28 July 2015 | A video which alleges to show the creature swimming is posted to YouTube |
Author Joël Champetier uses the Mugwump as a central plot element in his 1994 horror novel La Mémoire du lac. [2] In the book, the "monster of Lake Temiscamingue" is a creature imprisoned in Lake Timiskaming which can be released if a father sacrifices his three children in exchange for the monster's freedom, inspiring the novel's antagonist Bowman to murder his two sons and attempt to kill his illegitimate son, Eric, to complete the ritual. The novel features several Algonquin traditional stories invented by Champetier to serve the plot of his story, and according to these fictional myths the monster's true identity is Ungak, the child of Nuliajuk who migrated to the lake at a time when sea levels were higher. [19]
In spring 2009, the band La Baie du Sauvage from Témiscamingue Regional County Municipality released their debut album "Le monstre du lac" (English: "The Lake Monster"). [20] Musician Philippe B, who is also from the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, also referenced the creature on his 2017 album "La grande nuit vidéo" with the song 'Le monstre du lac Témiscamingue'. [21]
The Mugwump is the subject of the 2018 poem Mugwump by Richard Stevenson. [1] Stevenson depicts the Mugwump as a 30 feet (9.1 m)-long white sturgeon that has grown bitter over being misidentified.
In Canadian folklore, the Ogopogo is a lake monster said to inhabit Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Some scholars have charted the entity's development from First Nations folklore and widespread water monster folklore motifs. The Ogopogo now plays a role in the commercial symbolism and media representation of the region.
Temiskaming Shores is a city in the Timiskaming District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It was created by the amalgamation of the town of New Liskeard, the town of Haileybury, and the township of Dymond in 2004. The city had a total population of 9,634 in the Canada 2021 Census. Temiskaming Shores is Ontario's second-smallest city, in terms of population, after Dryden. Haileybury is the seat of Timiskaming District.
Lake Timiskaming or Lake Temiskaming is a large freshwater lake on the provincial boundary between Ontario and Quebec, Canada. The lake, which forms part of the Ottawa River, is 110 km (68 mi) in length and covers an area of 304 km2 (117 sq mi). Its water level ranges between 175 m (574 ft) and 179 m (587 ft) above sea-level, with a mean annual average of 178.4 m (585 ft). The lake is in places up to 216 m (709 ft) deep. There are several islands on the lake, notably Mann and du Collège Islands.
Indigenous peoples in Quebec total eleven distinct ethnic groups. The one Inuit community and ten First Nations communities number 141,915 people and account for approximately two per cent of the population of Quebec, Canada.
The Clay Belt is a vast tract of fertile soil in Canada, stretching across Cochrane District in Ontario and Abitibi County in Quebec, covering 180,000 square kilometres (69,000 sq mi) in total with 120,000 square kilometres (46,000 sq mi) of that in Ontario. It is generally subdivided into the Great Clay Belt to the north running eastward from Kapuskasing, past Lake Abitibi and on to Amos, and the V-shaped Lesser Clay Belt to its south, running from Englehart down to the Wabi River to the northern tip of Lake Timiskaming, and long the eastern side of Timiskaming and back up to Rouyn-Noranda. The Clay Belt is the result of the draining of the Glacial Lake Ojibway around 8,200 BP, whose lakebed sediment forms the modern landform. The Clay Belt is surrounded by the Canadian Shield, forming an island of "southern flatlands" in the midst of the hilly and rocky surroundings. Similar "glaciolacustrine deposits" dot the northern areas of Ontario, Quebec, and Labrador.
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Timiskaming is a First Nations reserve in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of Quebec, Canada, just north of the head of Lake Timiskaming. It belongs to the Timiskaming First Nation, an Algonquin band. It is geographically within the Témiscamingue Regional County Municipality but administratively not part of it.
Devil's Rock is a granite escarpment located 5 kilometres (3 mi) south of Temiskaming Shores, Ontario, Canada. The cliffs rise 300 feet (91 m) above Lake Timiskaming and extend nearly as far underwater as they do above, giving Devil's Rock a cliff face roughly 600 feet (180 m) tall.
Timiskaming is a word from the Algonquin Temikami or Temikaming, from tim 'deep' and kami 'open waters'. Alternate spellings include Temiskaming, Témiscaming and Témiscamingue. The word Temagami comes from the same root.
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The Laberge River is a tributary of Lake Hebert, flowing in Canada, in:
Raven Lake is a freshwater body of Canada that straddles the boundary between Northwest in the province of Quebec, in Rouyn-Noranda, in administrative region of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, and Northeastern Ontario, in the District of Timiskaming. The dividing line between the two provinces is in the northeastern part of Raven Lake.
The zec Dumoine is a controlled harvesting zone located in the unorganized territory of Les Lacs-du-Témiscamingue, in the MRC Témiscamingue Regional County Municipality, in the administrative region of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, in Quebec, in Canada.
The rivière à la Loutre is a tributary of the upper part of the Ottawa River. Rivière à la Loutre crosses the territory of the municipalities of Fugèreville and Saint-Bruno-de-Guigues, in the regional county municipality (MRC) of Témiscamingue, in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, in Quebec, in Canada.
The parc national d'Opémican is a national park of Quebec (Canada) located south of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, between Laniel and Témiscaming. The park is 252 kilometres (156.59 mi) in size and was established on 19 December 2013. It ensures the protection of the characteristic landscape of the Southern Laurentians.
Mount Cheminis is an inselberg/monadnock located in Quebec, Canada, near the Ontario border.
In a column in the Sun, Boris Johnson referred to the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, as a 'mutton-headed old mugwump', leading to much confusion about the meaning of the term.