The Pend Oreille Paddler is a cryptid which inhabits Lake Pend Oreille in North Idaho. Many doubt its existence, stating the Paddler sightings could be passed off as a naval submarine on a practice dive, a sturgeon of behemoth size, waterlogged trees, or even stolen boats and off-the-rails railroad cars. [1]
The monster's first appearance in the North Idaho lake was reported in 1944. Upon learning the date, many locals think the monster may be a submarine from the Farragut Naval Training Center, now Farragut State Park, and odd shapes seen below water are submarines taking deep dives of Lake Pend Oreille, a practice which began during World War II and continued through the Cold War. [2] [3]
Alleged sightings began again in the 1970s, renewing rumors of a large, silver monster inhabiting the lake. Then in 1977 a young girl, playing at Sandpoint City Beach, survived a monster attack, whom the reporters dubbed the "Pend Oreille Paddler". [4] The moniker stuck.
In 1983, a local North Idaho College (NIC) professor, James R. McLeod, created a cryptozoology club at the Coeur d'Alene college [5] and after reading an appendix in Loren Coleman's book, Mysterious America, decided to investigate the local lake and its monstrous inhabitant. [6] McLeod's team of cryptozoologist researchers (made up of the cryptozoology club members) set out to Lake Pend Oreille in search of the Paddler. His investigation concluded after the team discovered the tabloid photo of the Paddler was of a papier-mâché catfish, 12 feet in length and originally from a 1974 Sandpoint play. [4] However, he did propose that the monster could be a real deep water fish, possibly a pre-historic sturgeon. [6]
Another sighting occurred in 1985 on Memorial Day by a local Coeur d'Alene teacher, Julie Green, who gave chase to the "gunmetal grey object" that appeared only a few hundred yards away from her boat. [7] Followers of James R. McLeod's research would state that this description adds credibility to the following theory: the U.S. Navy created the monster to cover up top-secret nuclear submarine and sonar testing conducted in lake Pend Oreille. [8] [9]
The final, officially documented, sighting happened in 2007; a photo was sent to the CryptoMundo site and reported there by cryptozoologist, Loren Coleman. [10]
In 2009, Washington State University professor, Dr. Michael A. Delahoyde, created a "Monsters" course for the English Department of the university and used James R. McLeod's book [11] as a reference for the section on lake monsters. [12] [13] The study of local folklore continued when best-selling author, Nicholas Redfern wrote his Monsters of the Deep in 2021.
Bonner County is a county in the northern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, the population was 47,110. The county seat and largest city is Sandpoint. Partitioned from Kootenai County and established in 1907, it was named for Edwin L. Bonner, a ferry operator. Bonner County comprises the Sandpoint, Idaho Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Sandpoint is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Bonner County, Idaho, United States. Its population was 9,777 as of the 2022 census.
Athol ( AH-thol; is a city in Kootenai County, Idaho, United States. The population was 709 at the 2020 census, up from 692 in the 2010 census. It is part of the Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes the entire county. Its main attraction is Silverwood Theme Park.
Coeur d'Alene is a city and the county seat of Kootenai County, Idaho, United States. It is the most populous city in North Idaho and the principal city of the Coeur d'Alene Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 54,628 at the 2020 census. Coeur d'Alene is a satellite city of Spokane, which is located about thirty miles (50 km) to the west in the state of Washington. The two cities are the key components of the Spokane–Coeur d'Alene Combined Statistical Area, of which Coeur d'Alene is the third-largest city. The city is situated on the north shore of the 25-mile (40 km) long Lake Coeur d'Alene and to the west of the Coeur d'Alene Mountains. Locally, Coeur d'Alene is known as the "Lake City", or simply called by its initials, "CDA".
Farragut State Park is a public recreation area in the northwest United States, located in northern Idaho at the southern tip of Lake Pend Oreille in the Coeur d'Alene Mountains. The 4,000-acre (1,600 ha) state park is five miles (8 km) east of Athol in Kootenai County, about thirty miles (50 km) northeast of Coeur d'Alene. Activities include camping, picnicking, hiking, mountain biking, cycling, fishing, boating, swimming, water sports, orienteering, disc golf, flying model aircraft, archery, and horseback riding.
The Pend d'Oreille or Pend d'Oreilles, also known as the Kalispel, are Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau. Today many of them live in Montana and eastern Washington of the United States. The Kalispel peoples referred to their primary tribal range as Kaniksu.
Loren Coleman is an American cryptozoologist, author and television personality who has written over 40 books on a number of topics, including cryptozoology. He is also the President, Founder and leading Director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine. He has a background in social work and has also written on the topic of suicide, particularly the copycat effect.
The Idaho panhandle—locally known as North Idaho, Northern Idaho, or simply the Panhandle—is a salient region of the U.S. state of Idaho encompassing the state's 10 northernmost counties: Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Clearwater, Idaho, Kootenai, Latah, Lewis, Nez Perce, and Shoshone. The panhandle is bordered by the state of Washington to the west, Montana to the east, and the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north. The Idaho panhandle, along with Eastern Washington, makes up the region known as the Inland Northwest, headed by its largest city, Spokane, Washington.
Lake Pend Oreille in the northern Idaho Panhandle is the largest lake in the U.S. state of Idaho and the 38th-largest lake by area in the United States, with a surface area of 148 square miles (380 km2). It is 69 kilometres (43 mi) long, and 1,152 feet (351 m) deep in some regions, making it the fifth-deepest in the nation and having a volume of 43,939,940 acre feet = 54 km3. The lake is fed by the Clark Fork River and the Pack River, and drains into the Pend Oreille River, as well as subsurfacely into the Spokane Valley–Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer. It is surrounded by national forests and a few small towns, with the largest population on the lake at Sandpoint. The majority of the shoreline is non-populated and all but the southern tip of the lake is in Bonner County. The southern tip is in Kootenai County and is home to Farragut State Park, formerly the Farragut Naval Training Station during World War II, of which a small part is still active and conducts U.S. Navy acoustic underwater submarine research.
Donald William Samuelson was an American Republican politician who served as the 25th governor of Idaho, from 1967 to 1971. He is the state's most recent incumbent governor to lose a re-election bid (1970).
Coeur d'Alene Lake, officially Coeur d'Alene Lake, is a natural dam-controlled lake in North Idaho, located in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. At its northern end is the city of Coeur d'Alene. It spans 25 miles (40 km) in length and ranges from 1 to 3 miles (5 km) wide with over 109 miles (175 km) of shoreline.
The Kaniksu National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in northeastern Washington, the Idaho Panhandle, and northwestern Montana. It is one of three forests that are aggregated into the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, along with the Coeur d'Alene National Forest and St. Joe National Forest. Kaniksu National Forest has a total area of 1,627,833 acres (6,587.6 km2). About 55.7% is in Idaho, 27.9% in Montana, and 16.4% in Washington.
The Idaho Panhandle National Forests are a jointly administered set of three national forests located mostly in the U.S. state of Idaho. In 1973, major portions of the Kaniksu, Coeur d'Alene, and St. Joe National Forests were combined to be administratively managed as the Idaho Panhandle National Forests (IPNF). The IPNF consists of more than 2.5 million acres (10,000 km2) of public lands in the panhandle of north Idaho, with small areas extending into eastern Washington (4.7%) and western Montana (1.2%). The northernmost portion of the IPNF share a boundary with Canada. The Forest Supervisor's office is located in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho with district office's in Bonners Ferry, Sandpoint, Priest River, Fernan and Smelterville, and St. Maries and Avery.
Sandpoint High School is a four-year public secondary school in the northwest United States, located in Sandpoint, Idaho. It is the larger of the two high schools in the Lake Pend Oreille School District; the other is Clark Fork in Class 1A. The SHS school colors are red and white and the mascot is a bulldog.
The Bonner County Daily Bee is a U.S. daily newspaper based in Sandpoint, Idaho. It is owned by the Hagadone Media Group and is part of the Hagadone News Network.
MonsterQuest is an American television series that originally aired from October 31, 2007 to March 24, 2010 on the History Channel channel. Produced by Whitewolf Entertainment, the program deals with the search for various monsters of interest to the cryptozoology subculture and paranormal entities reportedly witnessed around the world. A spin-off show, MysteryQuest, which focuses on unsolved mysteries, premiered on September 16, 2009.
The 12th World Scout Jamboree was held from July 31 to August 9, 1967, and was hosted by the United States at Farragut State Park, in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho. It was the second World Scout Jamboree to take place in North America.
Bayview is an unincorporated community in the northwest United States, located in Kootenai County, Idaho, north of Coeur d'Alene. On the southwest shore of Lake Pend Oreille, Bayview is seven miles (11 km) east-northeast of Athol. The community is served by State Highway 54 and a post office with ZIP code 83803; its approximate elevation is 2,100 feet (640 m) above sea level. Nearby is Farragut State Park, formerly the Farragut Naval Training Station, a major training facility during World War II.
Farragut Naval Training Station was a U.S. Navy training center during World War II in the Western United States. It was located in Northern Idaho at the south end of Lake Pend Oreille at Bayview, between Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint. The base was named after David Farragut(1801–1870), the first admiral in the U.S. Navy and the leading naval officer during the Civil War. The site became Farragut State Park 58 years ago in 1966.