The Serpent of Lake Murray
Could Terror Be Stalking A South Carolina Lake?
South Carolina may well be a tourist destination for our family in the future. [If our financial situation ever changes, one of the first things we want to do is go camping].
Living in semi-rural Ohio helps; the kids do get to check in with nature from time to time. We haven’t been able to hike or camp, though, and I humbly consider that an oversight as the children’s mother. Mike and I yearn to see the children picking their way through wooded trails, splashing at creek beds, and sharing creepy-pasta tales around a crackling fire at nighttime.
When early spring peeks around the corner I feel the pull of water: rivers, pools, lakes, and the sea — the latter as of yet I still haven’t explored. I can’t swim worth a nickel, but for some reason, water calls me, though I fear wading in past my waist. Kai-Hua, the family puppy, is fixated with running water and would likely fling herself into a lake to fetch a stick if given the chance.
To me, Lake Murray it isn’t just another well-frequented American reservoir. It’s one of the United State’s most precious aquamarine gems, a place where visitors can soak in the sun while they hike, camp, and cruise the waters.
It also happens to be the residence of a peculiar, snake-like cryptid denizen whom observers christened ‘Messie’ since she made her first appearance in 1933.
Being able to see Lake Murray, test the waters, and smell its scent — all the while sifting the sand for sea-shells, clams, and maybe even some sea-glass — would fulfill the part of me that longs to transform from human into siren.
Also, I’d be fibbing if I said I didn’t really want to catch a glimpse of the elusive Messie; it’s the sort of experience that crypto-fans like me yearn for. Having a chance to merely set eyes upon Messie’s bulk, sleek wetness, or even a flick of her tail beneath a summertime sun would evoke a feeling in me similar to what I imagine early human beings must have felt when they conceived the very first sparks of fire.
Lake Murray is situated in South Carolina’s northern Lexington County. There’s no denying its serene allure. The lake is 41 miles long, 14 miles in breadth, and almost 200 feet deep.
Since the earliest sighting coincided with the emergence of Scotland’s Nessie in 1933, Lake Murray was quickly dubbed ‘Loch Murray’ and its bottom-dwelling denizen christened ‘Messie’. Author Michael Newton’s Encyclopedia of Cryptozooogy indicates that there are few details of the intial sighting, but in 1973 Messie re-emerged with a literal vengeance.
Buddy and Shirley Downing were out on the smooth glass of Lake Murray’s waters when the legend roared to life. The couple and a close friend, Kord Brazell, received the fright of a lifetime when an enormous creature suddenly reared out of the depths and charged their fishing boat. The creature powered through the waves like a missile, closing the distance between the panicked trio in mere seconds. And it didn’t stop there: the creature was alleged to have even tried climbing aboard, though a blow from Buddy Browning’s oar changed its mind. At that moment, the monster veered off and submerged into the deep. Browning later had this to say about their harrowing ordeal:
“We noticed something coming out of the water at us. It attacked our boat! It wasn’t an illusion, it wasn’t an EEL or sturgeon. It was unlike anything I ever saw before, and I have been fishing Lake Murray for over 20 years. We never did ever figure out what it was. It was not an alligator. No! I know alligator when I see it! It was very aggressive…It was basically on top of the water where you could see it quite well…. I’ve never seen it since. I did come back that day. Kord and I came on back over here to the house and got the shotgun. We was going to go back after it and claim it! But we never did see it again.”
This account seems to rule out the possibility of alligators, caimans or sturgeons, which begs the question of just what kind of creature bearing these characteristics could be doing in Lake Murray. [Interestingly, southcarolinaparks.com has added a strong disclaimer that there are absolutely no alligators in their waters.]
One way to peek into the issue of a possible aquatic cryptid is to start with the surrounding wildlife. Much of the beauty at Lake Murray can be attributed to the animals making their homes in its geranium-dappled environment.
White-tailed deer tip-toe through the trees, while grey squirrels skitter along the mid-most branches in search of the best tidbits for their nests. Although grey squirrels prefer to eat nuts and seeds, they won’t shy away from the occasional insect or bird egg cache (the latter being akin to a special treat).
Canadian geese and mallard ducks are among Lake Murray’s ornithological inhabitants. As geese glide gracefully across the water’s surface, purple martins can be seen tucking their wings and fearlessly dive-bombing the lake in search of dragonflies to fill their bellies. Ospreys, known alternatively as river hawks, stalk their own prey in the background, all while delicately-plumed egrets poke through the marshes with their slender legs. For bird-watchers, Lake Murray is a precious dream.
As to the creatures living in the lake, there are plenty to occupy the time of hopeful fishermen on a languid Saturday. Among the most common lake dwellers are the mollusk-eating bream fish and striped bass, also commonly-known as rockfish. These agile swimmers enjoy long lives — provided, of course, that they aren’t fooled by anglers. Striped bass can live for up to thirty years, a lifespan which they oddly share with the osprey who cruise the skies far above.
The catfish, though, are what really excite veteran fishers. Lake Murray boasts at least four different catfish species: the blue, the channel, the white, and the flathead. May has traditionally been the month for good cat fishing, though some fishermen claim that getting their boats out on the water in the late fall and early winter yields just as much of a good catch.
But can any of the fish swimming in Lake Murray be mistaken for the kind of aggressive monster that terrified Shirley and Buddy Browning?
Striped bass are generally in the 20–40 pound weight range, but they do have the potential to reach even larger proportions. A striped bass that was netted in 1896 weighed in at a shocking 124 pounds.
Catfish, on average, weigh anywhere from six to twelve pounds. And while we’ve all heard the horror stories of catfish the size of automobiles that can swallow children whole, no such monster specimens can be found in Lake Murray. [In 2016, a Pastor Thomas Vaughan netted a catfish from the lake that weighed more than seventy pounds.]
Another subset of creatures calling the grassland and forests surrounding Lake Murray home belongs to the serpent family: specifically, those belonging to the colubrid species and two of its large sub-families, the natricinae and dipsanidae.
Those of the colubrid species are predominantly non-venomous and lead semi-aquatic lives, venturing ashore when the time comes to lay their eggs. Examples include king snakes, scarlet snakes, and eastern milk snakes. Those of the natricinae sub-family, such as water-snakes and garter-snakes, bear live young.
The southern ring-neck snake also burrows in the grounds near Lake Murray. This snake belongs to the dipsanidae sub-family. Although technically venomous, the bite of this snake is generally not potent enough prove fatal for humans.
To address the reports of large, serpent-like creatures charging boaters and fishermen, it is only logical to look to the local snake population for possible culprits. There are millions of snakes to point the finger at, as the colubrid species itself has 249 genera and is considered the largest snake family. The natricinae sub-family in turn as 37 genera, and the dipsanidae contains 700 species.
The only problem: at twelve feet in length, the Pytas carinata, or keeled rat snake, is the longest snake in the colubrid family. This would exclude almost all of the snakes in and around Lake Murray as water-driven suspects.
All in all, there seem to be few creatures living in or near the lake that even remotely approach the reported lengths of thirty to sixty feet.
So what is it, exactly, that has been terrifying visitors of Lake Murray since 1933?
While Messie sightings trickled down and eventually became scarce, the local paper Independent News was still talking about the mysterious monster years later. Its writers declared that Messie must have been ‘a cross between a snake and something prehistoric’. Or, in other words, nothing like what’s typically depicted in today’s children’s movies, like ‘Finding Dory’ or its predecessor, ‘Finding Nemo’.
There was so much buzz about the beast that South Carolina’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department assigned a biologist to study the lake and record his findings. By this time it was after 1980, and the lucky man sent to spy on Messie was biologist Lance Harper.
Predictably, Harper had little luck in this quasi-official endeavor. One of the things he tried to do was scour Lake Murray for fish from which to collect biological samples. He did this by rigging nets in certain control areas, but hit a snag upon discovering that most of his nets had gaping holes; something large and undoubtedly powerful had destroyed Harper’s work.
The sightings continued well into the ‘80s. One witness to Messie’s exotic shenanigans was retired Army General Marvin Corder. Per his recollection:
“…this serpent-like creature is 40 — 60 feet long with the head and body resembling a snake, with a tail of an eel [sic].”
Still, there were more. In 2000, Mary Shealy reported that she and her father spotted the beast swimming near the Lake Murray dam. In her account, she describes the beast as looking somewhat like an over-turned boat initially. Shealy claims the creature was over 30 feet long — an enormous length for anything that might be residing in Lake Murray. She then observed as it hoisted itself out of the water until, at its largest part, more than ten feet of Messie’s body was visible above water. This measurement, if accurate, is mind-boggling. Is the body of even a swimming elephant that large, should one have been found in Lake Murray?
Mary Shealy’s 2000 sighting seems to be the most recent in cryptid literature, but that doesn’t mean that the elusive Messie is gone completely. 41 miles of water is a lot of space for a thirty-foot long creature to make its secretive lair in the depths. One must also take into account Lake Murray’s width. In my relatively armchair-position, I think that’s more than enough room to house a monster.
After sifting through all of these reports, would I still like a trip to Lake Murray? Indeed I would; and not just for me. I want my entire family to experience the inscrutable loveliness of Lake Murray. And even if we saw nothing unusual at all, it would be a spectacular place to light up my little ones’ eyes as we breathe the fresh air that bedecks the waters in summertime.
…But I’d have to learn to swim first.
Sources: Wikipedia, Cryptozoology: A-Z, carolinasportsmen.com, wistv.com, LakeHomes.com, ParanormalForYou Blogspot, southcarolinaparks.com
