Champy

In American folklore, Champ (or Champy) is a legendary lake monster believed to inhabit Lake Champlain, the 125-mile-long freshwater body stretching across New York, Vermont, and into Quebec, Canada. With over 300 reported sightings throughout history, this elusive creature has become a significant tourist attraction for the Burlington, Vermont and Plattsburgh, New York regions. The Champ legend has roots in Indigenous traditions, particularly Iroquois stories of massive serpents that the Mohawk people called Onyare'kowa. Popular accounts often mistakenly credit French explorer Samuel de Champlain, the lake's namesake, with the first European sighting in 1609, claiming he described a "20-foot serpent thick as a barrel, with a head like a horse." This attribution first appeared in a 1970 issue of Vermont Life magazine, but no historical evidence supports Champlain making such a statement, though he did document large fish in the lake. Despite the lack of conclusive proof for Champ's existence, the creature continues to captivate local imagination and has joined the ranks of famous lake monsters worldwide, becoming an integral part of the region's cultural identity and folklore.