Turtle Lake Monster

What people report

Descriptions differ, but they agree on a few points. The animal is said to be somewhere between three and nine metres long. Its skin is called either scaly or smooth, and no fin is said to sit on its back. Its head has been likened to that of a dog, a seahorse and a pig. In one reported case, a man was out on the lake with his daughter and grandson when they saw it about twelve metres away. He said the head and back came up and the body rolled over. The tail was never seen, and the head reminded him of a seahorse.

Older Cree accounts

The oldest reports belong to the time before settlement. The local Cree, according to the record, told of people who went into the creature's territory and were never seen again, so the water carried a warning with it. Later accounts come from settlers and from people out fishing or boating rather than from the Cree, and they describe a sighting instead of a disappearance. Local Indigenous residents are said to be uneasy about the attention the story brings, and some of them say the animal is simply a very large sturgeon that left its usual range and now lives in the lake.

The sturgeon explanation

Gord Sedgewick, a fisheries biologist who worked with Saskatchewan's environment ministry, set out the case in writing. Lake sturgeon live in the Saskatchewan River system, and water leaving Turtle Lake runs down the Turtle River into the North Saskatchewan River. In a year of very high outflow, he argued, a sturgeon could have swum upstream and ended up in the lake. Sturgeon live a long time, so the few that arrived might have stayed for many decades, growing bigger as they aged. They feed on the bottom, which would make them hard to spot. He judged that such fish could account for the reports.

Open questions

Nobody has produced a body, a photograph or a netted fish, so nothing is settled. Alongside the sturgeon idea, people have raised the possibility that the sightings are of a relict group of prehistoric plesiosaurs, though this is speculation and no evidence is offered for it. The biologist's note points out that the story has gone quiet, with nothing reported in recent years when he wrote. He also compared Turtle Lake with Candle Lake, which is linked to the same river system and where large sturgeon have been caught, showing that such fish can travel upstream into a lake. For Turtle Lake itself, he wrote, the answer may never be known.

How Turtle Lake Monster is kept

There is no ceremony and no fixed practice here. What repeats is a pattern. Someone is out on the water, fishing or boating, and reports a large shape moving near the boat. Such a claim comes up about once a year. Witnesses describe a head and back breaking the surface and the body rolling. The Cree accounts from before settlement are different in kind: they tell of people who went into the creature's territory and did not come back. People living around the lake are reported to be wary of the attention the story draws.

When and where

There is no date and nothing is scheduled. Sightings are reported during the open water season, when people are out on the lake, and they are claimed about once a year. When the fisheries biologist wrote his note, nothing had been reported for several years.

The story belongs to Turtle Lake, in the west-central part of Saskatchewan, Canada, and to the Cree people of that area. The lake drains through the Turtle River into the North Saskatchewan River, a link that matters to the sturgeon reading. Reports come from people out on the water and from those who live nearby.

What Turtle Lake Monster means

In Cree accounts the creature's territory was a place of loss, where people went in and did not return, which fixed a warning to the water. For those who repeat the sightings, the lake holds something unexplained that shows itself only now and then. The sturgeon reading turns this round: a fish few would notice, living on for decades, becomes enormous and strange. Residents are reported to be uneasy about the publicity, and some of them offer the sturgeon as their own answer.

Questions people ask about Turtle Lake Monster

See also

Fortune-tellingReading cards, palms or tea leaves to tell a client what may lie aheadJack-o'-lanternA carved pumpkin lantern lit with a candle to brighten and protect Halloween nightsBaldoon MysteryA ghost story from Wallaceburg, Ontario, about a cursed farm and a silver bulletFairy ringA natural ring of mushrooms formed by fungal growth, surrounded by folklore across Europe and beyond.

Good reading and sources

• Turtle Lake Monster on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-10.