Nevada Lore Series: Walker Lake's famed sea monster, Cecil the Serpent

Legend tells of a terrifying monster that is supposed to reside in the depths of Walker Lake who has been sighted for centuries. For years, Cecil even had his own float in the Nevada Day Parade.

The legend of Cecil seems to have been first written down in the early-to-mid 1800s, when Nevada was first being explored by white settlers looking to spread out and maybe try their hand at finding gold or homesteading.

According to the legend, the lake was native to a Paiute tribe who told the settlers stories of a giant snake-like creature that lived in the depths of the lake, and was known to have eaten numerous members of the tribe. They refused to go out on the lake for fishing out of fear of becoming the serpent’s dinner.

The stories grew, thanks to publications reporting sightings and even a few bizarre battles with the lake monster.

In 1868, a letter to the editor of the Esmerelda Union out of Aurora, resident Reuben Strathers said he and a friend had killed one of the monsters. He said the creature had a head similar to a crocodile, with its front feet near its neck, with a monstrously long tail. He said it was covered in scales that glistened in the morning sun.

In 1907 a piece published by the Washington Herald reports that a prospector from Goldfield has seen the monster from the depths. The story goes that Don Cornelison and his friend John McCorry had been fishing in a both a mile from the shore when they spotted the creature.

The report stated: “Cornelison says that at first sight he took the serpent for a man in a skiff, and when it disappeared for a moment he thought the boat had capzied, and rowed toward the spot, when it suddenly reappeared, giving them a good view of its proportions, which they estimated to be about thirty feet in length and six feet across the back.”

In 1909, the Reno Evening Gazette reported that a Japanese railroad worker had attempted to swim ashore from a boat but was lost to the water and it was believed the monster ate his remains, as his body was never found.

In 1915, the Walker River Bulletin put out a bizarre report claiming the monsters had disrupted the lake into a kind of tsunami. In the story it said that in July of the same year, a month previous to the story coming out, there had been a violent disturbance of the water near Dutch Creek. It was so violent that some people believed it to be a volcanic eruption nearby, while others swore it was the serpents. The story said, “After the outburst or upheaval of water, which sent white horses in every direction, white smoke or fog arose to the crest of Mountain Grant.”

In 1934 the Mineral County Independent noted there were underground springs feeding into the lake and that it was believed to join together in an underground passage with Pyramid Lake, and that the monsters traveled between the lakes using the passage.

There were also recordings of a similar lake serpent in Pyramid beginning in the 1870s. An agent to the Paiute-Shoshone tribe named Le Bass wrote to Major Henry Douglas who was the Superintendent of Indian affairs. In the letter it said, “the Pyramid Lake Paiutes tell of their ancestors seeing a large snake or serpent in the lake some two or three hundred feet long.”

A Paiute legend tells the story of a young man who mocked the story of the Pyramid Lake serpent and was eaten feet first while his friend ran to get help, leaving only his head, arms, and shoulders behind.

A bizarre report circled for awhile that on the shores of Walker Lake, two of the serpents got into a fight with each other that could be seen by settlers on the shoreline. The serpents then moved onto the shore, and one killed the other. The story says that the champion sunned itself on the lakeshore before returning to the water. The Goldfield Tribune reported that eyewitnesses claimed the serpent’s body was around 70 feet long.

Sightings are still reported today, as people spot the creature while camping or even simply driving past Walker Lake.

How did Cecil the Serpent get his name? I genuinely don’t know. It could be that they began calling the lake monster Cecil after the popular cartoon about Cecil the Sea Serpent came out, which changed the Walker Lake Monster from a horrifying, teenager-eating monster into a cutesy story, similar to the transition of our favorite Tahoe Tessie.

In a strange twist, it is said that if you bring marshmallows to the lake for Cecil and toss them in, he won't turn you into his dinner, so if you ever go, make sure to bring him candy, just in case.

Though unfortunately Cecil hasn’t been spotted in the Nevada Day parade for a few decades, he makes appearances in Hawthorne, and this year he attended the Armed Forces Parade in May.

You can also follow him on facebook by clicking here where he is listed as a public figure, rightly so.

Have you seen Cecil in Walker Lake yourself? Tell us below.

— The Nevada Lore Series focuses on the legends of Nevada and the surrounding areas that help build our culture, from ancient Washoe stories, to Old West ghostly visions, to modern day urban legends.

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