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My first hand account of the Turtle Lake Monster as a pre-teen

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Hi I'd like to submit my first hand account of the Turtle Lake Monster. "Monster" might be a bit of a strong term (and culminates in myth/legend; much more down to earth, I believe what we saw was most likely a trapped River Sturgeon.

My family lived in Saskatoon and we had a Cabin at Kopp's Cove Turtle Lake from 1978 to 1987. In the summer of 1986 (I -Rob- was ~12 and my brother Dave was ~10) we were canoeing near our beach in the Kopp's Cove area on a calm day when we spotted what we initially perceived to be a log or the partial stub of a power / telephone pole - randomly bobbing/floating out in the bay. We had a small 4 horsepower engine on the stern of our 12 foot flat backed Sports-Pal canoe (as well as some rope), so we decided to head to the object and tow it to shore to get it out of harm's way for boaters.

As we approached the floating object (we were perhaps 15 to 20 feet away) we realized quickly that we were actually seeing the back of a large fish, not a wood log or pole as initially assumed. Dark in tint, smooth and scaly - we saw dorsal fins, scales, and a ridged back. It's hard thinking back to a time when we were youngsters - to give an accurate description of size/scale/length, but I'd issue an educated guess of perhaps 8 to 10 feet. Dave recalls seeing the tale, while I don't (I was operating the engine and piloting the canoe so it's possible he saw more than did I). Neither of us recall seeing the fish's head. Rather than watching the fish for a long period of time (we were excited young boys) and realizing exactly what we were seeing, we boated back to the beach as fast as a Johnson 4 horsepower engine would take us. We ran back to our cabin on Coon Avenue immediately (yelling the entire way) to tell our parents.

When we got back to the beach a few minutes later with parents in tow, the fish had submerged and was gone (it would have been visible even from shore). Naturally as an adult nowadays - I wish in hindsight that we would have stuck around in the canoe longer to watch this amazing site. It was however enough of an experience that it left an indelible picture in my mind of what I saw, and has stuck with me for life.

I will go to my grave knowing something extraordinary lives (or at least lived) in Turtle lake up to and including the late 1980's. Both Dave and I feel that what we saw matched rumours going around the lake for years that the Turtle Lake Monster was in fact most likely a large Sturgeon (as opposed to the great myths circulating of a prehistoric beast). Even if it is simply a large Sturgeon (or family of Sturgeon) that happen to get stuck in the lake because of the dwindling size of the Turtle River - I still think it's an extraordinary Saskatchewan story; a legend with at least some basis in fact. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2604:3d09:e180:5600:e02c:c804:d0a:fe93 (talk) 10:05, 20 December 2020 (UTC)Reply

That's an interesting story but unfortunately we can't accept personal stories or anecdotes. We only use content that's been published by a reliable source. –dlthewave 03:01, 21 December 2020 (UTC)Reply