WOAH! Slow my roll here. I've been gone too long from telling these tales. Apologies, I was caught in a tornado that landed me under a house somewhere in Oz.
Before I start to chat about the Icon # 3 - Messie The Moodus Reservoir Monster, I want to give a shout out to all the wonderful folks who have supported this project since I launched it in July. Whether you bought a EHMT t-shirt (and if you haven't - WHY NOT!), sent me a note, or stopped by my table at one of the local events, I am greatly appreciative of your interest and inspiration to continue the journey. I was urged to tell more tales, so more tales I will tell.
All great legends are rooted in a spark of truth. An odd moment in time is witnessed and perceived through the lens of it's time and filtered through the mysterious mind of it's perceiver, then takes root in the imagination where it germinates and grows, gets shared with others, then reinterpreted by others, then retold. This can go on for a moment or forever, depending on how good the legend is. We only need think of Roswell, New Mexico or the vast wildnerness of British Columbia, home of some of the most enduring mysteries of our time.
In 2014, I had the incredible gift of being able to visit Scotland with a personal tour guide who had lived their for a decade and knew every loch, crag, and legend it had to offer. I toured haunted castle ruins, ancient winding country lanes with nothing but highland cattle and sheep to keep us company, and of course the famous body of water, Loch Ness. It turns out that the Boleskine House was situated on Loch Ness and I was able to hunker down in it's private cemetary one night, while owls called back and forth across the Loch above my head. I joined in of course and though our song was magical, it did not keep at bay how truly creepy the land was around the house made famous by Aleister Crowley and later, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. I was saddened to hear that the house burned down a year after my night owl visit but the evening will remain one of my top 3.
Below the Boleskine house and cemetary, the dark cold waters of Loch Ness stretch in either direction as far as one can see. High ridges on either side color the water steel and iron, and from above, one can imagine any number of odd creatures living beneath it's surface. The loch is also deep, adding to it's austere dangerous beauty.
Earlier in the afternoon, we toured the small museum, took pictures hanging off the Nessie sculpture, and sipped homemade beer at the Loch Ness tavern. All good fun for the tourists. I remember my bar mate was a large and gruff looking hunting dog, as in the four legged kind. Apparently he has his own private stool and mug. He was quite helpful with my french fries and gave me a tour around the tavern to meet his other mates. Highly recommend stopping in there if you travel that way.
We all know the story of Nessie by now. In 1933, a story was published in a local Scottish paper about a sighting of a large, long necked animal "monster" swimming about the loch. It was not the first sighting reported but it was the one that caught fire. Sightings of something odd go back as far as the 6th century. As of 1940 she had her own knickname, Nessie. Of course there has never been hard proof of Nessie's existence, and scientists take all the fun out of it with their practical hodgepodge testing, but that does not stop the believers or those looking for her, including me that day while visiting. I will never buy into if we can't prove something, it doesn't exist. Ever. It's an arrogant POV and leaves no room for possibility.
So how does a loch monster get into an East Haddam legend? It started a few summers ago, when a local resident posted a strange photograph on our town Facebook page. It was taken at Moodus Reservoir during the day, and it showed something very odd hovering over the water. It didn't look like a bird, or any other animal we knew of. It also didn't look like a drone. I wish I had the picture to share but I was never able to get ahold of the person who posted it and I wouldn't post it without permission. I replied on the post, "It must be Messie, The Moodus Reservoir Monster!"
Which gained some traction apparently and I received great feedback with locals excited to have our own water monster legend. What town doesn't need it's own water monster legend?
It's catching on just shows that legends are born of kernels of truth, at the very least. There was definitely an odd "something" hovering just above the water that made no sense to anyone viewing the picture. It wasn't an aquatic swimmer like Nessie, rather more like a surface hoverer. It was large enough to see across the reservoir which is over 400 acres of space and the gentleman who posted it said it just stayed in that spot, hovering, for quite awhile, then dissapeared. Poof. Gone. He wasn't sure if it went under water, or flew too fast out of sight, but it was gone.
It was actually that photo and his genuine confusion as to what he was witnessing that really launched the East Haddam Legends and Lore Club, as well as the EHMT map.
Is there a monster in the Moodus Reservoir? Aliens? Hoverers? Well, besides invasive plant species, not likely. It's only 10' deep and home to the town beach and has a lot of local swimmers and boat traffic. I have kayaked there and didn't see any great beast gliding through the water, leaving a wake to chase behind. It is beautiful though. And a bit eerie. Moodus is a bit eerie in general, and that is no offense to my neighbors.
We like it eerie out here.
If you want to check out the Moodus Reservoir for yourself, take route 149, south on Bashan Falls Road, east on Haddam-Colchester Turnpike, right on Launching Area Road, just before causeway.
If you swing by, say hi to Messie for us!
Contact - ctriverlore@gmail.com
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