Freshwater Monster of California.[]
Etymology: From Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the chief resident of Elsinore Castle in Denmark.
Variant name: Elsie.
Physical description: Serpentine. Length, 12 feet. Diameter, 3 feet.
Behavior: Swims by vertical undulations.
Distribution: Lake Elsinore, California.
Significant sightings: First reported in 1884. The lake dried up in both 1951 and 1955, but sightings persisted. Bonnie Pray saw the monster twice in the winter of 1970.
Sources: Los Angeles Daily Illustrated News, May 6, 1942; “The Endless Search,” Fate 23 230 HANTU SAKAI (November 1970): 32–36; John Kirk, In the Domain of Lake Monsters (Toronto, Canada: Key Porter Books, 1998), pp. 171–172 https://mrsdcole.weebly.com/uploads/3/0/9/3/30939737/cryptids_pdf.pdf