Hoppie

A drawing likely from the NJ government

Hoppie (Also known as the Sandy Hook Sea Serpent) is a reptilian canine creature said to live in the largest freshwater lake in New Jersey, Lake Hopatcong. It was also seen in other places such as Sandy Hook, and the Red Bank shore.

Origin/Sightings

In 1879, the Sandy Hook Life Saving Service was on the waters of the Sandy Hook shore, when suddenly they saw something horrifying which made them go back to shore and explain what they saw. According to the people, they saw a 50 foot serpentine creature rise up from the water near the boat, above its two eyes were 2 horns! The head of this reptilian had a bulldog-like appearance. It also had saucer eyes. The creature started slithering to the front of the boat uninvited and gave a loud roar to the people. The people on the boat gave official statements to a research team, so the research team determined that what they saw was a squid. Although an answer was given on what they saw, no-one could explain the serpent-like movements the team described. The water largely cleared at the time, but more sightings happened in the area after that.

Almost a decade after the 1879 sighting, in 1887 some merchants were sailing back to Red Bank, New Jersey after a long day of picnicking at a beach in Highland, New Jersey. At 10 PM, while the merchants were almost back at Red Bank, something was coming out of the water. The boat steered away from the thing and avoided collision; the serpent lurked ahead of them; this had also been spotted in the last two years. The merchants' description of the creature was similar to previous ones, 40-50 feet long, dog like face, saucer eyes, and slithering pointed tail. These sightings were very credible, so much so that it even appeared in local and research newspapers. The Scientific American published a piece that detailed the 1887 sighting. It attributed the attack to a giant squid, due to the slithering movements the merchants reported. Despite all of the reports, no newspaper ever discredited the sighting, as all the merchants were notably reliable and were sober witnesses.

An 1887 drawing of the serpent, someone hasn't been a good boy.

Tension took a rise in the NJ communities, as there were more reports of the bad dog in rumors and newspapers. No credible reports or evidence were put forward about the creature for more than 5 years. Fear for the locals increased as they were waiting for the next sighting, the tension broke however when another sighting happened, in Lake Hopatcong, the biggest freshwater lake in New Jersey. In 1894, a fisherman was just doing his stuff at the lake, when something slithered over the water to the back of his boat. Terrified, the fisherman rushed to the shore with claims that the serpent had once again come back, that the serpent was a bitch. The fisherman's description of the beast was similar to previous ones, 40 feet long, head of a Burmese dog, and the body of a snake. It also had a black body with a dirty white underbelly. On the same day, another boater encountered the bad boy. He fired his rifle at the head of the serpent, killing him. Just kidding, somehow THE .38 CALIBER BULLET BOUNCED OFF OF HIM. THAT'S NOT THE WORST PART, THE MAN CLAIMED HE FUCKING WINKED AT HIM, WINKED!!!! The accounts of the creature were in both the local press and New York World in August of the same year. NJ communities have named this creature Hoppie, after the lake it lives in, Lake Hopatcong.

An article in a paper about this event

In 1967, not only was Vin Diesel born, but the Asbury Park Press had interviewed an 84-year-old named Rube Corlies. In 1906, he was a fisherman, and he was fishing off the Long Island beach with his brother-in-law. The story seems to be the same creature that was seen before in Sandy Hook and the Shrewsbury River. While pulling nets, his brother-in-law noticed that the mossbunkers that were caught acted odd, swimming in all directions. Then suddenly, a snake-like creature emerged from the deep blue and reared up to a height of 15 feet. The creature had a shiny black back and a white flabby belly, it also had a bulldog-like head. Its eyes were apparently "as big as your hat", and it was about 40 feet long and 6 feet wide. The creature stared at them for several minutes until one of the two released the net, which freed the mossbunkers, but suddenly the creature dived after the two. Other crews witnessed this, the creature was apparently like liquid glass, with no discernable eyes or features, and it was flat like a giant tube worm. In the 1980s a family went far out into the sea off Sandy Hook to hunt scallops. Suddenly, once again that serpent had come out of the water next to their boat. This time, the creature was apparently 100 feet long and 6-7 feet in girth, whatever girth means. It had a small head which resembled a bulldog with large eyes. The family had seen it many times and even heard its vocalizations, it roared.

In the 1990s, a surf caster in 3 feet of the Sandy Hook waters had noticed a large undulating movement in the water. He didn't think much of it until a searing pain came from his calf, he struggled out of the water with blood pouring out of the wound. He noticed that the calf was gone, torn apart. He managed to survive, but he never went into the ocean again.

Some articles about Hoppie call him "New Jersey's Loch Ness monster". It seems every single body of water needs to have a Nessie now, ridiculous.

People near the lake

Despite what it's said lives there and it appearing in a book called "Monsters of New Jersey", the people near Hopatcong consider Hoppie a "creature" rather than a "monster", because Hoppie is considered a friendly resident of the lake. Yeah, tell that to the surf caster and the SHLSS people. Marty Kane, who is the president of the Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum, spoke about Hoppie, "This is how Hoppie got started, it's very reminiscent. Someone saw something and then publicity just takes over. People read about it in the paper, and it takes off from there; 120 years later the more things have changed, the more they don't. There is always a thought alcohol was involved." landingnewjersey.com, a community run website, has also spoken about Hoppie in a post. "Landing has a population of approx 7,300 people, several dozen white-tailed deer, a few bears, and one elusive water creature named "Hoppie", who lives in the depths of Lake Hopatcong and can occasionally be seen swimming on the surface of the Lake," read the post. "Please don't think of him as a sea monster, he is generally considered to be quite friendly!" NJ is one weird state.

The return of Hoppie?

Now, the serpent was just a local tale, but that all changed in 2014. There was a panic in New Jersey when there was a news report of a serpent like creature swimming in Lake Hopatcong. Stories of Hoppie from the 1800s have been circulating the media, explaining its appearance and nature. Unlike in the 1800s, the encounter with Hoppie was explained. Hoppie's return has fascinated Gerald Andrejcak, who was a reptile specialist, and a zoologist. New tensions were back in the New Jersey community, so Gerald went to the lake to see what creature was behind the rumors. Turns out, Hoppie was not back. Gerald found the creature that thought it would be funny to swim and start rumors of Hoppie's return. It was a 16 foot green anaconda. He explained that anacondas can be aggressive and can grow up to 26 feet and weigh up to 550 pounds. Below are some videos about the "return".

The size of the video is too big to make a file out it, so here's the link instead:

https://youtu.be/noGSdzNFFF8?si=i5cxsc5tYJXkGxSW

Who was Hoppie?

It's pretty obvious that Hoppie can't exist. A snake and a dog can't just get horny and have offspring, I don't think that's how hybrids work. So, what did all those people in the 1800s see? It can't possibly be any animal that exists today, what kind of animal is shaped like a snake, looks like a dog that can roar, deflect bullets, and EVEN WINK!? Also, how could Hoppie have gone from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Hopatcong? Did it slither all the way there and it didn't get caught? Even if that happened, how would it survive in the lake when it's freshwater unlike the ocean. My best guess is that maybe it's a family of undiscovered creatures due to their different appearances and the fact that the creature survived in freshwater. I have no clue what Hoppie could have been. We might never know now as barely anyone knows about Hoppie any more, so no-one is really investigating. What an underrated creature.

Pictures of Hoppie

Still can't process the fact a bullet deflected off him, and he even winked!

Bro thinks he's a fountain

What the?