Lake Mendota is the largest of Madison, WI’s four lakes, and it’s dubbed the world’s most studied as the birthplace of limnology. While textbooks have been filled with science derived from the lake, even more could be filled by the strange and unusual in and around Mendota’s waters.

With one foot in the physical, Mendota’s shores are lined with effigy mounds thousands of years old. With another foot in folklore, the lake is said to be the home of a monstrous serpent named Bozho. In between are the indigenous myths of water spirits and the modern-day accounts of UFOs, bigfoot and more.

This article will attempt to explore it all — finding the facts behind the lore and how it all fits together — starting with Mendota’s most famous figure, Bozho.

Billy Dunn’s Snake Story

Before he was Bozho, the newspapers referred to him as the Lake Mendota Sea Serpent. While it’s often said that reports of the serpent began in the 1860s, this is only somewhat true. After reports of the serpent became popular in the early 1890s, W.J. Park, a prominent Madison resident, would write a letter to the editor detailing his sighting of the serpent in 1860, effectively retconning sightings of the serpent to then.

Rather, I believe the true origins of the serpent, or at least its popularization, started in 1883 with renowned fisherman William “Billy” Dunn.

As reported in the June 23, 1883, edition of the Madison Wisconsin State Journal, Dunn’s encounter with the serpent occurred on the morning of June 22. He and his wife were boating near what was then known as “Livesey’s bluff” — which I believe today would be somewhere in this vicinity, likely near Fox Bluff.

The article, “A True Snake Story,” recounts Dunn’s encounter with the serpent as follows:

“Dunn, accompanied by his wife, was fishing, some distance from the shore, about 11 o’clock in the morning, when his attention was attracted by a black object that was moving threateningly toward him from the direction of the middle of the lake. … as it neared the boat, the outlines of a large snake were seen. The head of the reptile was reared in the air two feet or more above the surface of the water as it came darting onward toward the boat, and the water was disturbed for some distance in the rear, showing that the slimy creature was of considerable length.” – Madison Wisconsin State Journal, June 23, 1883.

Dunn went on the defensive as the snake neared. Arming himself with an oar, he swung at the serpent, agitating it. The serpent drew back its head, black tongue darting to and fro, and aimed to strike the boat. Luckily, Dunn struck first:

“The oar was well aimed, however, and fell across the reptile’s neck with such force that the creature was partially stunned, but before the oar could be withdrawn the coils of the snake held it in an embrace whose indentures are still visible in the hard wood. The reptile recovered in a moment from its temporary stunning and raising its head in the air darted its fangs entirely through the oar, and, while its head was thus held down, Dunn struck it several blows with the other oar and then used a hatchet until the creature uncoiled itself, and its fangs being severed by one blow of the hatchet, the body sank from sight.” – Madison Wisconsin State Journal, June 23, 1883.

The article laments that the snake’s sinking leaves its official length unknown. Dunn speculated it was “several feet long and several inches in diameter” and said its body was a light color with white spots of three-quarters of an inch in length.

A drummer from Chicago supposedly bought the oar with the embedded fangs and the article states that it will be showcased at a “prominent museum of Chicago.” However, a recounting of Dunn’s story in an 1892 edition of the Chicago Tribune claims Dunn kept the oar.

Is this discrepancy a sign that Dunn’s encounter with the serpent was merely a tall tale, if not an outright fabrication? Fishermen are known for their stories, and Dunn did spin humorous tales — he claimed to own a pet fish large enough to pull his boat — but otherwise, Dunn seems to be a respectable figure. He was a Civil War vet, made his living as a mailman and even took President Cleveland fishing on Lake Mendota. In fact, outside of the serpent, Dunn is primarily mentioned in the newspapers for his angling exploits.

The snake is also not the only oversized, slimy thing to be encountered in Mendota’s waters. In 1875, a 42-inch eel was caught and a three-foot-long one was later captured in 1889.

The writeup of the latter eel account mentions Dunn’s run-in with the snake and says Dunn now believes that what he fought was a “rattlesnake pilot” around eight feet long. “Rattlesnake pilot” can refer to a couple of species. If Dunn was thinking of a broad-banded copperhead, his original description of the snake’s color somewhat matches — but it’s a species that has no right being in Wisconsin.

From Snake to Sea Serpent

Regardless of whether Dunn’s story was true or not, it kicked off a sea serpent flap of sorts.

In 1889, a person only identified as “a local sportsman” fishing off Picnic Point encountered the serpent. The sportsman was having no luck that day and determined to get a bite, stayed fishing into the early evening. As darkness began settling in, the lake was suddenly alive with activity. Something splashed, then rushed by his boat. He described it as a “great monster” whose movements nearly threw him from the boat.

Aside from the creature’s large head, the sportsman could make little out in the darkness but estimated the creature to be five to ten feet long.

The sportsman admits he was reluctant to report his encounter for fear of ridicule “as they did at Billy Dunn.” However, he said the encounter made him a thorough believer in Dunn’s tale.

Prior to the sportsman’s story, a short article in The Pick and Gad out of Shullsburg, WI, recounts Joseph W. Daubner’s run-in with the serpent — who got a good view of the creature:

“The monster was feeding at the mouth of the sewer, which comes from the Mendota hospital. Mr. Daubner saw the head and about three feet of the body. He is sure that the head, from eye to eye, was not less than eight inches in width. Judging from the motion of the water the body of this creature must be from fifteen to twenty feet in length.” – The Pick and Gad, September 29, 1892.

The report continues that when the serpent submerged, it created a wake easily felt by Daubner.

As previously noted, W.J. Park wrote to the State Journal in 1892 detailing his 1860 encounter. His account is quite similar to others. He mistook the serpent at first for a log before it moved and disturbed the water with its great size.

As the years progressed, the serpent occasionally reappeared in print, getting brief mentions in Wisconsin papers.

In 1899, the Baraboo Republic had the next significant mention of the serpent. Mrs. E. Grove, Mrs. J.J. Pecher and several other women saw the serpent while out boating as part of a camping party:

“They say they saw a long, snake-like monster with a head ten inches across, and a tail which had horns. They started for the shore and the serpent, apparently as much frightened as they, plunged, they say, into the depths of the lake, making a great deal of foam.” – Baraboo Republic, August 9, 1899.

This will be the last meaningful reference to the serpent I can find. While it gets referenced occasionally in the intervening years, somewhat facetiously, it won’t be until 1942 that the papers next mention the creature — emerging then as Bozho.

Bozho the Trickster

The possibility of yellow journalism aside, the above accounts mainly treat the serpent seriously. However, Bozho is a monster of folklore. Charles E. Brown can be credited with Bozho’s popularity. Most of what you read today about Bozho are telephone game-esque retellings from Brown’s writings.

Brown helped found the Wisconsin Archeological Society in 1903. He was also the curator of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin’s museum. Notably, Brown is credited with saving and preserving many of Wisconsin’s effigy and burial mounds, particularly those found around Madison’s four lakes.

He was also a folklorist, collecting an assortment of Wisconsin tales on multiple subjects and publishing them in pamphlets. It is from his 1942 pamphlet, “Sea Serpents; Wisconsin Occurrences of These Weird Water Monsters in the Four Lakes, Rock, Red Cedar, Koshkonong, Geneva, Elkhart, Michigan, and Other Lakes,” that Bozho appears in.

Bozho’s lore begins, as Brown writes, in 1917 when a university student walking on the shore of Picnic Point found a large object resembling a fish scale. He took it to his professor, who identified it as a scale from the body of a sea serpent.

Come autumn, Brown recounts, a fisherman would have the fright of his life when Bozho raised its large, snake-like head above the water less than 100 feet from the angler, who described Bozho as having a “large jaw and blazing eyes.”

Though appearing fearsome, Bozho is most famous for one particularly tickling tale:

“… a university boy and coed companion were one day sun-tanning their backs at the end of a frat house pier. They were lying on their stomachs with their feet toward the lake. They had been in this position but a short time when the girl felt something tickling the sole of one of her feet. Whenever this happened, she looked at the young man, thinking it might be him. But he was lying quietly with his eyes closed. So the young lady lay down again and closed her eyes, too. A few minutes later, something began to tickle the soles of her feet again. This was not to be tolerated. Turning over quickly, she saw the head and neck of a huge snake, or dragon, extended above the surface. It had a friendly, humorous look in its big eyes.” – Sea Serpents; Wisconsin Occurrences of These Weird Water Monsters in the Four Lakes, Rock, Red Cedar, Koshkonong, Geneva, Elkhart, Michigan, and Other Lakes, Charles E. Brown, 1942.

Brown notes that this playful, trickish behavior is not unusual for Bozho. Overall, Bozho was a good-natured creature fond of overturning canoes, chasing boats and uprooting piers, among other pranks. Waterspouts on the lake were said to be Bozho’s work, too.

Curiously, while Brown alludes to Dunn’s and others’ reports in his pamphlet, he never directly cites them when writing about Bozho, unlike with other Madison monsters.

When writing about Lake Monona’s sea serpent, Brown references by date and title the June 12, 1897, Wisconsin State Journal article “What-Is-It In Lake?“

Yes, there are two sea serpents in Madison. That is unless you believe Bozho knew a way to travel between both lakes. Some people do. There are fewer details and writings on the Monona serpent than Bozho, though it apparently had an appetite for dogs.

But the critical question is: Why would Brown cite an article about Monona’s monster and ignore all the articles about Mendota’s serpent?

Did Brown know those reports of the serpent were fictitious? At the beginning of his pamphlet, he warns that many of these creatures may result from mistaken identity or be fabricated by real estate agents and summer resort promoters. Yet, he acknowledges that the Monona creature has been spotted near resorts, likely by the very same people he accuses of creating monsters to attract tourists.

Further, we have to wonder, even if Brown had it on good authority that Dunn and the others lied about their run-ins with the serpent, why ignore such naturally grown lore in a book of folklore? Dunn’s run-in with a snake turning into a foot-tickling-monster over the years is about as organic as local legends get.

The whole thing is precarious and smacks of anomalous phenomenon’s often self-negating nature. Yet, it might make sense when you consider how Bozho got his name. It’s short for Winnebozho — the Ojibwe’s trickster spirit.

According to “Minnesota Indian History and Culture Lessons,” Winnebozho is the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe’s spelling of the more common form, Nanabozho. He is the Anishinaabe’s cultural hero and trickster figure. Nanabozho’s name has many different spellings, and he is featured in many different stories.

As strange as it is that Brown would neglect Bozho’s newspaper accounts, it’s equally curious that Bozho would derive his name from an Ojibwe figure when Lake Mendota and the entirety of the Madison area were and are home to the Ho-Chunk people.

Mendota’s Indigenous Roots

The Ho-Chunk’s name for Lake Mendota was Wâkcikhomįgra (The Indian’s Bed), and Mendota was their home for roughly 12,000 years.

Effigy mounds, built by Woodland period ancestors of the Ho-Chunk, can be found throughout Lake Mendota’s shores and the greater Dane County area. The purpose of the mounds is not fully known, though many were likely constructed for burial purposes.

Some of the grandest mounds can be found on the grounds of the Mendota Mental Health Institute (MMHI). The largest effigy mound at MMHI is the eagle, or thunderbird, effigy with a wingspan of 624 feet. MMHI’s grounds also feature panther, or water spirit, effigies.

Water spirits fall into good and bad camps, though they generally lean towards the mischievous, if not outright menacing, Richard L. Dieterle writes. They are described as scaly beasts with horns, four legs and an infinitely long tail. Some water spirits are drawn with a human face, while others are depicted with more feline or panther-like qualities, such as the effigy mound at MMHI.

The bad tribe of water spirits is said to be spotted like snakes.

A den of particularly ornery water spirits was said to reside in the waters of Lake Mendota off the shore of Governor’s Island. When angry, the spirits churned the lake’s waters and overturned canoes. They were appeased with offerings of tobacco.

A slew of additional indigenous folklore is centered around Lake Mendota, from the thunder eagles on Fox Bluff to a gateway to the spirit world at Merril Springs.

Notably, it’s said rattlesnakes were once found in abundance on Governor’s Island and were regarded as sacred. In another of his pamphlets, “Lake Mendota Indian Legends,” Brown writes that the snakes were put there to keep away evil.

Most grisly is a legend that the lake demands a yearly drowning.

In all this lore, we can find shades of Bozho, from angry water spirits tipping over canoes to sacred serpents. Perhaps the spotted snake Billy Dunn fought was actually the tail of a water spirit? Or maybe it was a remnant of Governor’s Island’s revered rattlesnakes? It’s hard not to see Bozho as a contemporary manifestation of these legends, though sadly, he no longer haunts the lake.

Indeed, it’s said Bozho left Mendota via the Yahara River. And there are no modern-day accounts of the sea serpent that I can find.

But that’s not to say Mendota is without modern-day mysteries. Today, reports focus less on what’s in the lake’s waters and more on what’s seen in its skies.

High Strangeness on the Lake

Searching the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) reveals a number of UFO encounters above and around Lake Mendota. The earliest report comes from 1990.

Three men from MMHI were boating after their shift ended at 11 p.m. The two men at the front of the boat had been chatting for some time when they noticed their other friend hadn’t said anything for a while and jokingly asked if he’d fallen asleep:

“He answered with a laugh and said he’d been watching three interesting lights. He pointed them out to us. They were very high in the sky; if one horizon was three o’clock and the other horizon was nine o’clock, then these lights were now at about 11:30, nearly overhead. He said he’d been watching them for a long time, and they hadn’t changed formation. They were arranged in a triangular formation, one light leading the other two, and they were just progressing across the sky. It was hard to distinguish them from the stars on this clear night, they seemed to be just about that size and brightness. We thought, at first, it was a plane; but then noted you could see the background stars between them as they went.

The lights finally made it to directly overhead and they stopped. They just sat in place for about half a minute. Then, from a complete stop, they shot apart in three directions and out of sight in a brief second. We had no idea what they were. No one talked about seeing them the next day. No coverage in the news media.” – NUFORC Sighting 109591.

One of the more dazzling accounts involves four objects hovering over the lake, witnessed by a crowd of people. The report comes from a man speaking at an event for an organization that “helps people stay sober.” He notes that during his talk, which focused on his life and journey to sobriety, he humorously mentioned always feeling like an alien in his family:

“After my talk, which ended at 8:30PM CST, I was standing around inside the building chatting with some of my fellow recovering folk, when one of our brethren came into the room where we were and yelled: “Hey, (my name)…Your people are here!!!” Several of us went outside to see what our friend was yelling about. To our surprise, hovering over Lake Mendota, very close to the house, four light objects were hovering silently. They hovered in a staggered formation for a few moments, almost like motorcyclists riding on a highway.

One broke away from the others and drifted slowly toward the roof of a large apartment building next to our clubhouse. It hovered over the apartment roof for a few moments, winked out abruptly, and just as abruptly reappeared with the other three again. All four objects pulsated, changed colors, and alternately grew dimmer and brighter as we watched them. There were no noises associated with them, although several of our group were noisily making jokes about them. We were all pretty amazed, albeit somewhat skeptical, and thoroughly curious. Eventually, one by one, they all grew very dim and disappeared from our view. The event took approximately 10 minutes. There were roughly about 20 of us in the parking lot. I would estimate the distance between us and the lights to be about a quarter of a mile…maybe.” –­ NUFORC Sighting 25262.

Later, the same witness as above had an additional sighting of a color-changing light over the lake.

Anomalous lights are relatively common over Mendota, sometimes seen in the form of fireballs. Other times, classic disc-shaped objects or luminous spheres are seen.

My favorite account is that of a flying boot from 1995:

“My girlfriend here at the University of Wisconsin told me that she was studying at a campus library one afternoon during exam week, sometime around May 12 give or take 3 or 4 days either way, and saw a strange object flying over Lake Mendota.

She said the object was shaped like the cross-section of a regular boot would appear. It didn’t appear to make any strange flight patterns or have any lights, especially since it was daytime, but the boot was receding somewhat quickly away from her view. A woman studying across from her noticed the object as well, and both agreed it was strange. They ruled out a blimp, weather balloon, helicopter, and airplane. Since it was already quite far, it was difficult to make out any particular coloring or other surface pattern.” –NUFORC Sighting 657.

Strangeness isn’t just in the air over Lake Mendota — it also stalks its shores. On the night of January 18, 2016, several young men saw a bigfoot-like creature. They described the creature as seven or eight feet tall with “a ton of hair” in their report to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO)

Following up with the person who submitted the report, BFRO Investigator Rick Reles relates:

“He and two friends were walking back from class to their dorms on North Henry Street, along the South side of Lake Mendota, near the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. It was dusk, and they were descending steps near a cliff to traverse the frozen lake surface. Suddenly, they saw a 7-8 foot tall creature, covered in dark hair, approx.100 feet in front of them, next to a stand of bushes and trees. They described it as big and broad, like Shaquille O’Neal, only 70-100 pounds heavier. It was at the shoreline among bushes, and was picking at vegetation. It saw them, and they stopped in their tracks, scared. They were intimidated, saying, “It felt like your Dad had just yelled at you.” They thought of running, but stayed their ground and watched for 20 seconds, when the creature began making a ‘low pitched purring noise’, which turned into a growl. The three students were starting to turn, when the creature ambled into the woods, on two legs, loudly crunching branches, and trees as it went away.” – Rick Reles, BFRO Report 50982.

Reles continued that the students said the creature had red glowing eyes and a large face. The entire encounter lasted around 45 seconds.

I believe these are the steps the group took to Mendota’s shore where the creature was seen in the report: 694 N Henry St – Google Maps.

Reles added that he followed up with an additional sighting a few days later that happened only a few blocks away from the first of another sizeable black creature in a field. While Reles included few details from this additional sighting, he notes that he knows the witness personally as a trustworthy and honest person.

Outside of UFOs and hulking creatures, it should also be noted that there are some supposedly haunted locations around the lake. However, information on them is scarce, but be sure to read the comment left on the latter linked location.

In Conclusion, There Be Monsters?

So, what can we take away from all this? On the surface, it’s obvious Lake Mendota is strange or at least home to strange things. But if we dive deeper, we can see that this strangeness has a fabric, folklore blending with perceived reality.

For thousands of years, the inhabitants of Lake Mendota recognized it as a sacred spot, adorning its shores with effigy mounds and entombing their kin to its land.

They held beliefs of spirits in the lake’s waters. These horned, spotted spirits were part feline, part reptile and had endlessly long tails. They were feared for capsizing canoes and creating rough water.

Flashforward some thousand years, and the new inhabitants of the area report run-ins with sea serpents, set off by Billy Dunn’s battle with an oversized spotted snake. Later reports of the serpent would describe it, too, as horned.

Eventually, this serpent would gain the name Bozho after the Ojibwe trickster god, undoubtedly due to its penchant for pranks, like overturning canoes and creating waterspouts. Bozho left the lake’s waters sometime in the early 1900s, with his story later popularized by Charles Brown in 1942 — only five years before Kenneth Arnold’s famous flying saucer sighting and the dawn of the modern UFO era.

And now today, UFO reports replace serpent sightings, along with a dash of sasquatch mixed in.

Is it the natural evolution of folklore or does Mendota hold more than meets the eye? Anomalous activity that eludes those who’ve studied the world’s most studied lake but pops up to frighten fishermen and dazzle sailors with lights in the sky.

I like to think Bozho might still be somewhere in the water, waiting to be remembered. Maybe on some warm day in June, if enough people with enough tobacco offerings visit the lake, we can coax Bozho to reappear. I’ll personally lay inattentive on a pier, with my bare feet dangling just off the edge waiting to be tickled, if that’s what it takes to raise the serpent.

If nothing else, it would make for a good story.