MONSTER OF LAKE ELIZABETH

A huge creature the size of a whale with bat-like wings and possibly underwater legs and flippers was reported in this California lake in the 19th Century.  It gave a screaming roar that was p[ossibly the development of a hissing sound.  In 1883 a local rancher reported seeing a huge flying creature at night.    Three years later another witness claimed he had seen a winged monster the size of four elephants, 45' in length with six legs and a bulldog-like head.  A Los Angeles newspaper reported this.  Apparently the witness opened fire on the beast: most of the bullets were flattened against its hide and one ricocheted and hit the witness.  This last story seems to be a variant of the one in which the witness approached the monster closely enough to strike it in the eye.  Another story then said it flew to the area of Tombstone, Arizona,   This version claims it was a pterodactyl and was the subject of the famous "Tombstone Photograph", a photograph of a supposed pterodactyl that a number of people claim to have seen, but which cannot be traced.

Descriptions of the monster do not seem to resemble the usual saurian-like descriptions that so often occur in lake monster reports.  However, in the light of U.S. pterosaur reports, it is not too exceptional.