Memphre
Aliases: Memphré · Lake Memphremagog Serpent / Territory: Canada, États-Unis
The serpent of Lake Memphremagog, curated by a diver-archivist who logged two centuries of sightings — and never once met his creature.
Lake Memphremagog runs some forty kilometres across the border, from Magog in Quebec to Newport, Vermont. Its cold waters, over a hundred metres deep in places, carry one of the continent's best-archived lake monsters — not because the evidence is better here, but because one man spent thirty years filing it. Jacques Boisvert, a decorated Magog scuba diver with thousands of dives in the lake, began compiling sighting accounts in the 1980s, named the creature "Memphré", and with Vermont historian Barbara Malloy founded the International Dracontology Society of Lake Memphremagog — "dracontology" being his own coinage, half in earnest, half with a wink.
The archive Boisvert assembled pushes the record back to the early nineteenth century: around 1816, settler Ralph Merry wrote down his Uniacke-area neighbours' stories of a "great serpent"; in 1847 a regional newspaper reported that a local man had seen a sea-beast in the lake. It is often repeated that the Abenaki warned newcomers against bathing in the lake because of a being in its waters — a caution consistent with the water-serpent figures of Algonquian traditions, but thinly documented at first hand: most of it reaches us filtered through settlers. A real but poorly documented Indigenous tradition must therefore be kept distinct from the modern media monster.
The composite portrait is the standard one: a dark body of eight to fifteen metres, a chain of humps, sometimes a horse- or dragon-like head. Sightings continued through the twentieth century and beyond — several dozen since 1980, usually in calm weather, from shore or small boats. They have yielded no usable photograph, no convincing film, no serious sonar return; Boisvert himself, across thousands of dives, never encountered anything, and said so cheerfully — he believed the witnesses more than the monster.
The available natural explanations cover the file with nothing left over: boat wakes and seiches on a long, windy lake; otters swimming in line; drifting timber, well preserved in cold water; genuinely large fish, including sturgeon; and the pull of an actively tended legend, from Magog's lakeside "Memphré" promenade to the regattas bearing the name. Kept on the open-case shelf mostly by courtesy, Memphré is above all a fine teaching case: a monster whose archive is real, meticulous — and empty of proof.
+ Notable reports
// Shores of Lake Memphremagog
Settler Ralph Merry recorded neighbours' tales of a great water serpent. Unearthed by local archivists, his notes are the file's oldest written trace.
// Lake Memphremagog
A regional newspaper reported that a lakeside resident had seen a sea-creature in the lake. Brief and second-hand, the article launched the serpent's press career.
// Between Magog and Newport
Two fishermen described a long, dark, humped shape passing near their boat. Often cited in Boisvert's compilations, the account has no photograph or corroboration.
// Across the lake
The Dracontology Society logged several dozen reports of humps and anomalous wakes. None produced a usable image; Jacques Boisvert, over thousands of dives, never met the creature.
+ Leading rational explanations
- Boat wakes and seiches on a long, narrow, windy lake, where wave trains mimic moving humps
- Otters in single file and diving birds — the classic makers of "humped serpents"
- Drifting trunks and debris, long preserved in cold water
- The lake's genuinely large fish, sturgeon among them, surfacing in calm weather
- An actively tended legend: a campaigning archive, local place-names and Memphré-branded events prime witnesses to interpret anomalies as the serpent
Status note
Class 2: two centuries of patiently archived testimony and nothing else — not one usable photo, sonar return or physical trace; the archive is remarkable, the evidence nonexistent.
+ Frequently asked questions
- Who coined the name "Memphré"?
- Magog scuba diver Jacques Boisvert, in the 1980s. The great collector of Lake Memphremagog serpent accounts also invented the word "dracontology" and co-founded an international society for it, halfway between documentary seriousness and a wink.
- Is there any evidence Memphre exists?
- No. The file holds over two hundred logged accounts going back to 1816, but no usable photograph, convincing film or physical trace. Boisvert himself, after thousands of dives in the lake, never encountered anything.
- Did the Abenaki speak of a monster in the lake?
- Settler-era sources say they warned against bathing in the lake because of a being in its waters, which fits the water-serpent figures of Algonquian traditions. But the tradition reaches us mostly through colonial filters — worth citing with care, and not to be confused with the modern media monster.