It didn’t take long after the Mormon Pioneers settled in northern Utah for the urban legend of the Bear Lake Monster to appear. Brigham Young even sent a group to investigate reports that a monster would come up out of the lake and eat cattle.
And some speculate it could be related to the more-famous Loch Ness Monster.
Braydon Wright from the Merrill-Cazier Library Special Collections and Archives at Utah State University explains the folklore behind the urban legend of the Bear Lake Monster.
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