This is a hell of a different sort of cryptid. First, the thing, whatever it is, seems to secrete some kind of foul smelling mud. Second, it has a long neck with a roughly human-sized head and "horrible, bright eyes." It's consistently described as being brown and emitting a stink. The third and most important thing, however, is that Lake Norman is a man-made lake!

Campbell, a resident of Glendale Springs in North Carolina said that he had grown up near Lake Norman. During his high school years and he would spend most of his afternoons enjoying a swim in the lake. It was in the summer of 1982 when Campbell and his friends were swimming in the lake. As they enjoyed playing in the water, they noticed something that looked like a sunken upturned canoe a few distance from them. They swam towards it but it drifted away as if it was carried along by the current.

After a very short while, they saw a small fish jump on the area where the canoe-like thing was and moreover saw consistencies of mud in the same area. They thought that what they saw were merely floating leaves or debris until they heard a great splash amidst a group of paddling ducks. The ducks came out on the lake’s surface as if the thing that caused the splash had pulled them under the water. Campbell and his friends never saw the canoe-like thing again but they would always find the foul-smelling “mud” on the lake.

Source.

It even has it's own website with a cool collection of monster sightings.

This guy went out in search of the monster and made some interesting sociological commentary.

What really strikes me about this guy is the weirdness of it all, which by now you should all know is one of my favorite things. The foul smelling mud, the "horrible, bright eyes," and the fact that this lake didn't exist before the early sixties. What I'm thinking is, this is an urban legend; a sort of allegorical manifestation of the consequences of mankind's interference with nature. A man-made abomination come back to eat our brains.

Anyhow, a Google search will turn up several pages of sites with information on the creature. If any of you are from the Carolinas, maybe you've got some first hand experience that you can share with all of us.

What do y'all think?

You know what "foul-smelling mud" brings to mind?

I'm pretty immature myself, yanno?

Expired chocolate pudding?

I've been a couple times to be curious but no luck seeing it.

2 girls 1 cup!!!....lol jk....mayb the lake is polluted....where i used to live, there was a pond that was manmade, after like 5 years...it got all dirty and smelly and they had to drain it and remake it....i also get to go back once in a while and stop by to see it and its a lot cleaner...but im sure its only gonna get dirty again in a matter of years....

I live in NC.Never heard of the Lake Norman monster though.But then again,i didn't even know it was man-made

I can address one issue off the bat;the stinking mud.Most mud stinks,at least here in NC.Except for red mud,it doesn't stink,but any other kind of mud that's been wet and stagnant for a while will probably stink,especially if it's in a lake.Also,most lakes in NC are polluted lol,which would also contribute to the foul odor.

As for a monster with a long neck and "horrible,bright eyes",probably just an urban legend created by locals who wanted their own nessie.The lake is so densely populated,i doubt anything could hide there without being found.

Those monsters are everywhere

Funny enough this reminds me of the cartoon Kim Possible...the one where she goes to the camp and there is that smelly mud dude and he tries to turn the others kids into what he is... Gosh...I havent watched that show in ages, I use to love it so much! I think they should drain the lake since its man mad and clean it out. If something made its way into the lake it would be discovered.

haha, apparently most of the sightings on lakenormanmonster.com soiled themselves, maybe that's the source of the smell.

A mutant creature borne from the artifical lakes very presence there?
An ancient beast awoken by the lakes chemicals?
A steaming heap of BS?

Yeah, that last one sounds about right.

A steming hap of bs and foul smelling mud wow this is getting epic

My brother-in-law?

I live in NC too and I've never heard of this. I've been to Lake Norman quite a few times. The only thing I know about it is there's alot of Nascar guys that live there and Ric Flair too. Never seen the weird mud though. Might be worth a trip back to check it out.

I believe the Lake Norman monster is a humbug. It is possible there is a large catfish or maybe....maybe a huge eel. the warm waters from the power plant and the deepness of the lake could feasably produce the ingredients for a very large fish as of the type I just mentioned. Large catfish are not new to power plant waters and they can grow large anyway under the right conditions. Maybe even a sturgeon.


But a monster in Lake Norman? No way....Its a manmade lake. No dinosaurs there!!!! Maybe an overgrown eel or catfish.


seax

Must be a mutated fish or a hobo covered in "mud" of that special kind

I don't understand, no ones proposing any theories on how exactly a prehistoric monster is in this lake.

Isn't it obvious? There used to be a giant river rushing right through that particular part of NC, leading underground into secret caverns. Soon, the river dried up and left hundreds of marine dinosaurs stranded in the caverns. They managed to thrive for thousands of years, but soon death began to take its toll. When the lake was built, it managed to open up some of those caved-in tunnels and one of the last prehistoric creature has managed to find its way to the surface, and is hanging out in the lake.

Obviously

How could I be so blind!!!

I dunno Undead - maybe you just have to be a bit more open-minded?

Tenticle rape monster?

if you look at lakes with monsters in america, some of them, in fact a good number, are polluted with toxic chemicals, and have a great amount of food. so its likely most of the bona-fide monsters are simply overgrown fish or eels. or even seals.