Even Wilder Encounters
From the Summer 2025 Issue
The magical and mystical in our woods, our water, and in the skies above
There are three categories of unexpected encounters aside from wildlife: UFOs, Sasquatch and the Pend Oreille Paddler.
Sightings of the Paddler are analgous to the Loch Ness Monster. A 1989 article in the Bonner County Daily Bee tells us that “As of 1984, 27 sightings of the monster were made,” citing James R. McLeod’s North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club report, “Mysterious Lake Pend Oreille and its Monster.”
Large sturgeon, though not actually found in our lake, have been suggested as a source for some Paddler stories. Photo by John Holen.
The earliest known reference to some type of unknown creature that makes its home in the depths of Pend Oreille is said to date to 1944; it received the “Paddler” name in 1977, when what turned out to be a papier-mache catfish supposedly attacked a young girl near city beach.
Some say sightings purporting to be the Paddler are likely just really large sturgeon, though Andy Dux, Idaho Fish and Game’s Panhandle Region fish manager, said “We have never documented a sturgeon in the lake,” adding, “Sturgeon are native to the Columbia Basin, but they never colonized Pend Oreille because of downstream migration barriers.”
Paddler reports might be related to the unmanned submarines that ply the lake, thanks to the Naval Acoustic Research Detatchment, originally a part of Farragut Naval Training Station since 1955, and still located in Bayview.
In a cover story in Omni Magazine in 1996, McLeod advanced the idea that the Paddler legend originated back when the submarine tests in Lake Pend Oreille were classified top secret. He said one of the first reports of the monster, in fact, came from Farragut in 1944.
Submarines tested in the lake’s waters may also account for tales of the Paddler. Photo courtesy Naval Sea Systems Command Carderock submarine division.
UFOs (UAP, for unexplained aerial phenomena, is now the preferred term) have also been reported in the area. A 2021 Idaho Press headline “Idaho’s UFO Connection” states that “the state ranks No. 1 per capita for seeing unexplained things in the sky.” Here in Sandpoint, we average about one reported sighting per year. That doesn’t include the dozens of sightings reported on local Facebook pages, many with photos, that generally fall into the category of “yeah, that’s the Starlink satellites.”
In a November 2024 story, Local News 8 (out of Idaho Falls) reported that Sandpoint ranked No. 8 in Idaho cities for UFO sightings, with 28—a tie with the city of Caldwell. We fell to Boise (No. 1) and Nampa (No. 2) but beat out Post Falls (which came in last). I’m not sure what all these people have seen in the sky, but my good friend Giorgio Tsoukalos assures me: it’s aliens.
A Sasquatch spotted from the Moyie River.
Photo by Susan Drumheller.
Sasquatch is another thing entirely. Bonner County has more reports of Sasquatch sightings than any other county in the state. (Read all about it in “Summer of the Sasquatch” in our Summer 2018 issue of the magazine.)
A Spirit Lake fellow was recently prepping to hunt west of Sandpoint and his game camera captured what he believes to be a ‘Squatch. He shared the video with us. It clearly shows a moose in the foreground but something … shadowy … moving behind it.
I can’t even see babies on an ultrasound, so I can’t tell you if I think he saw what he says. You can view it online at sptmag.com/squatch.
As for the photo of the Sasquatch shown here, that was taken while rafting on the Moyie River. Unlike most photos, this one is refreshingly clear and easy to see, and may well be someone playing a prank on unsuspecting rafters. Or maybe it’s real.
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