Loch Ness Monster

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The Surgeons photograph

The Loch Ness Monster is a supposed lake monster that resides in Loch Ness, a long, deep lake near Inverness, Scotland. There have been many supposed sightings of this creature and even more, what believers call, "proof" that this creature is indeed real. Whether the Loch Ness Monster is real or not, it is a great story to tell and it has made Loch Ness a great tourist attraction.

1 Modern legend
2 Famous photograph
3 Surgeon's Hoax
4 "Nessie"
5 Tourist attraction
6 See also
7 External links
8 Relevant discussion threads

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Modern legend

Many supposed sightings of the Loch Ness Monster have been recorded throughout history. These sightings even go back as far as St. Columba, the Irish monk who converted most of Scotland to Christianity in the 6th century. This Saint apparently converted the monster too. Legend has it is that until St. Columbia went out on the waters and soothed the monster, it had been hostile and a killer.

The modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster begins with one Dr. Robert Kenneth Wilson, in 1934. Wilson, a London physician, allegedly photographed a plesiosaur-like beast with a long neck while it emerged out of the murky waters of Loch Ness. This photograph created quite a debate. Obviously, before this photograph, the Loch Ness Monster was the stuff of legend and myth. The locals of Inverness knew the ancient history of the monster. This one photograph created a wave of interested people and self proclaimed monster catchers to Loch Ness.

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Famous photograph

The most famous photograph of the Loch Ness Monster is Dr. Robert Kenneth Wilson's black-and-white photograph. While examining the photograph, experts came to several possibilities as to what this supposed monster could actual be. Some of these possibilities, according to them, could have been: a plesiosaur, a tree trunk, or an otter.

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Surgeon's Hoax

Wilson's famous photograph of the Loch Ness Monster turned out to be a hoax. In 1993, Christian Spurling, stepson of movie maker and big game hunter "Duke" Wetherell, admitted he had made the monster with plastic and a tin toy submarine. Wilson's picture is often called the "Surgeon's Photograph" because Wilson was a doctor. This is also how this hoax has the name "The Surgeon's Hoax." David Martin and Alastair Boyd, two Loch Ness Monster researchers, claimed that in 1993 they heard Wetherell's son, Ian, state that his father had faked one of the Loch Ness Monster photographs. Since by that time Ian Wetherell was dead, the two men located Ian's stepbrother, Christian Spurling. Spurling, then 90, went on to admit that he had been approached by "Duke" Wetherell to build the fake monster. The construction of the monster was done with plastic wood over the conning tower of a toy submarine.

"Duke" Wetherell, apparently, wanted revenge upon the "Daily Mail" newspaper. This is because in 1933, the Daily Mail had hired Wetherell to find the Loch Ness Monster. Soon after arriving at Lake Loch Ness, Wetherell found strange tracks near the soft mud near the water. Plaster casts were taken of these tracks and sent to the Museum of Natural History. Apparently, Wetherell himself had been hoaxed because the Museum announced that the tracks belonged to a baby hippo foot. The Mail was angered at Wetherell and Wetherell was embarrassed. It was soon after this event that Spurling was approached by his stepfather to build the Loch Ness Monster. Ian Wetherell and his father took the completed monster and a camera to the lake and photographed it. After, they sank the evidence. The undeveloped photographs were then passed to a friend of a friend, Dr. Robert Kenneth Wilson. Wilson had them developed and sold the famous photograph to the Daily Mail. The group was unprepared for the publicity the photograph had generated. They decided not to admit the fact that the photograph was a hoax. The story stayed unknown for over sixty years.

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"Nessie"

"Nessie" is simply the nickname for the Loch Ness Monster. Nessie is commonly used to refer to the Loch Ness Monster on the internet.

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Tourist attraction

Today, we have a full-blown tourist industry with the Loch Ness Monster in the center. It is said that this industry has generated about $37 million. The industry includes: submarine rides, about one hundred bucks an hour, a multi-media tourist center, clothes, toys, and movies. Additionally, there are various webcam sites for those that want to capture a picture of the Loch Ness Monster for themselves.

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