Filmmakers Richard Rossi and Kelly Tabor believe they may have captured the strongest evidence to date of a legendary creature known as Champ, which is said to inhabit Lake Champlain, a 125-mile body of water stretching between New York, Vermont, and Canada. The creature, often compared to Scotland's Loch Ness Monster, is described as a large, serpent-like animal.
The footage, recorded during the production of a family movie inspired by the Champ legend, shows what appears to be a large unidentified creature moving in the water behind their boat. The filmmakers did not notice the anomaly until nearly two years later, during the editing process in 2025. Kelly Tabor described seeing a "skinny neck, and that the body got larger," noting that it appeared to be "grazing underwater."
Stories of strange creatures in Lake Champlain date back centuries, with the first widely documented modern sighting occurring in 1819. Captain Crum reported seeing an enormous black creature in Bulwagga Bay, describing it as a snake-like animal approximately 187 feet long with eyes resembling a peeled onion. Since then, hundreds of sightings have been reported.
Believers have proposed various identities for Champ, including a surviving plesiosaur or an ancient whale ancestor. Skeptics, however, suggest that sightings are often misidentifications of fish, logs, waves, or optical illusions.
The mystery has become integral to the region's culture, with Port Henry, New York, marketing itself as the home of Champ. Businesses, festivals, and tourist attractions celebrate the creature, and locals frequently share accounts of unusual encounters.
Tabor, who grew up near Crown Point, a town bordering Port Henry, has a lifelong fascination with the legend. She recalls spending summers searching the lake for Champ and believes she may have witnessed evidence of the creature during college when she observed an unusual wake on calm water that moved directly towards her family's lakeside cabin before making a sharp, unexplained 90-degree turn without surfacing.
Rossi shared the newly discovered footage with scientists and researchers, and it attracted the attention of the History Channel series, The UnXplained. Producers reportedly told the filmmakers that the video represents the most significant evidence of Champ since the well-known 1977 photograph taken by Sandra Mansi, which appeared to show a long-necked creature. Rossi highlighted that the new footage includes a boat, providing a crucial scale reference that the Mansi photograph lacks.
The video has garnered hundreds of thousands of views online, reigniting discussions among proponents and skeptics. Rossi and Tabor are planning to return to Lake Champlain for the annual Champ Day festival and are developing two more films about the legend. Despite the ongoing debate, Champ continues to capture public imagination, prompting continued observation of Lake Champlain's waters.
