Florida´s sea serpents and river monsters

From: http://members.tripod.com/~UNX3/crypto.html

Between 1955 and 1961, there were numerous reports in Florida newspapers, of a monster in the St. Johns River. The sightings came from a variety of witnesses, some native commercial fishermen, and others from new transplants to Florida. All reported seeing a giant creature, which descriptions fit either a brontosaurus or big manatee-like thing, depending on who is doing the reporting. Most sightings occurred between Astor Park and Lake Monroe, with the center of the alleged sightings around the Blue Springs area. The Blue Springs area is a prime manatee habitat. One Lake County man claimed to have seen the monster on land grazing on plants. He reported that the monster left a wide, mashed-down, path through the bushes. The animal's skin was described as gray and elephant-like and very leather-looking. A couple of bass fisherman claimed that the monster had almost tipped over their boat. No reports have surfaced since the early 1960s, but a related story is very curious. In 1975, a group of pleasure boaters on the St. Johns River near Jacksonville, claimed to have seen a dragon-like creature, that reared its head from the river, then disappeared into the deep water. It was described as having a head like a giant snail, with two horns. In an old 1891 newspaper report, a sea-serpent chased bathers from the ocean on Jacksonville beach. That marine monster was said to have had a dog-like head and a long skinny neck. The most bizarre story of Florida sea-serpents was reported by some scuba divers in 1962, off the Gulf coast near Pensacola. In that incident, the alleged monster attacked the divers and over-turned their small boat, and allegedly killed all but one of the men. The surviving victim claimed that the creature had a long, rigid, ten foot neck, like a telephone pole. It had a head with small eyes, but a very wide mouth and whipped about like a large snake. Evidence of a Florida marine monster was hauled up in 1885, from the New River Inlet. A ship's anchor brought up the carcass of a creature with a long neck which resembled an extinct plesiosaur, very much like the descriptions given for the infamous Lock Ness monster. Who knows what lurks beneath Florida's waters, something to think about on your next swimming trip. Of course lets not discount Florida's gator population, some alligators grow to enormous lengths, and there a several records of gators eating humans, and those are only the cases we know about--perhaps some of Florida's missing persons have fell victim to a big gator's appetite. The alligator is truly a prehistoric creature, a living dinosaur, perhaps there are some other prehistoric creatures that still exist, that we don't know of, and which on occaision rise to the surface of Florida's waters.