Lake Tahoe Tessie

Lake Tahoe Tessie
Paul Dale Roberts, HPI’s Esoteric Detective
Halo Paranormal Investigations
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I lived in Lake Tahoe for 6 months performing with Jeff Kutach’s Dancing Machine at Harrah’s Tahoe. On a few nights, we were the first number before Cher. Cher had just started her journey of performing solo without Sonny Bono. The year is 1979. During my brief time in Lake Tahoe, I really didn’t care about the celebrities that I met, I was more curious about a lake monster named Tessie. I would go out at nights and hang out at the beach area. I would scan the whole lake looking for Tessie. One night after visiting the lake, I went over to Sahara Tahoe Casino. A cocktail waitress named Karen Jean Caruso tells me that on a warm night in July 1978, she was camped out by the lake with 3 of her girlfriends. Karen and her friends heard loud splashing, and they could see 3 huge humps protruding from the lake. The smooth reptilian humps came closer to the shoreline, and Karen and her friends grabbed their blankets and started running to the car. Karen looked back and saw a big head on this creature. The head looked like the head of a cobra. Karen and her friends were scared to death and made a promise never to visit the lake at night.

Of all the times I was at the lake, I never encountered Tessie. Another thing that fascinated me about Lake Tahoe is the fact that many people have claimed to have seen mysterious lights hovering over the lake. One witness claims he saw a USO (Unidentified Submerged Object) come out of the lake and vanish into the night sky. Is it possible that UFOs have a connection to Tessie? Is there a possible portal at Lake Tahoe? Lake Tahoe is very mysterious. The lake is deep and there are many sunken boats and planes that faced their watery graves at Lake Tahoe. Some of the casinos would dump some of their expired chips into the lake. There was a persistent rumor that existed in which it was said that the mafia dumped dead bodies into Lake Tahoe, there is no verified evidence to support this legend. The legend is likely fueled by a combination of the area’s history with organized crime and a specific scene in The Godfather Part II.

As you can see, anything can be in that lake. Lake Tahoe’s legendary “Tessie” is a cryptid, or lake monster, that has been compared to the Loch Ness Monster. While there is no conclusive proof of its existence, the lore surrounding Tessie is a popular part of Lake Tahoe’s cultural heritage. Some versions of the Tessie legend suggest it has roots in the folklore of the Washoe and Paiute peoples. The Washoe have legends about “Water Babies,” powerful spirits said to inhabit the lake, particularly near Cave Rock, and believed to harm those who spoke of them. Written accounts of a lake monster date back to the mid-1800s. A notable early account is from 1865, when a San Francisco socialite reportedly saw a massive, serpent-like creature. Eyewitness reports continued throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. In the 1980s, multiple credible witnesses, including off-duty police officers, reported seeing a large, dark figure moving under the water. In 2005, a fisherman described seeing a large V-shaped wake that he believed was not caused by a boat or known fish. Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area of Sierra Nevada Mountains are filled with strange stories. Besides Tessie, you have UFO/UAP sightings all over Gold Country – Sierra Nevada Mountains. There are stories of Bigfoot. There are even stories about werewolves that might be lurking in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Of course, there are plenty ghost stories.

Some people believe that Tessie is just a giant sturgeon. Other explanations include wind patterns, waves, or floating objects like driftwood that create the illusion of a large creature.

One of the earliest accounts of a large creature in Lake Tahoe comes from 1865, when I.C. Coggin, a socialite from San Francisco, reported seeing a massive serpent-like creature. He described it as having a head 14 feet wide and a body stretching over 600 feet. In the 1980s, multiple reports of an unidentified creature in Lake Tahoe emerged from witnesses, including hikers, an optician, and local law enforcement. They described a large, dark figure moving beneath the water’s surface, often creating a noticeable wake. One hiker claimed to have seen a creature “as big as a rowboat,” with whitecaps forming around what appeared to be its mouth. In the 1980s, Mike Conway, a local TV station owner, reported seeing a humped creature during a commercial shoot at Zephyr Cove. He claimed several children shouted “It’s Tessie!” when the water began to rock unexpectedly. However, Conway stated that the footage was later destroyed. In 2005, Mickey Daniels, a longtime Lake Tahoe fisherman and former sheriff’s officer, described seeing a large V-shaped wave cutting through the lake’s calm waters, which he believed was not caused by any known fish or boat. Around the same time, visitors Ron Talmage and Beth Douglas reported seeing a dark shape with multiple humps approximately 100 yards from shore at Tahoe Park Beach. Although no photographic evidence was obtained, the sighting contributed to the ongoing accounts of strange shapes moving through the lake.

Tessie is a mystery that will probably last forever.