Travel Channel Cameras Shoot Champ Monster Special[Original headline: Champ camera shy for Travel Channel shoot
Show airs in fall]
Port Henry — Champ didn’t show up, but a film crew from The Travel Channel had plenty of fun recently, shooting a special here on the Lake Champlain monster.
"I thought it would be great if Champ surfaced while we were shooting, but that didn’t happen," said field producer Beth Burke.
"We did see a lot of strange things. A thunderstorm came through while we were filming at the Burlington waterfront, and we had to run for it. Lighting hit only a few feet away from us."
In Burlington, Burke and her crew of cinematographer Jeffrey Silverman and sound technician Marion Dane boarded the Spirit of Ethan Allen II tour boat and took a cruise on the lake.
The largest mass sighting of Champ was in 1984 from the Ethan Allen I, and Burke interviewed boat owner Michael Shea.
They also talked with James Carroll of the Westport Marina. He is a boat skipper who has seen Champ on the lake.
Fifteen Champ sightings were reported last year, but only two so far this year, according to Champ Quest, the Panton, Vt.-based group that tracks the legendary creature.
The first was by Cory Labatore of Ticonderoga, who said he saw Champ April 19 while driving on Route 9N with his fiancée.
They saw the monster in a little bay at the Moriah-Westport town line, Labatore told Champ Quest.
"The creature had a elongated neck and a big body section behind the neck. No tail or legs were visible," he said.
"This creature was not an overgrown eel or whatever. I have lived in Ticonderoga most of my 25 years and have seen weird things in Lake Champlain, but this one was like nothing I have ever seen before."
The second sighting was May 10, when two fishermen saw a four-humped creature swim by at Appletree Point near Burlington, Vt.. They watched it for about five minutes until it vanished beneath the surface of the lake.
Champ is usually described as a humped, serpentine creature. Theories range from it being a large sturgeon to a prehistoric throwback called a plesiosaur.
The Champ film crew had lots of fun shooting the special, said Barbara Brassard, who represents the Moriah Chamber of Commerce and the Moriah-Port Henry-Essex County Empire Zone.
"I took them all around Port Henry. We went to the beach, both campgrounds and the downtown," Brassard said.
"At one point, they rolled back the sunroof on my car, stuck out the camera and shot footage as I drove along."
At the Bulwagga Bay Town Campground, the crew videotaped the Princess Bulwagga statue at the entrance. The carved wooden figure was donated last year by campground manager Maurice Mahoney.
"We shot the plaque, the Champ statue and so on," segment producer Natalie Smith said.
"We tried for more than the typical tourist material in Port Henry. We wanted anything that had to do with tourism, and especially Champ."
The crew filmed the Champ sightings board on Main Street in Port Henry, which lists dozens of people who have reported seeing the creature.
The Travel Channel had Indigo Films of San Rafael, Calif., doing the special. Called "Out of This World," the one-hour show will also cover five other strange creatures, including the Jersey Devil of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens.
It will air in October, Smith said, with a date and time to be set later.
• Story originally published by •
Press-Republican, Plattsburgh / NY | Lohr McKinstry - June 11 2001
