In Episode 403 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger boat out near Shelburne Point on Lake Champlain in South Burlington, Vermont, to search for an ancient creature the Abenaki people called Odziozo, who was said to have created the lake, nearby hills, and river. Champ isn’t the only mysterious creature to dwell in this massive lake. The difference is there have been far more Odziozo sightings than Champ.
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CREDITS:
Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[MOTOR BOAT ON LAKE]
RAY: Jeff, what a perfect summer day to be out here on Lake Champlain!
JEFF: It is! Summer is here, and there’s few better places to be than on or near the water.
RAY: I supposed we should keep our eyes peeled for Champ the lake monster.
JEFF: We absolutely should. We’ve been out here looking for him before and struck out.
RAY: We did.
JEFF: Though plenty of others have seen Champ. Reliable folks who live and visit this lake, but I’m not sure the odds are with us.
RAY: No, probably not. What are we looking for today?
JEFF: Ray, we’ve come to the Vermont side of Lake Champlain searching for a different lake monster.
RAY: Not Champ?
JEFF: Not Champ. This monster is both ancient and massive. And I dare say there have been far more witnesses to this creature than Champ.
RAY: Really?
JEFF: I’ll even go so far as to guarantee that we will see it while we’re out here on Lake Champlain today.
RAY: Alright, I’m listening.
JEFF: Ray, we’ve come to Vermont to search for Odziozo.
[INTRO]
JEFF: I’m Jeff Belanger.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Welcome to Episode 403 of the New England Legends podcast. Thank you for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. We’re always on the hunt for monsters, ghosts, roadside oddities, eccentrics, and all the other wicked strange weirdness that makes New England like no other place. Most of our story leads come from you! So please reach out to us anytime through our website with your story leads.
JEFF: Just a reminder that Ray and I want to hear from you about your own personal stories of wicked strange encounters with ghosts, monsters, UFOs, and other unexplained mysteries in New England. Please contact us through our website or email us: info@ournewenglandlegends.com
RAY: We’ll so searching for the Odziozo right after this quick word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
[LAKE WATER ON BOAT]
RAY: As we said earlier, this isn’t our first trip to Lake Champlain off the coast of Vermont.
JEFF: No, it’s not.
RAY: Lake Champlain is HUGE!
JEFF: It is!
RAY: It’s about 125 miles long, just over 14 miles at its widest point. It covers almost 500 square miles and borders Vermont to the east, New York to the west, and a good chunk of it is located in Canada to the north.
JEFF: It’s big.
RAY: A lot of room for monsters to hide.
JEFF: A lot of room. Do you ever wonder how Lake Champlain was made?
RAY: I’m assuming it was formed as the last Ice Age retreated north, the Atlantic Ocean retreated, and land rose, leaving behind this massive body of water.
JEFF: Yeah, that’s the story that geologists tell us. But when you look at the mountains around us… the massive lake, and it’s easy to wonder if maybe something bigger had a hand in this.
RAY: Like the hand of God?
JEFF: Sure, or some other kind of divine creator. Any place this beautiful, this bountiful with food in the form of fish, fresh water to drink, water that draws in game you can hunt, must be a gift of something bigger.
RAY: When you look at it that way, yeah, it wasn’t that long ago that this would have been an obvious place to live, provided you could stand the winters.
JEFF: A place of abundance and beauty. For me, it’s easy to see the hand of a creator when I’m surrounded by all of this.
RAY: Look at you getting all spiritual and mushy.
JEFF: Sometimes I can’t help it. Okay, let’s take the boat that way.
RAY: Which way?
JEFF: Over there past the point. To the left-ish.
RAY: You mean starboard?
JEFF: Right. Left.
RAY: Port?
JEFF: sigh…
RAY: (LAUGHING)
[MOTORBOAT STARTS]
RAY: I got it. So we’re heading out past Shelbourne Point just off the coast of South Burlington, Vermont.
JEFF: So right over there is Juniper Island. It’s about a mile away from us.
RAY: There’s a small lighthouse on Juniper Island. It’s one of the larger islands on the lake. Is that where we’re headed?
JEFF: Not quite… but that direction, yes. (PAUSE) Okay, you see that rock sticking out of the water coming up ahead?
RAY: I do. There’s not much to see. I imagine at night that rock could be a real danger to boats.
JEFF: Today it’s called Rock Dunder. It’s what we’re here to see. Let’s stop the boat here so there’s still a little distance between us and the rock.
RAY: Got it.
[MOTOR BOAT STOPS]
RAY: So Rock Dunder. As in like… Dunderhead?
JEFF: That IS the origin of the name of this rock, yes. The story goes that during the War of 1812, there was the battle of Plattsburgh, New York, which is just a bit northwest of us on the New York side of the lake. The battle took place in September of 1814. During the battle, the British had set up a naval blockade on the lake. The fighting had stopped for the night so the Brits figured they could finish the fight in the morning. Some Americans snuck out on the lake and placed a lantern on top of this rock behind the blockade. As the fog rolled in, British war ships could see the glowing lantern. Figuring maybe reinforcements were coming up, it’s said they turned their ships around to face the threat. Certain they had an enemy ship in sight… they fired.
[CANNON FIRE]
JEFF: And fired again.
[CANNON FIRE]
JEFF: They hit the rock. The lantern fell into the water and extinguished, and as the British ship drew closer, one of the officers looked over the rail to assess the damage and cried out, “It’s a rock, by Dunder.” The blockade had been tricked, Americans got through, and the name stuck.
RAY: That’s kind of funny. And clever on the part of the Americans.
JEFF: It was. But to the people who were here many centuries earlier, it was an affront to something significant and sacred.
RAY: What do you mean? It’s just a rock, right?
JEFF: The Abenaki people have lived in this region for about 12,000 years. What’s modern day northern New England and Quebec, was their land. This mighty lake was the western boundary. The Abenaki were also taken in by the beauty of the lake, the mountains, and the region. (BEAT) They have this creation story they share about Odziozo. Odziozo is an ancient being. Not quite a creator god, but definitely had a hand in transforming the landscape. Odziozo was this massive creature who lived before the animals had evolved legs. This creature had long arms and a massive body. He would drag himself along the ground forming hills and valleys in his wake. So Odziozo spent much of his time carving out a deep valley right here. He formed the mountains nearby, dug out the lake bed, then continued south following a flock of geese into modern day Madison, Connecticut, down by the coast. There, he dug up a clump of land and flung it about a mile south to where it landed in what is now Long Island Sound. The chunk of land became known as Tunxis Island. And the identical-sized pit in Madison, filled with water and became Tunxis pond. When the region up north flooded forming the mighty lake and river, Odziozo returned to this lake because it was his favorite creation. Once he found the perfect spot in the lake, he lifted his head just above water so he could admire the view, then he turned himself to stone. What we see here in front of us, is Odziozo’d head. Still poking out to admire his favorite view, all these countless generations later.
RAY: That’s a great story. When I look at the rock here on the lake from the right angle, it does almost look like a giant turtle head poking out of the water.
JEFF: It does. A nod back to a very ancient time. For a long time, it was said that the Abenaki people would take boats out to Odziozo, and offer him tobacco. If Odziozo smoked, it calmed him down, meaning the lake waters would be favorable for travel.
RAY: Just a few weeks ago, on June 14th, the Lake Champlain Yacht Club held their annual Odziozo boat race. The race began in 1982 as an event where various boating clubs from around Lake Champlain could get together and compete. Over 40 years later, the race continues.
JEFF: Today, countless boaters and visitors to the shores of South Burlington on Lake Champlain have seen the rocky head of Odziozo poking out of the water.
RAY: I’m sure if you’re far enough away, you might think maybe it’s Champ. But when you stare long enough and realize it’s not moving, you know it’s not the famous lake monster, but something else. Odziozo is small enough that it commands your respect, especially if you’re a boater. It’s NOT something you want to run into on a foggy day or at night.
JEFF: No, it’s not. Still, I love the idea that when you know the story and see this rock sticking out of the water to admire the beauty all around it, maybe it also reminds us to stop and admire the abundance and beauty that’s right here. And maybe we too will see the hand of something bigger than ourselves at work.
[OUTTRO]
RAY: There’s always another way to look at a rock, and another way to look at a story. And that takes us to After the Legend where we take a deeper dive into this week’s story and sometimes veer off course.
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To see some pictures of Odziozo, click on the link in our episode description, or go to our website and click on Episode 403.
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Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.
