On the evening of June 11, 2026, Thomas Scozzafava, a retired supervisor of the town of Moriah, New York, was on a hill in Port Henry overlooking Lake Champlain when he saw what he took to be something large swimming in the water. He shot two videos on his cell phone. Coast to Coast AM ran them a few days later, saying they might show the lake’s legendary monster.

Champ is Lake Champlain’s answer to Nessie. Sightings go back at least to the 19th century, and the most famous image is a 1977 photograph by Sandra Mansi showing what looks like a head and neck rising from the water. Port Henry, a hamlet of about 1,200 people in Moriah, has leaned into the legend, with a sign listing sightings and an annual Champ Day festival, held this year on August 1.

The lake is about 120 miles long and deep in places, which gives the legend room to live. It is also full of things that can look like a monster from a distance: floating logs, boat wakes, standing waves, swimming deer, otters and lake sturgeon, a large fish that can top six feet.

The coverage of Scozzafava’s clips included no description of the object’s size or shape and no analysis. That leaves the usual question for distant lake footage: without something for scale, it’s very hard to tell how big a dark shape on the water really is.