Folklore: Pressie, The Serpentine Cryptid of Lake Superior

The Writing Post

August 16, 2024

Folklore: Pressie, The Serpentine Cryptid of Lake Superior

Five Great Lakes surround Michigan and the waters run deep, especially in Lake Superior. The waters run so deep in fact, that entire ships have been lost to it over the years (the Edmund Fitzgerald for instance). Allegedly, there is also a serpentine cryptid in the depths of Lake Superior that goes by the name of Pressie.

Description of Pressie

Pressie is a “whale-tailed, horse-headed … Lake Superior creature” known for its sightings around the Presque Isle River (Serba). Similarly, Pressie is known for its dark color and whiskers, and ranges over “100 feet” and lies “coiled at the bottom of the lake until it’s disturbed” (Mayfield). While Michigan is known for many notable monsters, Pressie’s strange appearance and history are truly interesting.

Even so, some may wonder if it’s a creature from a long-ago time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth; but whether it’s a prehistoric beast or not matters little, as the stories about Pressie ostensibly share similar qualities with the stories about the Loch Ness Monster. Some people see it on the lake and others can only speculate as to its existence.

Sightings of Pressie around Lake Superior

For starters, indigenous residents of Michigan supposedly saw the monster and called it “Mishipeshu,” (Mishipishu) which ran “blackish-green” and was “75-feet long” (Robinson). However, some reports state that there is a distinct difference between the two and Pressie is in fact “Mishipeshu’s neighbor in Lake Superior” (Mayfield).

In 1894, two crews on steamer vessels near Copper Harbor spotted a strange creature “undulating along in the twilight,” with its “back protruding” from the water (Harper). Later in 1895, it was spotted again near Whitefish Point curiously investigating a ship by swimming languidly nearby.

1897, a Detroit man in Duluth, Minnesota, fell overboard his yacht, and he was almost “constricted” by Pressie. His shipmates claimed to have seen the creature as well. What is more, it was seen in the 1930s near Pictured Rocks in Michigan, and again in the 1960s when a family spotted it by Sugar Island (Cryptid Chronicles).

In 1977, Pressie became well known when an out-of-focus photograph by Randy Braun–who was out for a hike–appeared to show the lake monster emerging from the water. Additionally, Pressie was “reported over time in the Straits of Mackinac” (Lavy, Kathleen). In addition to that, fishermen near Point Iroquois in the “mid-1990s” claimed to have seen a creature wrench a buck from the shore and pull it under water, leaving only its severed head (Harper).

Afterthoughts on Pressie’s Prescence in Lake Superior

In researching Pressie, I found a great deal of information on sightings, but not many of them reaching back to tangible sources. That’s actually okay with me because Pressie sightings are the thing of folklore–stories that people share about a creature or event to explain something else.

For me, in the context of folklore, Pressie explains the unknown regarding the waters of Lake Superior. From yesteryear to today, Lake Superior is a large, cold lake that carries with it tragedy, death, and mystery. Adding a slithering, sliding serpent to the mix adds a bit of drama to an otherwise costly lake; and, it also helps us address the extent questions about what could be down there in the darkness. That is to say, what could be lurking at the bottom?

If it’s just a large serpent in the waters then we have our answer.