Tahoe Tessie: America's Most Mysterious Lake Monster

What's hiding more than 1,600 feet beneath the surface of Lake Tahoe? In this episode of the You Two Scare Me Podcast, Andi and Feliz dive deep into the legend of Tahoe Tessie — one of America's most compelling and least-talked-about lake monster mysteries.

Long before tourists arrived, the Washoe people — who have inhabited the sacred shores of Lake Tahoe for over 12,000 years — spoke of powerful water spirits and a giant creature called the Ong, said to live deep in the lake near the 300-foot Cave Rock. Their warnings would prove strangely prescient.

Sightings began in 1865, when San Francisco socialite I.C. Coggin reported a massive serpentine creature with a head over 14 feet wide and a body stretching 600 feet. From there, the encounters only multiplied — credible witnesses including off-duty police officers, hikers, nuns, an optician, a local TV station owner, and a former sheriff's deputy have all reported seeing something massive, dark, and fast moving through the icy depths. Many described the same chilling detail: a large creature moving "wrong" — not like a fish, not like a snake — leaving a V-shaped wake and diving out of sight in seconds.

We explore the most startling sightings on record, including the 1950s report of a creature keeping pace with a boat traveling over 60 miles per hour, a 1984 eyewitness account of a 17-foot creature surfacing "like a little submarine," and a 2005 sighting at Tahoe Park Beach where witnesses counted five distinct humps.

Is Tessie a surviving plesiosaur or ichthyosaur? An oversized sturgeon? A trick of wind and water? Or is she something else entirely — possibly traveling through a rumored underground river connecting Tahoe to Pyramid Lake nearly 50 miles away? We break down every theory, including the wildest one involving giant escaped pet goldfish.

Plus — in our Somebody Told Me segment, Feliz shares a chilling firsthand ghost story from a woman in Massachusetts: strange indentations in a bed, a medium who sensed a confused spirit, and a haunting theory about why ghosts might walk through walls.

Whether you're a longtime cryptid hunter or just dipping your toes into the strange and unexplained, this episode will make you think twice before looking out over deep, dark water.

Do you have a spooky story that you’d like included in the You Two Scare Me Podcast? 

Check out our website at: www.youtwoscaremepodcast.com and go fill out the “Somebody Told Me…” form. Or you can email us a youtwoscaremepodcast@gmail.com. We might include your tale in an upcoming episode.

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