How a local ‘sea monster’ spawned a century of myth, mystery and scientific discovery

In May 1925, a strange decaying corpse washed ashore on Moore’s Beach, now known as Natural Bridges State Beach, in Santa Cruz. Locals who swarmed out to investigate the specimen described elephantine legs, a fish-like tail and a long neck stretched across the sand.

It was quickly dubbed a sea monster.

Photographs published at the time reveal that much of the monster’s carcass had collapsed, leaving only the head mostly intact. Its eyes were small, its forehead bulbous; its jaws formed a duck-like beak. Sensational accounts were plastered across newspapers from California to Texas.

The story of this “monster” reveals how genuine scientific mysteries feed fear of the unknown, spawning myths and misinformation. The rotting corpse has, over the last 100 years, stoked arguments between crea