• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Fort Myers Lizard Monster

runningalone

Fresh Blood
Joined
Mar 16, 2019
Messages
7
I was just digging through old newspapers recently and I found this and decided to share it. Louis B. Reynolds took a photograph of a six-feet lizard like monster in a swamp near Fort Myers, Florida. It is one of those rare sightings that has been almost forgotten about.

David Acord briefly mentioned this in 2009 in the The Cryptid Chronicles newsletter, but I have not seen any cryptozoology book discuss it.

The photograph was taken in 1935, so this is the best image that is available. It was published in the Dubuque Telegraph Herald (September 27, 1935).

1556863897972.png
 
Last edited:
Looks like a normal iguana to me. There's nothing to judge its scale from in the photo.
 
Here's a version from The Monroe [Louisiana] News-Star on September 25, 1935 (two days earlier). This earlier version's caption provides more info about the photo, the location, and what it was believed to represent.

Interestingly, this photo didn't appear in the local (Fort Myers) newspaper until November 1935. My guess is that the news photo / item propagated from Mr. Reynolds' home area (Alabama) rather than from Florida.
 
Here's a version from The Monroe [Louisiana] News-Star on September 25, 1935 (two days earlier). This earlier version's caption provides more info about the photo, the location, and what it was believed to represent.

Interestingly, this photo didn't appear in the local (Fort Myers) newspaper until November 1935. My guess is that the news photo / item propagated from Mr. Reynolds' home area (Alabama) rather than from Florida.
Why call such a relatively common lizard of the American tropics a sea monster. They just don't get very large "monster" (3' to 5'+')?
 
Last edited:
Back
Top