Today is the birthday of Frenchman Samuel de Champlain, born on the Bay of Biscay 1567. He was very nautical, as his father was a boatman, and he soon was learning to sail ships and explore the vast sea.

In 1599 he sailed with the Spanish and his Uncle as far as Mexico and Panama, and when he went back to Europe, Henry the IV was so impressed, he said "Yo, Sam, go explore some more - go to North America and do some discovering..".  And so he did. 

He sailed in 1603 to the St. Lawrence river and around Novia Scotia, and to Martha's Vinyard, and navigated all of it.  He became friends with Native American's and even battled with them.  He settled there with some his friends in Quebec.  And Lake Champlain was named after him.  He was a devout Catholic, and worked with Jesuit missionaries.  He taught the native American's the French Language.  Read more about his fascinating life at ref. 1, 2.  He passed away in 1635.

Lake Champlain has a Monster living in it which has been seen, first documented in 1609. [ref. 3].  Some people think it is an old vegitarian dinosaur that swims around and pops up every once in a while to see the sights.

300 people at least have seen this mysterious creature. [ref. 4]  It has been seen by a sherrif, counselors, people on boats, and someone even swore they caught a baby Lake Champlain monster. [ref. 4].  If he released it back into the lake, is unkown. The monster has posed for a pictures as well, the notorious "Sandra Mansi" photograph.  It seems to be friendly, as no one has been reportatly eaten or hurt by it.

Or course, those spoilsport skeptics have lots of theories disproving it's existence. [ref. 5] mostly debunking the "Mansi photograph" of the monster.  That it doesn't jibe with an acual photograh of a prehistoric creature.  But 300 people couldn't be wrong, right?

ref. 1 http://www.samueldechamplain.com/

ref. 2 http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/page/c/champlain.shtml

ref. 3 http://www.porthenry.com/phframes/champ.htm

ref. 4 http://mistwebdesign.com/history.html

ref. 5 http://www.csicop.org/si/2003-07/monster.html