Pepie: The Lake Monster of the Mississippi River

by Chad Lewis, Noah Voss, Kevin Lee Nelson (Foreword)

The early Native Americans warned of a deadly beast inhabiting the waters of Lake Pepin along the Mississippi River. For the past 150 years, the legend of the beast dubbed Pepie has grown to epic proportions. With a $50,000 reward being offered for the capture of the creature, two researchers set out to solve the legend of the mysterious sea serpent.

Genres: Monsters

230 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 2014

About the author

For nearly two decades Chad Lewis has traveled the back roads of the world in search of the strange and unusual. From tracking vampires in Transylvania and searching for the elusive monster of Loch Ness to trailing the dangerous Tata Duende through remote villages of Belize and searching for ghosts in Ireland’s haunted castles, Chad has scoured the earth in search of the paranormal.

With a Masters Degree in Psychology, Chad has authored over 15 books on the supernatural, and extensively lectures on his fascinating findings.

The more bizarre the legend, the more likely you’ll find Chad there.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book about a possible lake monster living in Lake Pepin. The author tends to wonder off topic a bit at the end of the book and heads down the rabbit hole of UFO's and Bigfoot. I grew up in part in Red Wing Minn. and spent many hours exploring the backwaters of the Mississippi river just North of Lake Pepin. There is so much river traffic in that area that I find it hard to believe in large unknown creatures living there. The Army Corps. of Engineers has reported some truly enormous fish watching them while they worked on the Lock and Dam network and there is a lot of underwater creeks along its shores (Jordon Creek runs right under Redwing), so it's not completely impossible.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good little book on Pepie. It covers some historical tales and sightings, as well as some modern ones. Some even include photos, though some are (seemingly rightfully) pointed out by the authors as more likely to show off waves or debris than a monster. There are also two longer chapters detailing the authors' own trips to Lake Pepin to investigate, and discussion of possible misidentifications, hoaxes, and IDs for the monster.

There is nothing really ground breaking in the book, though it was entertaining. There were the occasional small typos, and I wish one author knew the difference in sordid and sorted, but overall the writing was of pretty decent quality, especially for a small press. A fun way for a monster enthusiast to spend an afternoon.