Lynda Johnson: Who is Sharlie?

Sharlie is the sea dragon who lives in Payette Lake near McCall, Idaho. These days I prefer to call her a sea dragon rather than a sea serpent. In my mind, and in others who have grown to love the idea of a benevolent, other-worldly "something" living in our lake, a dragon symbolizes something noble and ancient; a sea dragon who has lived for as long the Sharlie that dwells in my imagination is also magical and wise, and incredibly beautiful, like the gold and jewels that have been found in abundance in the mountains of Idaho.

I have spent quite a lot of time reading a thick file of newsclippings from McCall's Star News, which I found at the McCall Public Library. It was rumored that the Native Americans who lived in the area avoided the lake because of a spirit that lived there. The first recorded "Sharlie sighting" was reported by western settlers in 1920. Through the years as many as 20 people at a time have reported seeing her in the lake, describing what they saw as 30 to 35 feet in length, with a dinosaur-type head and pronounced jaws, humps like a camel, and shell-like skin. Pretty cool, don't you think?

Once, while I was doing a presentation at the library, a boy of nine or ten years old told me he thought he had seen her while he was wakeboarding on the lake. He reminded me of myself at his age. I used to look for her when I was a little girl, hoping to make friends with her and maybe catch a ride across the lake on her back.

That image continues to be the Sharlie that I carry in my imagination. I hope I never lose the child-like wonder that makes me hope she is there; that inspires stories of magic and beauty and nature, all the things I love about Idaho and the Pacific Northwest.