The Alaska Monsters team investigated many cryptids over the course of the show’s two seasons, but they never got to the Iliamna Lake Monster.
During the first two seasons of the crypto-zoology investigation show, Alaska Monsters – The Midnight Sons (consisting of Little Bear, Crusty, Levi, Bulldog, Face and more) – have investigated Alaskan cryptids, folklore and monsters, ranging from the Saberwolf to the Thunderfoot.
However, despite the team’s best efforts, they seemingly skipped right past one of the biggest monsters in Alaska.
The Iliamna Lake Monster: Alaska’s biggest unsolved mystery
Tales of the so-called Iliamna Lake Monster has been running rampant in the southern corners of Alaska for decades.
Yet the closest that the Alaska Monsters team ever got to investigating this mysterious (and reportedly dangerous) lake-dwelling creature was to investigate a Bigfoot which was reportedly wreaking havoc at Cook Inlet in the second season of the show.
And while we can appreciate that there are many unknown creatures hiding out in Alaska’s vast wilderness – it just seems like a true shame that the Iliamna Lake Monster never quite made The Midnight Sons’ list.
Other shows have investigated this mystery
While Alaska Monsters failed to dive deeper into the mysteries contained in the depths of Lake Iliamna, several other shows have taken the bait.
Though actual evidence of any monster lurking at the bottom of Alaska’s largest lake has been few and far between – this lake monster has been the subject of multiple television episodes, including the following:
| Show | Network | About the episode |
| River Monsters | Animal Planet | “Alaskan Horror” (season 2, episode 12, which originally aired on May 16, 2010) |
| Expedition X | Discovery Channel | “Alaskan Lake Monster” (season 5, episode 5, which aired on June 15, 2022) |
Everything you need to know about the Iliamna Lake Monster
Lake Iliamna is a relatively large natural lake located in the southwest of Alaska (between Kvichak Bay and Cook Inlet).
Like most of the lakes in this remote part of the Alaskan wilderness, Lake Iliamna is only accessible by plane, though the sparsely populated nearby communities use the lake for fishing.
Although the eye-witness reports for the Iliamna Lake Monster differ slightly from one report to the next, most people are in agreement that this “monster” seems to be some kind of fish with visible fins, a large head and a noticeable-enough metallic color for it to be spotted from the inside of a plane.
Some locals have reported that this monster has an affinity for the color red (possibly attributable to its bloodlust), which is why many fisherman who fish on this lake avoid the color at all costs.
There are various theories about the true identity of this monster, which range from guesses that it may be a giant sturgeon or a Pacific sleeper shark, to a theory that it might even be a Plesiosaur.
This is a kind of reptile that is thought to have gone extinct more than 70 million years ago.
The evidence
The first sighting of suspicious activity at Lake Iliamna dates all the way back to the Tlingit people who would share stories of a giant, fish-like creature which was known as “Gonakadet.”
Since then, countless sightings of this mysterious monster have been reported by both the local communities and visitors to the area.
This includes reports by Babe Alyesworth and Bill Hammersley, who reported seeing a large, dull fish from their plane in 1942, a later report from a biologist in 1963, multiple reports from Chuck Crapuchettes and several other reports by local residents – who have estimated that the Iliamna Lake Monster could be anywhere between 10 and 30 feet long.
The search for the Iliamna Lake Monster has been in the back of the minds of crypto-zoologists for so long, in fact, that the Anchorage Daily News offered a reward of $100,000 to anyone who could provide conclusive evidence of this creature’s existence.
But, despite the years of hearsay and this handsome reward proposal, no conclusive evidence has been provided of the existence of this monster (outside of a few blurry photographs, that is).
Will the team investigate this mystery in the future?
While it would certainly be entertaining to see The Midnight Sons trade in their hunting gear for waders, there is seemingly little to no chance that Alaska Monsters will ever take up the Iliamna Lake Monster mystery in the future.
It has now been almost nine years since the last episode of season two of Alaska Monsters aired, and while many fans have begged the show to return– there has not been as much as a rumor to suggest that the show might return to television anytime soon.
