Item Detail
-
27529
-
1
-
0
-
English
-
A Nessie in Mormon Country
-
Between Pulpit and Pew : The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore
-
Logan, UT
-
Utah State University Press
-
159-167
-
The folklore in this collection, while likely paralleling lore in other cultures or religious traditions, is frequently centered upon beliefs unique to Mormonism. Alan Morrell's chapter on the "Bear Lake Monster," however, situates the lore surrounding Mormonism's own version of the Loch Ness Monster within a broader American context. Juxtaposed against the work of P. T. Barnum and the corresponding nineteenth-century tension between the supernatural and scientific minds, the Mormon "Nessie" loses much of its distinctiveness. As Morrell suggests, immersing the Bear Lake Monster in such an expansive ocean nearly drowns it. In Barnum's extraordinary world, Utah's watery beast loses its peculiarity altogether, recasting its Mormon believers into mainstream Americans years before they underwent their broader Americanization process. Morrell discovers that even though there were stark peculiarities about the worldview of nineteenth-century Mormons, belief in a ninety-foot, lake-dwelling serpent placed them firmly in the mainstream. Polygamy and theocracy may have set the Mormons apart, but, Morrell contends, the Bear Lake Monster did not. [Editors' summary]