Lake De Smet Monster Smetty

Lake De Smet, located 7.5 miles from Buffalo, has been the subject of persistent rumors regarding a large aquatic creature known locally as Smetty. Archival records held in The Wyoming Room at the Sheridan County Fulmer Library document decades of eyewitness accounts describing the animal in various forms, including a gargoyle, an alligator-like creature, and a giant seahorse.

The history of these reports dates back to the early 20th century. In December 1911, Mary Olga Moore of the Meadow Ranch self-published a chapbook detailing the lake's lore. Moore recorded a family tradition stating that Father Pierre-Jean De Smet witnessed the creature. She described the surface being lashed into waves by a tawny body plowing through the water.

Accounts from ranchers and engineers continued into the 1920s. In 1924, Frank Krout reported seeing a creature resembling a wet bay mare rise in the middle of the lake. The following year, Edward Gillette published an incident involving the Barkey family in his book "Locating the Iron Trail." The Barkeys, who had lived near the lake for 25 years, observed two serpents leaping from the water for nearly 15 minutes. Later, Arthur Senff reported seeing a six-foot rise in the water on a calm day, which created waves large enough to swamp a small boat.

In 1938, William Kenneth "Hi" Cole, manager of the Sheridan Flour Company, claimed to have captured the monster. Cole, who had offered a $100 reward for the creature's capture, took L. L. MacBride and photographer Walter Harris out on the lake. He described a ten-hour struggle during which the boat was tossed around and the water churned into blood-red foam. MacBride reportedly struck the creature with a pitchfork, killing it.

According to Cole, the carcass was pulled to shore and then exploded. The debris littering the bank included 12 horseshoes, the wheel of a road grader, Father De Smet's Bible, 13 Indian scalps, a backless bathing suit, a piece of railroad track, and an outboard motor. Ida McPherren, who interviewed Cole, noted that while the capture story was likely satirical, the explosion itself was real.

Modern reports suggest the legend persists. In the 1950s, a fisherman claimed the monster burst through the ice during a winter trip, leaving a 50-yard rip in the 3-foot-thick ice. A researcher at The Wyoming Room collected another account in 2017 from a fishing derby in the early 1990s, where contestants saw a large object rise and descend in the water. McPherren suggested that some sightings may have been caused by flocks of birds rising from the lake at dawn, which could appear as a large form from a distance.

The water of Lake De Smet is described in these records as having a cold, slimy feel and a green, ghoulish appearance. It reportedly tastes bitter and acrid. These physical characteristics of the basin have contributed to its reputation as a place inhabited by strange creatures of the air and water.