Looking Back at The Beast of Stinson Beach

Shortly after lunch on Halloween, 1983, A road construction crew were busy at their wares, repairing a damaged stretch of California Highway 1. While there was a lax moment in between directing the normally busy traffic, a flagman happened to glimpse down from the high cliffside where he stood. His vision scanned the tingling bronze sands of Stinson Beach, and out over the cobalt waves of the shimmering Pacific. What he saw next was right out of a seventeenth century schooner captain’s logbook.

He saw what could only be described as a Sea Serpent. Undulating about a quarter mile from shore and headed towards them. He quickly radioed a coworker to make sure he had not lost control of his mind. The man who answered the walkie talkie was named Matt Ratto. He fetched a pair of binoculars and spied the location which the flag man had alluded to. Sure enough, the traffic controller was not crazy. He also sighted a gigantic creature churning towards the beach. It was not like any whale or fish they had ever observed. All descriptions of the anomaly seem to be in concert. A long thin snake, estimated at a length of 100 feet! with three vertical humps which periodically rose out of the Ocean.

Other workers were alerted, five in total, and they all watched in astonishment as the creature lifted a massive head out of the water. One of the men estimated that it was about the size of a horse’s head. It then appeared to look around and gauge its surroundings. Suddenly it plunged the great noggin back into the waves and reversed direction. Heading back out to Sea at a clip as fast as a luxury liner. Steve Bjora, a passing truck driver who also was shocked at this unexpected spectacle, estimated the monster’s speed somewhere in excess of forty five miles an hour. He said that he had only saw two humps and that he had thought he had been dealing with some sort of super sized eel.

Transportation safety inspector Marlene Martin reportedly also rubbed her eyes at the sight of the massive snake, but, perhaps fearing that she would be fitted for a straight jacket, refused to discuss it publicly. Her daughter however, admitted that her mother was counted among the believers and that she relayed the story back to her, calling the serpent quote; “The biggest thing she had ever seen.”

Another young man named Ronald Curry, also admitted that he spotted the creature not far from the construction site, and furthermore that it was the second time he had seen it that week! When he mentioned the first sighting to his girl friend she dismissed him as a lunatic, and this made him reluctant to come forward. But after he heard the testimony of the road crew, combined with the excitement of his second viewing, he too laid a claim to witnessing the great snake’s wake.

Three days later the final sighting occurred when a group of surfing youths spotted a huge foam trail in the water. This observation occurred nearly four hundred miles south in the vicinity of Costa Mesa. Young Hutchinson, a twenty nine year old surfer dude was stunned when the huge back of the beast’s head emerged from the waves a mere ten feet from his surf board. Hutchinson did not say much to his friends originally since he had been the only one to see the head. While his partners on the waves only caught a glimpse of the insanely mammoth wake. But after reading about the encounter reported by the construction crew, he also was encouraged to reiterate to authorities the tale of the horror he had encountered near the Santa Ana River. One which he also described as “A long Black eel.”

After that however. The Sea Serpent of Stinson Beach, returned to whatever black inky depths it had emerged from. With no further reports forthcoming.

Source; Mysterious Creatures- Time Life Books