Creature record / 1886

The Fiery Dragon of Elizabeth Lake: Peter R. Simpson's Midnight Encounter (1886)

July 15, 1886 · Elizabeth Lake, Sierra Pelona Mountains, Los Angeles County, California, United States

12Thinly documented Cryptid Creature 26 sources 5 videos

July 1886. Elizabeth Lake, in the hills above the Antelope Valley. Around midnight, an emigrant named Peter R. Simpson woke beneath his wagon to roaring and hissing from the water. Then the wagon itself was lifted off the ground, carried about twenty yards and dropped. His cattle stampeded. He followed the sound to a gulch. There, he said, a winged creature about thirty feet long was attacking sleeping antelope. Its eyes gleamed like two horrid fires. He fired his rifle and heard the bullet strike, and rebound. The Los Angeles Times told the story on August 1, 1886, under the headline "A Holy Terror. The Fiery Dragon of Elizabeth Lake."

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Key facts

When	July 15, 1886
Time of day	around midnight
Where	Elizabeth Lake, Sierra Pelona Mountains, Los Angeles County, California,United States
Duration	not recorded
Witnesses	1
Witness roles	civilians
Found
Evidence	none confirmed
Investigations	none recorded
Status	disputed

The creature

About thirty feet long, warm reddish in color, with enormous bat-like wings, long hind legs, a shaggy mane and a long tail ending in a barbed point. It had a long snout, jagged yellow teeth and huge eyes that gleamed like fires. Its scales were the size of dinner plates. It roared, hissed, flew and dove into the lake.

Size	about 9.1 m (about thirty feet long overall)
Colour	red
Surface	other surface
Sound	roar

Context

Elizabeth Lake lies at 3,228 feet in the Sierra Pelona Mountains, a natural sag pond on the San Andreas Fault about 17 miles west of Palmdale. Before 1834 it was called La Laguna del Diablo. Don Pedro Carrillo left his ranch there in the 1830s after a fire. American settlers left in 1855. Informants of the writer Horace Bell spoke of a creature "larger than the greatest whale, with enormous bat-like wings". By 1886 the lake sat on the emigrant wagon route to the Mojave desert via San Francisquito Canyon.

Sources (26, most influential first)

Elizabeth Lake History and Folklore · Lancaster Museum of Art and History· 2018-04-10 · Press, book, documentary · other
A Holy Terror. The Fiery Dragon of Elizabeth Lake (Los Angeles Times, 1 Aug 1886, transcription) · SCVHistory· 1886-08-01 · Academic / paper of record · news
Mysterious L.A.: Elizabeth Lake · LA Almanac · Wiki, blog, podcast · other
The Elizabeth Lake Dragon · Gary Reddin (Substack) · Wiki, blog, podcast · blog
The Monster in Lake Elizabeth · Lancaster Museum of Art and History· 2021-10-22 · Press, book, documentary · other

Reputability

12/100Thinly documented

Keywords

People

Peter R. SimpsonWitness, an emigrant camped by Elizabeth Lake (also given as Peter B. Simpson)
Horace BellWriter who recorded the Elizabeth Lake legend in On the Old West Coast
Don Felipe RiveraReported an 1886 sighting of a 45-foot beast that tried to eat one of his steers
Miguel LeonisRancher said to have wounded a griffin-like creature and driven it off
Don Pedro CarrilloLeft his ranch at the lake in the 1830s, part of the earlier lore
J.K. ParrishAuthor of the 1969 Old West article on the Rivera sighting
Lauren LienLancaster MOAH writer, 2018 account of the Simpson encounter
Gary ReddinBlogger who quoted the 1886 Times text and discussed explanations

Names

thunderbird