Kelly McKenzie of the Columbia River Maritime Museum’s Education Department is looking for stories about our very own local sea monsters, Colossal Claude and Marvin the Monster.

“Colossal Claude was first sighted by the crew of the Lightship Columbia back in 1934,” she wrote. “The mate of the lightship described it as 40 feet long, with an 8 foot long neck attached to an ‘evil snaky looking head’ and a ‘mean-looking tail.’” Claude has been missing since the mid-1950s.

“Marvin the Monster was caught on tape when Shell Oil Co. was exploring the area in 1963,” Kelly added. Two frames are shown. “Marvin looked to be 15 feet long with barnacled ridges along his body and swam in a ‘corkscrew fashion in water about 180 feet in depth.’” Is he a sea jelly or a plesiosaur? No one knows, and the tape has vanished. So has Marvin.

Have a Marvin or Claude story? Email Kelly at mckenzie@crmm.org