"You've got to be kidding" I thought! Surely a harbor seal living in a fresh water lake some 10 to 15 miles from Puget Sound would be considered weird enough to be documented in a book called "Weird Washington", but apparently not. So I decided to do a researching on my own and I came across the article "Butch the Lake Sammamish Seal" by Nan P. Campbell at www.historylink.org. This is an excellent article written by someone who also lived on Lake Sammamish during the time that Butch the seal as he was known, lived in the lake.
My Uncle used to tell me that the seal had a collar on him, and Nan P. Campbell also mentions the collar several times in her article. Now this collar figures prominently in the two most plausible theories as to how Butch ended up in Lake Sammamish. Of all the theories offered as to how Butch ended up in the lake, given the collar the two that seem the most plausible seem to be that he either escaped from a circus or was let loose by his handler, or he was kept as a pet by someone who lived on the lake and somehow got loose.
Butch died in 1975, and even though I never got a chance to see Butch while visiting my Aunt and Uncle on Lake Sammamish I did find Nan's article a great chronicle of a wayward and rambunctious seal, and I think you will too so give it a read.
Cheers ~ Nemo
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I just stumbled on the article written by Nan Campbell about the seal in Lake Sammamish. In it she mentions a Seattle Times article from 1961 about a dog being attacked or that the seal was possibly playing with the dog. Well here are the facts. It was an attack. We lived in West Seattle back then and my family was visiting the lake that day so my dad could learning to waterski. As a nine year old at the time I was on the shore throwing sticks to that dog, my dog. He let out a yelp and disappeared under the water twice as he swim franically for shore. He emerged bloody with part of one pad and a piece of a rear thigh missing. The picture that accompanied the Times article that Sunday was of me hold the dog. He recovered fine and never had any issues about going back in the water. I also saw the seal years later while waterskiing on the lake as a young adult but never knew what happened to him until today. Dave Nichols-Redmond
HI Dave! Thanks for sharing your story ~ Nemo
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