Sightings of Sharlie stretch back more than a century, with dozens of reports fueling her legend. The first widely noted encounter came in 1920, when railroad workers mistook a floating log for debris—until it began to undulate and swim away. In 1944, multiple witnesses near the Narrows described a creature at least 35 feet long, with a dinosaur-like head, camel-like humps, and shell-like skin, a sighting that even made national news. Two years later, a group of twenty people reported watching the serpent dive repeatedly, leaving a wake like a motorboat. Through the 1950s–1990s, boaters, fishermen, and even pilots claimed glimpses of Sharlie, often describing her as dark, scaly, and impossibly large. While no physical evidence has ever been found, the sheer number of accounts has kept Sharlie alive in Idaho folklore as Payette Lake’s most enduring mystery 

• 1920 Railroad Watch — Workers cutting ties saw what first looked like a log then undulated and swam away.

• 1944 Narrows Multiple Reports — Witnesses described a 30–35 foot creature with a dinosaur-like head, humps, and shell-like skin; the story reached national press.

• 1956–1971 Series — Boaters and anglers reported long necks, haunting eyes, and twin horns on the head.

• 1985–1986 Aerial and Shore Encounters — Pilots and campers reported multiple humps and a body nearing 40 feet in length.

• 1990s Sightings: Sharlie was still being reported sporadically through the mid-1990s. The Star-News of McCall and other local outlets published accounts of boaters and lakeside residents describing a serpentine shape with multiple humps cutting across the water. The last documented sighting on record was in 1997, when witnesses described a large, dark form moving just beneath the surface, leaving a wake like a motorboat.