Big Bowman Pond is a small

glacial A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

in the Taborton section of the Town of Sand Lake,

Rensselaer County Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 161,130. Its county seat is Troy. The county is named in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the la ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The lake is located on a geologic formation known as the

Rensselaer Plateau The Rensselaer Plateau is a small plateau located in the central portion of Rensselaer County, New York; it generally encompasses significant parts of the towns of Berlin, Stephentown, Sand Lake, Poestenkill, and Grafton, along with small secti ...

Big Bowman

Big Bowman Pond is known to locals as the home of Big Bowman (also known as "Bowie"), a large, aquatic

cryptid Cryptids are animals that cryptozoologists believe may exist somewhere in the wild, but are not believed to exist by mainstream science. Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience, which primarily looks at anecdotal stories, and other claims rejected by ...

. Though its description varies from one account to the next, Big Bowman is generally described as being similar in appearance to the

Bunyip The bunyip is a creature from the aboriginal mythology of southeastern Australia, said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes. Name The origin of the word ''bunyip'' has been traced to the Wemba-Wemba or Wergaia ...

, a mythical creature from

Australian Aboriginal mythology Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology is the sacred spirituality represented in the stories performed by Aboriginal Australians within each of the Aboriginal Australian languages, language groups across Australia in their Aboriginal ce ...

. Rumors of the existence of Big Bowman began to circulate the greater Albany area in the late 1800s after a young boy went missing while swimming in the lake.

References

Lakes of Rensselaer County, New York Lakes of New York (state) {{RensselaerCountyNY-geo-stub