The sleepy Ontario hamlet of Oakhaven was in a panic. Business was stagnant. The town council decided to launch a desperate tourism campaign.

At a rowdy town hall meeting, residents hotly debated the issue. Silas Bentwhistle, a historian of minor renown, proclaimed:

“When towns lack a suitable historical event, they simply invent one. Pembroke, Ontario, created The Attack of the Mud-Beavers: A terrifying alternate history of giant, prehistoric ‘mud-beavers.’ Its annual ‘Mud-Beaver Festival’ features beavertail pastry-eating contests and goofy historical re-enactments.”

Inspired, Mayor Barnaby Higgins unveiled a grand scheme at the community centre two weeks later.

“Tourists want spectacle,” the mayor beamed. “So we’re going to give them the Legend of the Oakhaven Swamp-Beast!”

The local landmark, an unremarkable, slightly algae-covered rock in the middle of the turgid, weed-choked Oakhaven River, would be rebranded as the ancient........

© Peterborough Examiner