The Seneca Guns
On clear days, people on Seneca Lake hear booms like distant cannon fire, with nothing to explain them.
What was reported
People living around Seneca Lake in upstate New York have long described deep booms that sound like distant artillery. The writer James Fenimore Cooper wrote a story about them in 1850, and the name 'Seneca guns' spread.
Similar booms are reported along the coasts of the Carolinas and elsewhere on the US East Coast, sometimes rattling windows. They are a close relative of the Barisal guns of the Ganges delta.
Explanations offered
Suggestions include supersonic aircraft, small earthquakes, gas escaping from the lake bed or seabed, distant thunder, and military exercises at sea. Some booms have been traced to aircraft, but many remain unexplained.
- When
- Reported since the 1800s
- Where
- Seneca Lake, New York, and the US East Coast
- Witnesses
- Residents along lakes and coasts
- Status
- Unexplained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.