Cryptozoology: The Surgeons Photo, Loch Ness

The one that started me on my quest. The Loch ness monster. When I was a child I saw this photo, read about the monster and just couldn't believe there could be a real live monster today. I researched and researched and became more and more interested. The more I read though the more that I could not believe that after all the searching done for the monster that nothing concrete was ever found. It's a land locked lake!!! Oh, but there are always excuses, it's silty, it has weird topography etc. After years and years the truth comes out. As much as I want to believe in Nessie I know she's not there. Here's why. 1.) In Scottish folklore there have always been creatures or monsters associated with bodies of water. 2.) In 1932 they needed a road around the loch. Local businessmen began to spread stories of a monster in the loch to drum up interest so the road would be completed. 1933 The first eyewitness account was published in London papers. It caused interest and tourists began to go to Loch Ness. The Daily Mirror hires a big game hunter to find the monster. He finds fresh footprints and it's announced in the paper. Hordes of would be monster hunters flock to the loch. The big game hunter takes plaster casts of the footprints and sends them in for analysis. They turn out to be hoaxed with the stuffed foot of a hippo. 3.) 1934 the surgeons photo appears and goes world wide. Monster fever is greater than ever. It alone become the face of the monster. The way it's published it's cropped and the original appears only once and is lost in time.
It's alot less impressive isn't it. 4.) Books appeared and generated interest, they also gave more creedence to the scientific aspect of this monster. They led to several funded expiditions in the 60's and 70's whiched used real science to try and locate the beast. Sonar and underwater cameras were used. They showed something? but what? More mystery was unfolded. They generated interest, but what the public didn't know was these images had been retouched. These btw were the images that convinced me that Nessie was real. They were enhanced by the NASA jet propulsion lab how could they be fake. Good photos there. This rekindled interest and several films and photos emerged and were taken to support the monster. 5.) 1994 the Surgeons photo is announced to be a fake. Christian Spurling, before his death at the age of 90, confessed to his involvement in a plot involving both Wetherell and Colonel Wilson to create the famous 'Surgeon's Photo. So the photo that started it all, the one that was the most credible was a fake. I was crushed. My monster is truly dead. 6.)
I wanted it to be real. I really did but the evidence is so overwhelming I cannot deny it. It is truly a case where tourism and people want to perpetuate the mystery. This didn't discourage me however it just showed me that a little research can lead to answers.