Ogopogo

Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, connected to the Pacific via the Columbia River, is said to be the habitat of a huge aquatic animal popularly known as Ogopogo. Reported about 200 times since the year 1700, the creature was observed at close range by several people on July 2, 1949. Mr. Leslie L. Kerry of Kelowna, having left his wife at their house overlooking the lake, was treating the W. F. Watson family of Montreal to a boat ride when they spotted a large, snakelike form in the water.

Undulating vertically, the object traveled sometimes above and sometimes below the surface of the lake. The people in the boat-adults and children-saw a body about 30 feet long and perhaps a foot in diameter, with a forked tail that lashed up and down.

Mrs. Kerry saw the event from the shore and called her neighbors, Dr. and Mrs. Stanley Underbill. All rushed down to the beach and trained binoculars upon the creature, which remained in view for at least 15 minutes. Dr. Underbill described it as smooth and black and having "undulations or coils" about seven feet long. He thought there were at least two creatures because of the distance between some of the coils. Ogopogo, it would seem, is not alone. Roy P. Mackal, Searching for Hidden Animals , pp.222-27)

Okanagan Natives have a much longer history with Ogopogo than white men. The Indian name for Ogopogo is N'ha·a·itk, which is of interior Salish Indian origin. Other Indian references to the "Great-beast-in-the-lake" and the "Snake-in-the-lake" have also been noted. The natives were always leery of traveling across the lake and often carried animals that could be sacrificed in the event that Ogopogo was spotted.

It was documented in The history of Okanagan Mission that no Indians were willing to fish near Squally Point, where the entrance to Ogopogo's cave lies. Petroglyphs, or pictographs, found near the headwaters of Powers Creek, show an ancient Indian illustration of a serpent-like beast. Many feel this is the earliest evidence of Ogopogo's existence.

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