A prehistoric lake monster is slithering through the depths of Okanagan Lake in British Columbia—or so the legend goes.
FLIPPED-OUT FISH
The First Nations tribe calls him Naitaka (N’ha-a-itk) or Lake Demon. Like Nessie in Scotland, Ogopogo is a lake monster who has been (supposedly) swimming through these waters for hundreds of years. He has been “seen” by thousands—yet he remains elusive. Like Sasquatch, Ogopogo is called a cryptid—a creature who has been seen and rumored to exist, yet there is no conclusive proof that he is real. Some believe Ogopogo is a surviving plesiosaur from the age of the dinosaurs. Other experts peg Ogopogo as a form of primitive whale—basilosaurus cetoide.
Based on various sightings over the decades, the monster appears to be black or tan and stretches to about 50 feet long. He is three feet wide . . . with humps.
ROUGH PUNISHMENT
Some local legends say that Ogopogo was a demon-possessed man who had murdered another local resident. The murdered man went by the name of “Old Kan-He-Kan,” and that’s how Okanagan got its name. To pay for his heinous crime, the gods condemned the murderer to live forever as a lake serpent, tortured by an eternity of remorse.
Sightings of the beast by the “white man” go back to the 1860s. One day back then, trapper John McDougall was towing a team of his horses across the lake, pulling them along as he rowed his canoe. He had made similar trips, and he would often bring a small animal—a chicken or tiny pig—which he would drop in the middle of the lake as a sacrifice for the creature. Once, he forgot his peace offering. Halfway across, the horses began to sink and McDougall suspected an angry Ogopogo may be dragging them to their deaths. His horses were pulled to the bottom of the lake, and he would have been as well if he hadn’t quickly cut the tow rope with his knife and paddled ashore.
The Canadian maple leaf flag was not adopted until 1965.
Over the decades, mysterious drownings have been attributed to the beast.
In the 1930s, two boys boating on the lake say they saw the monster quickly rise from the lake, snatch a seagull from the air in its maw, and within seconds, plunge back into the deep.
• In 2000, a swimmer taking a dip in the lake claims to have seen two of the critters swimming by.
• On April 18, 2002, a fourteen-member crew spotted Ogopogo while filming a documentary. A crew member said, “We saw two humps undulating in and out of the water. It was huge, black, and shiny.” Some thought its head was spewing out water.
• In 2004, a mother was watching the lake with her three children. She heard a fast, repeated “thump thump thump thump” that made the water spray up. She said it was much louder than a beaver slap. Then she spotted three smooth, shiny humps gliding across the surface of the water.
There are scores of stories like these, and if you go on the Web you can see photos of things that may or may not be the lake monster. Skeptics say that the creature is just a long log. Tens of thousands of logs have been cut down by the timber trade, and they often float barely beneath the lake’s surface.
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MY FUNNY SERPENTINE
A long-necked, horse-headed creature known as Cadborosaurus (named for Cadboro Bay, near Victoria, British Columbia) is a legendary sea creature that swims the BC waters. Nicknamed Caddy, the sea serpent has been spotted by folks in the area for centuries. In 1937 at the Naden Harbour whaling station in the Queen Charlotte Islands, some flensers (workers who strip whales of their blubber) thought they had real proof of the monster. They found a bizarre animal in the stomach of a harvested whale. It was unlike any creature these fishermen had ever seen—a camel-like head, long serpentine body, and a distinctive tail and flippers. Tissue samples were taken and sent off to be identified, but they vanished. Photos of the creature exist, and they persist in stumping scientists. Sightings continue to this day.
Four hummingbird species nest only in Canada the Ruby-Throated, Black-Chinned and two types of Rufous.