‘Creature’ at Ootsa Lake
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on September 11th, 2010
Published: August 25, 2010 10:00 AM
The last thing Darlene Thompkins expected to see on her holiday was something she referred to as the ‘Ootsa Lake monster’.
Thompkins who is holidaying in Burns Lake with her family from Edmonton, said she named the mysterious sighting in Ootsa Lake a monster because she didn’t know what else to call it.
Thompkins and her granddaughter were wading in the water near the Ootsa Lake spillway last week, while her friend George sat on the shore.
“A plane flew over and we watched that go by, it looked like the pilot was doing some sort of training exercise, then when we looked back down there was a big wave in the water,” she said.
Thompkins said the wave struck her as being unusual at the time so she watched the large ripple in the water about eight to 10 metres from where she and her granddaughter were standing.
Thompkins then said she and her granddaughter saw a head appear out of the water.
“It looked like a huge snake head ,,, and it was a dark grey colour,” she said.
“I called out to George to come and look, but he said to come out of the water and was a little scared. I didn’t think about being scared because I was trying to see what it was, I grabbed my video camera and recorded but I was in a hurry and the focus was zoomed in so the footage is blurry,” she said.
Thompkins then grabbed a camera to take a picture of the creature and snapped a shot.
“It looks further away in the photo that what it was …. we saw it much closer,” she said.
“We saw it twice, then another one came up beside it and a third one came too,” said Thompkins adding that the creatures were very long like a snake.
“You could see the head while they were swimming along then further back there was another part of it – like a hump …. I can’t stop thinking about what we saw and wondering what it was,” she added.
“My uncle said it was probably a sturgeon, but this creature was swimming along with its head out of the water …. right up and out of the water …. and it was really big,” she said.
“I wish I knew what it was, I have heard other people say they have seen something similar ….. these lakes are so big, you would never know what is living in them,” she added.Caledonia Courier – News
Where are the photos and video?
I hear John Kirk is looking into this. Hopefully he will update us Cryptomundians.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Ootsa lake is a hundred miles inland, but accessible to the sea thru Dean Channel and Dean River (a bit of a wade), or Gardner Canal with wading thru two more lakes. A simple Google Earth search got that info. 53 degrees 29′ N x 126 degrees 56′ W, FYI. If this were extra-sized freshwater eels, a connect to the sea may not be necessary. If this was a dislocated ‘sea’ monster, it’s still doable.
woo-hoo…more intriguing sightings. This is a good year for water critters so far…
Am now anxious to see what comes of this and whether any of the video and photo footage gives us any information on what she saw!
I’ll rule out sturgeon too if it lifted its head out of the water. And that also takes care of eels too…as far as I know, they don’t and aren’t able to lift their heads out of the water and swim for a distance.
Mik – “FYI. If this were extra-sized freshwater eels, a connect to the sea may not be necessary.”
springheeledjack – “And that also takes care of eels too…as far as I know, they don’t and aren’t able to lift their heads out of the water and swim for a distance.”
Fail#1 Freshwater eels are catadromous
Fail#2 Freshwater eels are not found in B.C.
springheeledjack- Right. As a matter of fact there are not too many fully submerged animals with a long neck that would stick their heads out of the water and swim that way. It would be quite a feat to be honest. Even the old standby, the plesiosaur, in all likelihood did not do this. So we can rule that one out as well.
“It looked like a huge snake head ,,, and it was a dark grey colour,” she said.
“We saw it twice, then another one came up beside it and a third one came too,” said Thompkins adding that the creatures were very long like a snake.
My guess is that a group of loons or other diving waterbirds were spooked by the plane or the witnesses. It would be interesting to see the video and the still shot.
wuffing- I assume you have some insight on this subject. I was just adding some information and a tad bit of guesswork. You shouldn’t be so quick to step on others’ conjectures unless you have a better exsplaination. If it ain’t eels, what is it? Don’t come to a cryptozoology site just to gainsay cryptozoology.
Species adapt to the situation all the time. Are you so sure that eels aren’t in B.C.? …Or spawn in the sea?
Mik- Hi, no offence meant, and I didn’t labour your comment “If this were extra-sized freshwater eels, a connect to the sea may not be necessary” All known freshwater eels of the Anguilla family spawn in a few specific locations in the ocean, so a connection to the sea is necessary but in the case of B.C. – in fact the whole West Coast of North America – that spawning ground is so far away that no eels make it. So yes, I am sure that there are no freshwater anguillid els in naturally occurring in B.C.
And I did offer a better explanation. Cryptozoology should be about solving mysteries, should it not? Best Wishes.