Ogopogo: Denizen of the Deep
Posted by: John Kirk on April 11th, 2006
I am often asked why I spend as much time as I do in pursuit of Ogopogo, the denizen of Okanagan Lake. The reason is straightforward: Because it is there. I know this animal to be a real entity as I have seen it on more than one occasion.
What is it? Blowed if I know. My closest encounter with this creature was actually through the lenses of a 40X telescope on August 30, 1989. The animal appeared off Peach Orchard beach in Summerland, in front of at least 50 witnesses including myself. I was able to look at the creature through the telescope when it was between 100 – 150 metres offshore. At that point in the minute or so long sighting, the animal was about three feet out of the water and I was able to see, clearly, five humps.
They were all jet black in colour and it struck me that skin was very similar to that of the Killer Whale (Orcinus orca), but there were no white bands at all to be seen. Even more curious was the presence of tubercles which are growths under the skin that are seen on other whales such as the Blue, Humpback and Right whales for instance.
Dr Roy Mackal has posited for a long time that lake cryptids may well be relict zeuglodons that have survived and have adapted freshwater environments. Zeuglodons – or basilosaurs as they are also known – are often depicted as lizard-like whales with skin similar to that of a Killer Whale. The animals I have seen at Okanagan were only whale-like in terms of their skin, and that is where the resemblance ends. No whale I know of has a long neck – which I have seen partially for myself – as Ogopogo does, nor do any whales have the sort of tail I have seen. Some Ogopogo witnesses claim to have seen a bilobate tail, but this has not been my experience.
Last year a tourist from Alberta snapped a photograph of what appears to be the single hump of an Ogopogo. I know the picture was taken at Okanagan Lake as I recognized many landmarks in the picture. After examining it closely I saw no evidence of tampering and was astonished to see the whale-like skin once again. We do not have the rights yet to show this picture on Cryptomundo, but I am working on it. However, I can still describe for you the characteristics of the hump in the photo. It appears to be about two feet out of the water and is jet back in colour save for a greyish-whitish band that goes vertically over the hump from one side to the other. What is really interesting is what appears to be an extremely flattened vertebra along the spinal ridge. I have never seen anything like it and am at a loss to even speculate what it could be.
The tourist did not even know he had taken the creature’s photo and was surprised when he came across the image after having had hundreds of vacation snaps developed. The photo crowned a good year for sightings including one by the brother of John Casorso, who filmed some unusual activity in the lake in August of 2004. Casorso’s brother was working in an Orchard behind and above Manteo Resort when he saw a huge black object leaping out of the water. It was huge and created quite splash when it hit the water. A nearby boater closed in to investigate the splash, but it is not known what he/she saw close-up as Casorso was unable to track him/her down.
Last summer, two elderly citizens saw Ogopogo off Beach Avenue in Peachland. The pair, a husband and wife, could not believe their eyes. The husband had previously rabidly refused to consider that there was an unknown creature in the lake, but as a result of this experience, he now is adamant that there is a cryptid in the lake.
I spent a good deal of time at Okanagan Lake last year, but did not have any luck with a sighting despite terrific weather and a lot of observation on the lake itself. I did however do something I have never done before at Okanagan Lake: I actually entered the water. Having seen the animal in the lake on a number of occasions, I had a real issue with getting into the water for 17 years. I watched divers and cameramen enter the lake, but none of these people had seen Ogopogo and I am sure they would not have if they did. I know many other people who have seen Ogopogo who won’t go out on the lake again never mind taking a dip in it. I am happy to report that I made multiple forays into the lake, and have returned from the ventures with all anatomical parts intact.
This summer I will be repeating my dives in the lake and will be reporting to you anything I see or hear about the Lake Demon Naikata, Lord of the Waves.
About John Kirk
One of the founders of the BCSCC, John Kirk has enjoyed a varied and exciting career path. Both a print and broadcast journalist, John Kirk has in recent years been at the forefront of much of the BCSCC’s expeditions, investigations and publishing. John has been particularly interested in the phenomenon of unknown aquatic cryptids around the world and is the author of In the Domain of the Lake Monsters (Key Porter Books, 1998).
In addition to his interest in freshwater cryptids, John has been keenly interested in investigating the possible existence of sasquatch and other bipedal hominids of the world, and in particular, the Yeren of China. John is also chairman of the Crypto Safari organization, which specializes in sending teams of investigators to remote parts of the world to search for animals as yet unidentified by science. John travelled with a Crypto Safari team to Cameroon and northern Republic of Congo to interview witnesses among the Baka pygmies and Bantu bushmen who have sighted a large unknown animal that bears more than a superficial resemblance to a dinosaur.
Since 1996, John Kirk has been editor and publisher of the BCSCC Quarterly which is the flagship publication of the BCSCC. In demand at conferences, seminars, lectures and on television and radio programs, John has spoken all over North America and has appeared in programs on NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, TLC, Discovery, CBC, CTV and the BBC.
In his personal life John spends much time studying the histories of Scottish Clans and is himself the president of the Clan Kirk Society. John is also an avid soccer enthusiast and player.
Can’t wait to see that photo. I’m always dubious when someone says “I didn’t even notice it when I took the picture”. Why would that be? Were his eyes closed at the time? If he only sees it now, doesn’t that suggest that outside the restrictive context of a photograph he didn’t think it was anything special, and that therefore it probably wasn’t? Or even that it’s camera error or some such explanation? It’s hard enough to validate a sighting with an accompanying photo, much less a photo with no sighting.
By the way John, can you tell us what largish aquatic animals are known to inhabit that lake?
Basilosaurus is the REAL name for this whale, despite the old clinger-onner name of zeuglodon, which disgusts me as much as brontosaurus. It had a medium length neck, slender body, and tail flukes are unconfirmed, though suspected.
Could it be that the tourist at first mistook it for a wave, then noticed the skin?
…Or could it be that it was a wave, but in that photo it looks like skin, so it’s now being mistaken for a cryptid?
John’s sighting is certainly interesting, and I also would love to see the photo. I should point out that the creature he describes is but one of many, many dramatically different features described as being Ogopogo.
Here, for example, is Roy Mackal’s description:“The skin is described as dark green to green-black or brown to black and dark brown… [or] gray to blue-black or even a golden brown. Most often the skin is smooth with no scales, although the body must possess a few plates, scales, or similar structures observed by close-up viewers…. Most of the back is smooth, although a portion is saw-toothed, ragged-edged, or serrated. Sparse hair or hair-bristle structures are reported around the head, and in a few cases a mane or comblike structure has been observed at the back of the neck.”
Furthermore, the head is said to look like that of a snake, or a sheep, or a horse, or a seal, or an alligator. Or a bulldog. Sometimes it has ears or horns; other times it doesn’t. A large number of sightings simply refer to a featureless “log” that came alive.
The wildly divergent descriptions pose a significant problem. Logically, there are only two possible explanations: 1) the eyewitnesses are inaccurately reporting what they saw; or 2) the eyewitnesses are accurately reporting many different types of physically different lake monsters. Neither is good news for lake monster searchers!
Basilosaurus – “the closest a whale ever came to a snake”.
There is a nod to cryptozoology in the last line.
Oh – and I think it’s dead easy to accidentally capture something in a photo; happens all the time – you’re concentrating on the subject, for example in the foreground, take the photo, and there in the background is something you didn’t notice. The other thing is your brain automatically accomodates differing lighting conditions, while a camera will record whatever light is coming through the lens – and often you’ll only notice details which stand out when you see the photo.
PS – my only quandry with the mammalian suggestion is that mammals need to breathe; surely you’d expect many sightings every year in a landlocked lake, even if it’s 111km long? Whilst Basilosaurus is declared mammalian, why don’t we suggest Ogopogo to be reptilian or piscean?
I Agree with the photo thing. Ive taken many a photo in my time, using many different cameras, and quite often ill find little things in my photos which i never even noticed whilst i was taking the photos, but once i had them printed out or on my monitor, they stand out like a sore thumb (Eg. taking photos of aircraft, and gettings rare birds in the same shot, but because the subject had my attention, i never even noticed the bird).
A bit off topic, but it isnt hard for someone to do, even if they are a professional photographer.
I’m sure it does happen sometimes. It’s just that when they thing that you didn’t notice at the time is a lake monster that isn’t supposed to exist, I’d say it’s far more likely that you are simply misidentifying something common that just doesn’t look so common when taken out of the context of a broader perspective. Especially since usually – as in this case – it’s an ambiguous shape like a “hump”.
Granted, though: I have yet to see this particular photo.
And I’d still like to know what other large animals are in that lake that could be misidentified. …Anyone?
Its a sturgeon 😛
i seriously doubt very much that it is a sturgeon, but that seems to be the argument put forth alot of the time when dealing with ‘lake monsters’
Native Americans do have stories of “water monsters” that are thousands of years old, so it would be interesting to conduct a correlation between those stories and locations of modern “sightings.” Best of luck to you John!
@Kathy,
I believe the natives in BC used to take animals out in canoes into Lake Okanagan and sacrifice them to what they called “Nitaka” which apparently means “Lake Demon”. It’s been suggested that Nitaka was Ogopogo…back when it had a much cooler name.
ZenBug’s last comment actually goes with the first white man’s account of Ogopogo. According to the story I read, a man bought an island (I don’t know if there are more than one) on the lake. He was heading out to his island on a small to medium sized boat (too small for horses) and had 2 horses tied to the boat, swimming behind him. All at once the horses were pulled under (both of them) and he had to cut them loose or be pulled under himself. Ogopogo is there, no matter what it actually is.
John, you wrote “We do not have the rights yet to show this picture on Cryptomundo, but I am working on it”.
How’s that going?
Still trying to find the owner of the photo. The person is a bit of a mystery and I have had no luck with finding him.
I’ll keep readers informed about this and let you know as soon as I get word of any sort.
In the Denver zoo is a photo posted in the big cat area of a woman and her child being photographed by her husband. What they didn’t notice until the picture was developed was that a mere few feet away was a cougar in the grass getting ready to spring. When you’re concentrating on your subject it’s easy to not notice things going on around you in a picture even when they would be quite alarming.
I live at vernon (the little town) on okanagan landing and have seen ogopogo for myself (on the lake). The article fits my description cause I’ve seen it 3 times.