Archive: Search for Hidden Beasts With John Kirk
Posted by: Ken Gerhard on August 27th, 2013
For those who missed it – Here is the latest episode of my cryptozoology podcast. My guest was John Kirk, one of the world’s preeminent experts on lake monsters. Among other things, we discuss notable cryptids such as Ogopogo, Nessie, Champ, Mokele-mbembe and China’s Yeren…
About Ken Gerhard
Ken has investigated reports of mysterious beasts around the world including Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Chupacabra, giant winged creatures and even werewolves. In addition to appearing in three episodes of the television series Monster Quest (History Channel), Ken is featured in the History Channel special The Real Wolfman, as well as Legend Hunters (Travel Channel/A&E), Paranatural (National Geographic), Ultimate Encounters (truTV) and William Shatner's Weird or What? (History Television). His credits include multiple appearances on Coast to Coast AM, major news broadcasts and Ireland’s Newstalk radio, as well as being featured in major books and in articles by the Associated Press, Houston Chronicle and Tampa Tribune. Ken is author of the books Big Bird: Modern Sightings of Flying Monsters and A Menagerie of Mysterious Beasts: Encounters with Cryptid Creatures, as well as the co-author of Monsters of Texas (with Nick Redfern) and has contributed to trade publications including Fate Magazine, Animals and Men, The Journal of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club and Bigfoot Times. He currently lectures and exhibits at events across America. Born on Friday the 13th of October, 1967 (exactly one week before the famous Patterson Bigfoot film was shot), Ken has traveled to twenty-six different countries on six continents and most of the United States. An avid adventurer, he has camped along the Amazon, explored the Galapagos, hiked the Australian Outback and has visited many ancient and mysterious sites, from Machu Pichu to Stonehenge.
While I appreciate my good friend Ken Gerhard’s kind words, I must put something straight for the record. John Kirk is not an expert on anything in the cryptid world. Since I have never been able to examine a cryptid close up or documented their everyday lives, I would prefer to call myself a serious student of cryptids.
I don’t like the use of the word “expert” or “authority” when it comes to cryptozoology so please let’s just call people some other appellation, but definitely not expert. Those who want to be called experts aren’t.
John,
Great interview. A must listen………….
60 foot Ogopogo ? About a year ago we debated size in the Folden film. You inferred that after research the animal was appox 20 ft. I said you were in the wrong location, the animal had to be over 40 ft. judging by the trees at the shoreline.
I have heard there are numerous trees (logging) in the lake. I think the Folden film rules out a tree because the animal makes a near 90 degree turn.
Could a 60 ft Ogopogo be a log.
Take care
kbraun,
People tend to think that Ogopogo is and was a single creature. That is not the case. In the 1950s Don Nourse and others observed no less than five juveniles. Paul Demara’s 1991 footage shows between 5 and 7 of them despite what some skeptics think. So that being said, they obviously come in varying sizes during their development.
The creature in Folden’s film is not a log. That is certain. Nor is it a big fish as one noted skeptic keeps saying. I do agree with the skeptics though that the creature in the Folden film is not 60 plus feet long. It can’t be. I was there with two prominent skeptics and a surveying team making laser measurements of the part of Okanagan Lake where Folden obtained his film. The creature was no more than 35 feet long at best. The earlier estimates by the original viewers of the film were off base.
As to a 60 foot Ogopogo. I have seen two at one time in 1989 off Bertram creek park that were both over 60 feet long and they were clearly not logs as they were swimming – one behind the other – and I saw humps not an elnogated body. My second sighting in 1987 was the one I spoke of in the interview with Ken Gerhard. Again, I saw humps, a head, a flat neck on the surface of the water and a tail. I am not the only person who has seen the big ones. There is a litany of sightings of animals in excess of fifty feet. Too many to note here.
I am certain I have never misidentified a log as Ogopogo, but I have misidentified Ogopogo as a log in 1990 until the ‘log’ that I and four others saw make splashes and swim off at high speed.