Okanagan attractions

Ogopogo: the palindromic Okanagan Lake monster

Okanagan Lake has a fabled monster called "Ogopogo". The myth of this beast predates western settlement of the area. The natives called the beast N'ha·a·itk or sacred creature of the water. They recorded its existence with pictographs, and they went so far as to carry animal sacrifices when crossing the lake to appease it.

The first notable modern sighting was at Okanagan Mission Beach in Kelowna on September 16, 1926. Thirty carloads worth of 'respectable' people sighted the creature en masse. A witness described:

"A long sinuous body, 30 feet in length, consisting of about five undulations, apparently separated from each other by about a two-foot space, in which that part of the undulations would have gone underwater. There appeared to be a fork tail, of which only one-half came above the water. From Time to time the whole thing submerged and came up again."

The beast was allegedly caught on film twice: in 1968 by Art Folden, and again in 1989 by Ken Chaplin. A search of the internet will turn up some of the grainy footage if you persevere. A few years back Penticton's Chamber of Commerce offered a two-million dollar bounty for definitive proof of the beast. Scientists were ready to validate claims, and Lloyds of London insured the prize, but alas the bounty expired unclaimed, without even a serious contender.

Like "Nessie" you're more likely to see it on a t-shirt or hat than you are swimming around in the deep, glacial lake, but you never know. For a guaranteed sighting you can visit City Park in downtown Kelowna where there is a kitschy statue, or go diving at Paul's Tomb in the Knox Mountain Nature Park in Kelowna, where there is a likeness of the monster underwater at a depth of 25 feet.