Thursday, June 23, 2011

Monsters Of Canada 2 - Ogopogo


Deep in Okanagan Lake, a water monster by the name of Ogopogo is said to dwell in mystery. For well over a century, this creature has been drawing on the imaginations and hiding from both locals and visitors to the lake. Okanagan Lake is actually very small as far as physical space and water volume. It is approximately 5 kilometers wide and 135 kilometers in length. The native peoples who used to live near the lake were the first to give it a name. They dubbed the beast Naitaka, which translates to “Lake Devil.” Yet the name Ogopogo did not come about and gain a great amount of popularity until it was included in a dance hall song of 1924 which states the now famous moniker of “His mother was an earwig, his father was a whale. A little bit of head and hardly any tail. And Ogopogo was his name.” The creature was first reported as being seen in 1872. Yet, since then he has been spotted in the lake numerous times—despite his normally acknowledged bashful and rather shy demeanor. People who still live near the Okanagan Lake have become very fond of their lake monster which is generally described as a serpent like creature with multiple humps throughout its body which is topped with a horse like head.

7 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

I remember the days when everyone who traveled to the Okanagan came home with some kind of Ogopogo souvenir.

M. D. Jackson said...

I and two friends once went to Okanagan Lake on a week-long hunt for the OGOPGO. Casual observers might have mistaken it for a sun-filled holiday full of waterskiing, drinking and sightseeing, but it was actually a serious cryptozoological expedition.

That's what we told Revenue Canada, anyway.

Kal said...

We have all had our experience with that certain cryptid - well those of us in western Canada. But after being let down by every other monster that is suppose to be out there, one bullshit sea serpent didn't change my life very much.

Kal said...

But I do have a lovely porcelain figure of Ogopogo.

Samantha Sotto said...

Thanks for the intro to Ogopogo. I think he's rather cute :)

Kal said...

Yeh, but cute is how they GETCHA!

Belle said...

I only believe there is one because the natives say so. White man speak with forked tongue.