Ogopogo
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| AKA: N'ha·a·itk, Naitaka | |
 Ogopogo engraving from 1872 |
|
| Creature | |
|---|---|
| Grouping | Cryptid |
| Sub grouping | Lake monster |
| Data | |
| First reported | 1860 + prior local legend |
| Country | Canada |
| Region | Lake Okanagan, British Columbia |
| Habitat | Water |
| Status | Unconfirmed |
Ogopogo or Naitaka (Salish: n'ha-a-itk, "lake demon") is the name given to a lake monster reported to live in Okanagan Lake, in British Columbia, Canada.
Contents |
[edit] Sightings
Proponents of the Ogopogo's existence claim that the first documented sightings of the monster date back to around 1872, and occurred as the area was being colonized by European settlers.[citation needed] In 1926 a sighting is claimed to have occurred at an Okanagan Mission Beach. This event was supposedly witnessed by about thirty cars of people who all claimed to have seen the same thing.[1] It was also in this year that the editor of the Vancouver Sun, Bobby Carter, wrote, "Too many reputable people have seen [the monster] to ignore the seriousness of actual facts."[citation needed]
The first alleged film of the creature is The Folden Film, filmed in 1968 by Art Folden, which shows a dark object propelling itself through shallow water near the shore. The film was shot from on a hill above the shore.[citation needed]
Ogopogo was allegedly filmed again in 1989 by a used car salesman, Ken Chaplin, who with his father, Clem Chaplin, claimed to have seen a snake-like animal swimming in the lake, which flicked its tail to create a splash. Some believe that the animal the Chaplins saw was simply a beaver, because the tail splashing is a well-known characteristic of beavers. However, Chaplin alleges the animal he saw was 15 feet (4.6 m) long, far larger than a typical beaver (beavers are approximately 4 feet (1.2 m) long). A few weeks later, Chaplin came back with his father and his daughter and filmed it again.[citation needed]
British cryptozoologist Dr. Karl Shuker has categorized the Ogopogo as a 'many hump' variety of lake monster, and suggested it may be a kind of primitive serpentine whale such as Basilosaurus. However, because the physical evidence for the beast is limited to unclear photographs and film, it has also been suggested that the sightings are misidentifications of common animals, such as otters, and inanimate objects, such as floating logs.[2] Another suggestion is that the Ogopogo is a lake sturgeon. It is also possible in some cases that Ogopogo could be the misidentification of "a seiche" which is a standing wave in a lake that travels below the surface in a long serpentine motion.
Perhaps the earliest mention of the Ogopogo by non-natives was the story of a man in 1860 leading horses that were swimming across the lake near Rattlesnake Island. They were pulled under by some unseen and unknown force later attributed to the then common native myth of the Ogopogo.
The TV series In Search Of covered the legend in their season 2, episode 8 show in 1978. A July 1977 incident, involving locals Ed Fletcher, his daughter Jill, and Erin Neely is discussed, among others.
[edit] In culture
In 1990, a Canadian postage stamp depicting an artist's conception of the Ogopogo was issued.[3]
Ogopogo was both codename and mascot for 1996's Microsoft Publisher 97, with Ogopogo graphics featured prominently in the beta setup. Team t-shirts featured two versions of the monster: a small stylized picture on the front patch, and a larger, animation-influenced upper-body shot on back.
In 2005, a film inspired by the Ogopogo and made in New Zealand was released. The filmmakers were about to name the creature in the film after the Ogopogo until an Aboriginal protested that use of the name compromised Aboriginal religion, although other Aboriginals encouraged the use of the name "Ogopogo." Thus, the creature became "Mee-Shee" and the film was called Mee-Shee: The Water Giant. Jim Henson's Creature Shop modelled Mee-Shee after the late actor Walter Matthau.[4]
The logo for Kelowna's Western Hockey League team, the Kelowna Rockets, depicts Ogopogo.
In Canada, "Ogopogo" has also been a name given to items such as boats and canoes. In 1972, the Supreme Court of Canada considered the case Horsley v. MacLaren which involved a boat called the Ogopogo. The case itself is also known as "The Ogopogo case".[5] In 1989, a car salesman from Kelowna sold footage of a beaver to the American TV show Unsolved Mysteries, claiming it to be Ogopogo. In 1990, the owner of the Peachland Marina Restaurant "Mary's Country Kitchen" claimed to have photographed the Ogopogo crossing the lake from Rattlesnake Island
Harry Horse wrote a book for children, "The Ogopogo - My Journey with the Loch Ness Monster", in 1983.
A monster named "Ogopogo," depicted as a large serpent, appears in Square Enix's video game "Final Fantasy IV."
In Season 3 of the TV series Monster Quest, a search was conducted for evidence of the existence of an Ogopogo, revealing sink holes in the floor of the lake, cold streaks across the lakes surface (possibly indicating a large, cold-blooded creature surfacing for food), and what was at first thought to be a baby Ogopogo corpse, but was in fact an unrecognizable decomposed fish (Salmon) body.
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://www.ogopogoquest.com/sightings.html
- ^ Nickell, 2006
- ^ [1]
- ^ Johnson, Brian D. "Ogopogo gets drawn Down Under," Maclean's, July 31, 2006, vol. 119, issue 29, page 56.
- ^ E. R. Alexander, "One Rescuer's Obligation to Another: The 'Ogopogo' Lands in the Supreme Court of Canada," The University of Toronto Law Journal, vol. 22, no. 2. (Spring, 1972), p. 110.
[edit] References
- Gaal, Arlene. 1986. Ogopogo: The True Story of The Okanagan Lake Million Dollar Monster. Hancock House, Surrey, BC.
- Moon, Mary. 1977. Ogoppogo. Douglas Ltd., North Vancouver, Canada.
- Nickell, Joe. 2006. Ogopogo: The Lake Okangan Monster. Skeptical Inquirer, 30(1): 16-19.
- Radford, Benjamin. 2006. Ogopogo the Chameleon. Skeptical Inquirer, 30(1): 41-46.
- Salmonson, Jessica Amanda. 1992. The Mysterious Doom and Other Ghostly Tales of the Pacific Northwest: 149. Sasquatch Books, Seattle, WA.
- Season 3, MonsterQuest- Episode "Lake Demons"
[edit] External links
- "Québécois claims to have photos of Lake Massawippi monster" article from CTV website
- "Ogopogo the Chameleon" article about Ogopogo in the Skeptical Inquirer
Coordinates: 49°32′50″N 119°35′44″W / 49.54722°N 119.59556°W
