John Singleton

Do you believe in Ogopogo?

I believe there is something out there, but I don't know what it is. The information that I have seen that far, there is certainly something of size and of quantity. I think there is more than one in the water. But what it is I don't know.

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How many people have participate?

We had six valid ones this year and I understand that there might be some more coming out of other sightings stations. We've had probably a dozen people send us emails, letters, phone calls saying that they have had sightings but they don't have any evidence of them. You know, they were out fishing, one lady was driving along... So we've got quite a few folks telling us about their experiences seeing something in the water. But as far of photographic or hard evidence, we only got the six or so.

We have the video, we also have some other photographs that were taking, unfortunately they were taking back in 1994, so they don't qualify, but pretty clear photographs. And then we had underwater photography, and we have some sonar photography. The Japanese are very interested in Ogopogo. I'm not sure about the culture, but they certainly a fascination with things in the unknown. Part of the way that I understand it, the part of the Asian culture, it has to do with serpent and dragon and that type of things. So there is an automatic attraction of finding more about that type of thing. And Ogopogo is though to be dragon-lake, not fire breather or anything, but certainly the head looks like a dragon, in some people conception. We do see a correlation there. They had done search for Loch Ness monster as well. There is some school of though with cryptozoologist that maybe Ogopogo and Loch Ness, Nessie, are both Cadborosaurus. Which is a species that is though to be inexistent today. There is that fascination.

What does Ogopogo bring to the Tourism business?

A lot of people may not know all about our lake. Our lake is 97 miles long, it's a big big lake. West of the great lakes I don't think there is a lake any larger. So it's a pretty large lake. What is done, is aloud people to find out more about our areas. We have a lots of little lakes, we have a lots of water activities. But it has brought worldwide attention to us. I've done interviews in five countries, four television in North America, radio in Europe and across North America. So it brought a lot of attention to us. What it has done, it force us to make sure we are up to date all the time with our information as well. That's ok, that's a good thing. And it has created some spin out business, retail business, throughout the entire valley. T-shirts, stuffed animals, pins, that type of stuff, there is a lot of Ogopogo souvenir. I don't have a dollar value, it will be too hard for me to guess on that, it definitely has a positive effect on our economy and on our traffic area. A lot of people are coming visiting us.

Why do you think we should make Ogopogo known all across Canada?

Having web site like this is phenomenal, that is great. We also have a website, but we don't have many hits because people don't know about it. Anytime we do interviews, we always say www.ogopogosearch.com. But there is also links on the Chamber sites. I think the Internet is the probably the best method for reaching across Canada. Because the majority of the Canadian have access. But we still need the press to get the information out there. We still need the news medias. So we do a lot of Press release, we do a lot of stories, we send it out on e-mails to other places. We never ever turned down an opportunity for an interview. Who knows, when Dan shot his video, he had all kind of friends in Saskatchewan. He e-mailed them and said: Look I got this video of Ogopogo. The newspaper out there picked it out, and it gives us a big boost, all of the sudden there was a research and I end up doing interviews in England, because of Dan's video. Dan and I were on the radio at the same time. So you can never underestimate the power of the media. So that is by far the most positive outline for anybody getting information. You have to have a story that you can write yourself to send out that is very clear to give them a taste of what you have, so they want to come back for more!

Some of the stories that we've heard, lady out fishing with her family on a boat, and they were not moving, just spin casting in the water. She was just snoozing reading a book and her husband screamed and as this head came out of the water. And they were in fairly deep area, about 250 feet of water. As this creature came up beside them, and he estimated that the head was 3 or 4 feet. Horse like. And that's pretty standard, we get goats, we get horses that been reported to us. So it's consistent! But... Very very smelly. Very bad smell. And fish doesn't smell that great to start with, so that makes sense.

Some gentlemen who were fishing out, they were trawling and this thing came up beside them as well, and they said the smell was just overwhelming, it was terrible. They would not go back on the water anymore. They are not fishing in that lake ever again. And these guys are retired fellows who fish a lot. So now they go on other lakes.

Parts of that lake are up 1000 feet deep so its quite cold water. And there is reports of underwater rivers coming in off the mountain which create more cold more currents and it's not a terribly safe place in some areas because of the underwater currents. A lot of guys wont dives out there, some of our professional divers.

One other thing I wanted to tell you was, off the coast of Japan in 1977, it was reported that a Cadborosaurus was picked up by a fishing trawler but the smell was so bad, that when they got it up on board on the deck of the boat they took a picture and chucked it over. Because it was too big. A drift net, they had been drift netting, and one got loose and caught something down quite deep. They figured about 4 or 5 hundred feet deep. Funny how the sonar picture are about that deep.

Where do you think is the home of Ogopogo?

Peachland about a third of way up, and right across of Peachland there is a place called Rattlesnake Island. And that seems to be the area where the majority of the sightings are. It's also the area with this underwater river flows in. And it said to have a lot of caves there. And the divers won't dives there because it too dangerous waters to dives in. I think that would be a very safe habitat. That would explain why we don't see him very often or her. Why they're so well protected. And nobody ever gone into that area. It's not comfortable water to be in under the surface, for human. If you are 50 feet long, I guess it would be just a little current. Plus it might bring a feed stream in as well as the fresh water.