September 86

Ogopogo: B.C.'s Loch Ness monster ends summer vacation
by Graham Rockingham
United Press International

KELOWNA, B.C. -Believers say the warm waters of summer bring the demon to the surface. Skeptics suggest the dark dragon responds better to the ringing of cash registers.

The faithful argue that "Ogopogo" behaves in classic reptilian fashion, its humpbacked body slithering across the lake until it dives again. Wags counter that it actually behaves in classic Chamber of Commerce fashion, showing up about the same time as the summer tourists and disappearing when they do.

Whichever is true, another tourist season has closed at Lake Okanagan and six more sightings of Canada's version of the Loch Ness monster have been logged into the record books.

"I turned around and I saw this dark thing coming through the water," recounted Lionel Edmond, 33, who was fishing with a friend July 20 when he heard a loud rushing of water 30 yards behind him.

"It looked like a submarine surfacing, coming up toward my boat. As it came up perpendicular to the boat we could see six humps out of the water, each hump about 10 inches out of the water and each one creating a wake."

"It was cruising between 8 and 10 miles per hour. We followed it for 10 minutes. We saw no head or tail, but it must have been some 50 or 60 feet long."

Harold Thwait the former mayor of nearby Peachland, described the current spat of sightings as "a pile of ..." then he starts, stops and rephrases.

"I've never seen anything," he began again. "A lot of it's just tourist promotion. You'll see people rigging up truck tires in the water and taking pictures of them. The next thing you know, you're reading in the newspapers about a new Ogopogo sighting."

Legend holds that a kindly old Indian once lived by the lake but was killed by an evil wanderer. As punishment the gods turned the killer into a giant lake serpent so he would spend eternity at the scene of his crime.

Sightings of "the remorseful one" date back centuries. Indians who used to hunt and fish the area carried small animals to feed the monster-god they called "Naitaka."

The first known sighting by a white settler was in 1872, and since then hundreds have claimed to have seen something huge and mysterious rise out of the water.

Dozens of scratchy films, blurry photos and sharp sketches have been submitted as proof that a cousin of Scotland's Loch Ness monster resides in the 80-mile-long, mile-wide lake.

British Columbia authorities were once so convinced of Ogopogo's existence that in 1926 they considered arming lake ferries to protect them from the creature. They were never able to decide, however, what weapon would be effective.

There is no record of the demon ever attacking humans, although in the 1880's a team of horses was said to have mysteriously been pulled underwater, never to be seen again.

Another Indian legend holds that a brave named Timbasket refused to heed warnings of the elders and paddled his canoe too near Ogopogo's home -Rattlesnake Island- and disappeared. His canoe was found later high on a nearby cliff.

Ogopogo's biographer, Arlene Gaal, has spent the past five years meeting people who swear they've seen the creature. She has made three sightings herself.

Her dining room table is litter with photographs; some blurry, some out of focus and some obvious fakes. She holds up a snapshot of a dark figure passing under a bridge and pronounces it a hoax.

"This one was taken by a local motel owner. When I asked him to sign an affidavit, he admitted to drawing the figure on a piece of glass and holding it in front of his camera."

Gaal has written books on Ogopogo, but her most prized possession is a scratchy 8 millimeter films showing a large figure surface and submerge three times.

The lake is a seven-hour drive east of Vancouver. Framed by mountains, the Okanagan Valley is one of the most scenic areas in western Canada. It is so ready-made for tourists that it's not surprising that people think Ogopogo is a Chamber of Commerce gimmick -a notion enhanced by the fact that many sightings have been made by chamber employees.

Last year the chamber offered a $1 million to anyone who caught Ogopogo alive. Earlier it had offered $5,000 for valid pictures. The New York Times once offered $1,000 for a photograph.

No one has ever won.