Kelowna visitor's guide 1991

Ogopogo Becomes an International Star

Ogopogo has captured the imagination of people all over the world. During a recent television documentary, a model of Ogopogo was created and many sighters exclaimed it looked very much like the real thing.

The secretive Ogopogo, legendary monster of Okanagan Lake, has become an international television celebrity. Without spending one moment on camera!

Millions of Japanese television viewers tuned into their local stations twice this past season to catch a glimpse of the elusive Ogopogo -but all they saw was the far depths and beautiful waters of our own Okanagan Lake. The two documentaries were the exciting, but unsuccessful, separate searches by Japan's Nippon TV. Helicopters, one man submersibles, diving teams, fish-finding devices and the assistance of a local Ogopogo expert failed to reveal live footage of the elusive creature. The most exciting moment occurred last fall, when the fish-finding sonar indicated a creature about 320 feet under the lake's surface: it was apparently 30 to 40 feet long, and produced a wavy line like the reported humps on Ogopogo's back.

However, the Japanese are not the only ones interested in the Okanagan's most famous citizen. The well-known American TV program "Unsolved Mysteries" also came looking for Ogopogo, and even created a mock-up of the lake monster which was "impressive and realistic" according to some Ogopogo sighters.

The Okanagan's lake serpent has been the subject of much curiosity and controversy over the years. It was feared by the early natives of the area, who offered it chickens in sacrifice, and was named Ogopogo by local residents in 1924. There have been hundreds of sightings, indicating Ogopogo is long and green, with two huge humps and a horse-like reptilian head. It can move through the waters at high speeds, in an undulating manner.

But it was Ken Chaplin's videotaped sighting in 1989 that eventually brought Ogopogo international stardom. While skeptics insist the creature in Chaplin's video is only a beaver, that was enough question that the story behind his sighting appeared in Time Magazine and the New York Times, as well as countless prestigious Canadian publications. National Geographic investigated the possibility of doing an article and, of course, Nippon TV of Japan showed extraordinary interest.

There is some concern in Kelowna -and hope- that if Ogopogo does exist, he should not be discovered. A gawking public would hound him to death, some say.

(The B.C. government has responded to the concern by announcing official protection of the creature.)

But, in the meantime, the search goes on and the mystery of Okanagan Lake still lies before us all -like a sea serpent in the mist!