Saturday, January 30, 1993

Near-sightings of Ogopogo are now legend
The daily Courrier
In the news

Ogopogo stories are legend.

In face many people say Ogopogo is a legend that is perpetuated by people who spot a natural phenomenon and see Ogopogo.

But the legend predates the white man, the tourist season and TV.

Ogopogo refuses to appear to those who look for him. In fact, it seems the legendary lake serpent -of apparent benevolent nature- only appears to true believers.

Here are some Ogopogo stories.

-The legend started when Ogopogo was known as N'ha-a-itk by local Indians. N'ha-a-itk means demon of the lake and the creature is often described as a snake shaped sea serpent with a long neck, small head and bulbous body.

Other descriptions include words like large, dark green to black with spots, visible just beneath the surface of the water. Descriptions vary but Ogopogo usually has a main body width of about six feet and humps and fins extending down the length of its back.

-Ogopogo came to within four metres of Clem and Joyce Chaplin in July 1989. Clem saw it about nine times but the biggest controversy started when he and his son, Ken, announced they had videotaped it.

Some said what he filmed was a beaver or an otter. But Unsolved Mysteries, an NBC-TV show, aired the video which showed activity in lake waters near Bear Creek, showed a reptilian head, neck, plesiosaur-like body, long tail and appendage.

Photos and films of Ogopogo have captured impressions of -something- for many years.

-In April 1992, Harry Staines, a Kelowna Senior, recounted his sighting of Ogopogo for yet another American television network, Fox.

Staines, 71, first encountered Ogopogo while testing a new boat near Rattlesnake Island in the summer of 1976.

As Staines and his wife cruised in the waters near Peachland, a huge creature with fins down the centre of its back emerged and swam alongside them for about 30 seconds.

-Ogopogo also surfaced near Vernon in the summer of 1990. Okanagan visitors Mike Paskal, his wife Tina and their baby, were in a boat near Vernon when Ogopogo surfaced nearby. Tina was so excited she dropped the baby. Mike shot photos that showed two large humps and a fin on one photo and a hump with spots in the second. Paskal's creature was estimated to be 70-80 feet long.

-In 1989, a cryptozoologist from the University of Chicago, Dr. Roy Mackal, said Ogopogo could be a modern-day relative of a pre-historic whale.

Mackal said the zeuglodon toothed whale was in its prime about 20 million years ago and believes remnants of the species may habitate underground rivers and lakes connected to the seas.

After the 1989 video footage by Ken Chaplin was released a group of biologists, zoologists and oceanographers speculated the creature was a huge river otter or a beaver.

-A Japanese film crew created a $50,000 documentary about Ogopogo in 1991. A 15-man television crew used sonar, underwater cameras and a one-man submarine to search for the legendary lake creature.

A sonar reading of something at least 30-feet long was taken at the 520-foot depth of Lake Okanagan in the Bear Creek area -the something tapered from front to back in true Ogopogo fashion.

Update 1994-1995

March-April 1994 -Kevin Berry video tapes two objects in Okanagan Lake.

Spring 1994 -Doug Mallo and approximately six other people sight Ogopogo at Peachland, B.C.

May 1994 -Ronda Caplan and Michelle Horne sight Ogopogo at Peachland, B.C.

June 20, 1994 -Guy Banks and Larry Burton see something unusual in Okanagan Lake.

July 1994 -Tyler DeSmet and one other person sport three objects moving in different directions.

July 13, 1994 -Darlene Viala and seven other people spot a 50 to 60 foot creature which surfaces 20 feet from them.

September 1994 -Frank DeSmet takes photos of Ogopogo.

January 21, 1995 -Herb Issler and his wife watch two round humps moving south of Okanagan Bridge.

Ogopogo Facts

From time immemorial -Natives tell tales of Ogopogo to their children.

Mid-1800's -First reported sighting by a white settler.

1926 -B.C. Authorities consider arming lake ferries to protect them from the monster. They were never able to decide what kind of weapon to use.

1968 -Art Folden shoots film of Ogopogo.

1976 -Beneath The Depths, a book about Ogopogo by Arlene Gaal, was published and incited interest from far away people and places.

July, 1989 -Ken and Clem Chaplin of Salmon Arm capture Ogopogo on video.

August, 1989 -Kelowna city council wants to ensure that Ogopogo is protected.

"Council is concerned that some person or persons would do something that would endanger this particular phenomenon in our lake by some senseless act," said Mayor Jim Stuart.

August 1989 -Petition is started by Taurie Atchison stating that Ogopogo should be allowed to swim freely through the lake and can be "observed, photographed or videotaped from a reasonable distance by boat, on land, or from the air."

September, 1989 -Environment Minister Bruce Strachan writes the mayor saying he is prepared to present an order-in-council to designate Ogopogo as wildlife.

"Under the Wildlife Act, we can prohibit any person from capturing, killing or even harassing the creature," a civil servant wrote from Ottawa.

1989 -Ogopogo makes the front pages of Time and Newsweek.

November, 1989 -Ogopogo becomes an Unsolved Mystery.

February 1990 -Local wildlife naturalist Scott Alexander says Ogopogo is a hoax.

July, 1990 -Japanese TV crews search waters off Rattlesnake Island to no avail.

October, 1990 -Ogopogo is featured on a stamp series published by Canada Post.

March 1991 -Tokyo's Nippon TV launches an 11 day search for Ogopogo.

November 1992 -The New York Times runs a story about Ogopogo after interviewing Arlene Gaal in October.

January 1993 -Inside Edition comes to Kelowna for story.

Ogo great for tourism

It's a wave, it's a beaver, it's a giant carp, no it's the city's ambassador Ogopogo.

And if he didn't exist we'd have to invent him.

The elusive Okanagan Lake serpent that seems to pop up during tourist season is the city's -and the Okanagan's- best ambassador.

A coy look here, a fleeting wave cresting there, the stories start again, they go all across Canada, sometimes into the United States and occasionally over to Europe and Asia.

The interest in Ogopogo has put Kelowna on the world map. Eighty million people watched in Japan a show about the legendary serpent in 1991. And that was the second show on the topic in that country.

Ogopogo has lured teams from Unsolved Mysteries on NBC, Sightings on Fox, and Nippon TV to Kelowna.

Stories have been done on him in Macleans, Time, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the National Enquirer, Moon, a Japanese magazine, and most recently, the New York Times.

And while the stories are about Ogo, the Okanagan is always mentioned. And it's free.