THE OKANAGAN LAKE MONSTER

1900 : A child of ten (now Mrs. Ruth Richardson of Cashmere, Washington state U.S.A.) was playing on the beach by her parent's home at Okanagan Landing. She saw the creature Naitaka appear close to the shore, and when it moved inshore towards her, she ran indoors terrified.

August : Provincial Park assistant Mike Nolan and his wife Mary were walking at the lakeside when they saw Naitaka swimming Northwards past Trout Creek Point, Summerland. Through a cottage window nearby, the same sighting was made by Mrs. Gweneth Gilmore.

July 1976 : Stan Baron of Calgary, while fishing in a boat with friend Lawney Scown of Coral Beach, was drowned shorewards by a circling surfaced Naitaka on the 6th, at 4:30 p.m. near Fintry.

July 17th : Harry and Betty Staines of Westbank, saw a thirty five to forty foot length "long black eel-like creature" near Peachland at 1:30 p.m.

July : Jeffery Sherwin of Kelowna with his son and two other children saw a forty foot length monster near Lakeview Heights on Thursday the 22nd. From another boat, at the same time, four young women and a child, saw the same creature head towards Kilomoir Beach, and then sink underwater. They were Cathy Young, Connie Macdonald, Gail Dalber, Marnie Hammil and her daughter Debbie, all of Kelowna.

August : Edward R. Fletcher of Vancouver saw the creature off Westbank Yacht Club. He said that it was about forty feet in length, and he estimated its body thickness as about four feet. Diane Fletcher 12, Eric Neely 12, Edward Weinburger 12, all saw a second Naitaka on the same day. They said that when it raised its long neck out of the water, it had a serpent like head.

1901 : H.B.D. Lysons, while fishing near Squally Point hooks something so big, it was able to tow him and his boat half way round Ogopogo Island, before the line parted.

1903 : Mrs. Bertram (Maud) Crichton of Okanagan Mission was brushing her hair by the lake when Naitaka surfaced only a few yards away. She fled indoors.

1914 : A party of Indians from the Westbank Reserve and the Nicola Valley, on their way to race their ponies at Penticton, found a badly composed body of a creature they were unable to identify lying in the shallows. They stated that it was about six feet in length and must have weighed several hundred pounds. This might have been the main body section, minus beck head and tail of a small, young Naitaka.

1923 : Captain Matt Reid of the S.S. Okanagan sees Naitaka on the surface, near Rattlesnake Point, across from Peachland.

Mr. John (Lydia Maude) Hodgson of Okanagan Landing saw Naitaka amongst the weeds close inshore in shallow water. Manuel Louie with his son and five friends were swimming in Lake Okanagan when a large creature surfaced and swam towards them. It submerged before reaching them, and they immediately left the water.

Captain Joseph Weeks who served on the Lake Okanagan steamboats announced that he would blow his ship's whistle whenever he saw Naitaka. Angus MacKinnon, pilot of the tug boat Naramata agreed to do the same. Both had a sighting in that year, and people ashore heard the boat's whistles blow.

1924 : Both Captains had further sightings of a surfaced Naitaka and blew their boat's whistles.

1925 : James Mitchell of Summerland saw Naitaka from his launch between Penticton and Summerland. J. Mitchell Boyd of Ewing's Landing was fishing off the jetty at 7 a.m. when he saw what looked like a large tree trunk moving through the water just offshore. He said that it moved rapidly.

Four young boys, William Andrews, Allen Butler, Bob Butler, and Ken Booth were riding on their home made raft when they saw "a huge log come to the surface and swim about." It created a powerful wake which rocked their raft.

William A. Graves of Vancouver Star newspaper theorizes that there cannot be just one Naitaka and that there has to be a colony.

John C. Robson, Principal of Rossland Public School, says after interviewing many eye witnesses, that Naitaka might be some prehistoric form of sea life long thought to have been extinct.