The Ogopogo & Okanagan Lake
- Eva Policicchio
- Jul 7
- 9 min read
Okanagan Lake is the largest of the five interconnected freshwater fjord lakes in the Okanagan Valley, with a length of 135 kilometers and a maximum depth of 762 feet. Okanagan Lake was formed over 10,000 years ago from the melting of glaciers. The lake is drained by the Okanagan River, which originates from the south end of Okanagan Lake and flows to Okanogan County, Washington. It flows down the channel west of Penticton, through Skaha Lake, continuing past Okanagan Falls, Vaseux Lake, Oliver, to Osoyoos and Osoyoos Lake, where it has an outflow into the Okanogan River in Oroville on the southern shore. At the U.S. border, the river's name changes spelling from 'Okanagan' to 'Okanogan'. One of the notable features of Okanagan Lake and the Okanagan Valley is the presence of terraces, which were formed through the periodic lowering of the lake's water level. These terraces are now used for agricultural purposes throughout the valley.
Okanagan Lake is home to two islands: Grant Island and Rattlesnake Island. Grant Island is located in the northern part of Okanagan Lake off the shore at Lake Country. Grant Island is a bird sanctuary, which makes it inaccessible to the public. The birds protected at Grant Island are Gulls. Although people can't access the island, it remains a well-known kayaking spot where visitors enjoy watching the migratory birds nesting there and swimming. Rattlesnake Island is located east of Peachland. In the early 1970s, Eddy Haymour transformed the island into a tourist attraction, featuring a mini golf course, a replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a giant camel statue. The provincial government stopped the attraction soon after it was opened. It is also well known for being a possible home to the legendary lake monster, Ogopogo.
Ogopogo originates from First Nations stories. The Secwepemc and Sylix call Ogopogo 'Naitaka', which is "n̓x̌ax̌aitkʷ" in Sylix, meaning water demon, water god, or sacred creature of the water. Ogopogo is more closely related and tied to Native origins than any other lake monster. In Native stories, Naitaka demanded a sacrifice for the safe crossing of the lake. For hundreds of years, First Nations would honour this belief before entering the lake. It is said that one day, a chief named Timbasket came to visit the Okanagan with his family. Chief Timbasket didn't believe in Naitaka, even though the locals told him to be wary of the lake. The chief and his family were out on the lake in their canoe, and they did not give a sacrifice to Naitaka for safe crossing. When the water was calm and still, Naitaka whipped up its tail and caused the family to fall out of their canoe and into the lake. Naitaka used its tail to pull the entire family and the canoe to the bottom of the lake, where they drowned.
While many people believe in the mysterious Ogopogo, just as many do not. Many people believe it is a very large sturgeon in the lake. Another possibility is that the Ogopogo is an extinct species of whale or a prehistoric animal such as a plesiosaur or a basilosaurus. This idea is not completely crazy, as the Coelacanth fish was rediscovered in the Indian Ocean after being thought to have been extinct until a 1938 catch of a living one. Another explanation is that Ogopogo is an extremely endangered species, and only very few are left. While many people do and don't believe in Ogopogo, there have been multiple expeditions where men set out to find evidence mainly for their TV shows. In the year 2000, a Japanese producer from a show called "Secrets and Mysteries" led an expedition. During this expedition, they were able to capture a sonar image of a 12m long object settled at the bottom of Okanagan Lake.
The First Nations have documented hundreds, if not thousands, of reports of Naitaka throughout the years. The first sighting by a white settler occurred in 1872, when Susan Allison, a B.C. author residing in West Kelowna with her husband John, reported seeing a large snake-like creature in the lake. A few years later, a ship captain found a very large vertebra at the bottom of Okanagan Lake, but it vanished from the museum it was being held at before its origin could be identified. Numerous potential clues about the Ogopogo have emerged, yet there has never been enough evidence to confirm its existence. The First Nations hold strong beliefs in the Ogopogo, with tales as old as time and even a pictograph representing the creature.
Bill Steciuk is a Kelowna resident who has dedicated his life to finding and proving that Ogopogo is real, ever since his first sighting in 1978, when he saw what appeared to be a black or dark green head and three humps gliding in the water at the Okanagan Bridge. His second sighting was in 2000 when he and a crew of 14 people were filming a documentary on the Ogopogo right around the exact spot he saw it almost 22 years previously. Bill's third sighting occurred in 2015, when he was sitting outside on the deck of his lakeside condo in Kelowna. He saw something emerge from the water about 200 meters from shore. Bill rushed to pull out his camera and record the object. Bill said it looked as if it was looking around and then emerged even further out of the water to show what looked to be its neck.
Since his first sighting of Ogo, Bill has embarked on five different expeditions to prove Ogopogo exists. His first expedition was in 2000, when he and his crew renovated a large houseboat so they would be able to use all of their scientific equipment. The quest began on August 12th, and they planned to investigate the areas with the most Ogopogo sightings, such as Rattlesnake Island. On the eighteenth day, their sonar imaging technology picked up a fast-moving object about 15 feet in length. It was about 50 meters from the boat and 7 1/2 meters deep. The sonar sweep lasted 35 seconds, and in that time, the creature moved 5 degrees to port, then a minute later, it dropped below the sonar's beam.
The second expedition was in 2001 on August 12th. Their main area of focus was a location 3 miles north of Kelowna, in 80-meter water. During this expedition, their sonar equipment picked up possible indications of a large creature; however, the imaging was not as clear as the one from their first expedition.
In 2006, a production company known as 'Partners In Motion' contacted Bill, wanting him to do a search in Okanagan Lake, and they wanted him to do a search for another lake monster in Victoria, known as 'Caddy'. The trip was 2 days on Okanagan Lake and 2 days off the east coast in Victoria. They had divers go into Okanagan Lake and search in the caves at Squally Point and Rattlesnake Island. Their goal was to see if the caves looked like a creature had been living in them or frequently visiting, but it appeared as if nothing was using the caves. Unfortunately, they found nothing in Okanagan Lake. When they were in Victoria, they were also unlucky and returned home with no evidence of Caddy.
Their next expedition was in November 2009. This expedition differed from the rest because of its technology. This time, they had thermal imaging and hydroacoustic technology along with a helicopter. The same crew from the 2006 expedition was invited, and a production company called 'Whitewater Entertainment' was hoping to find significant evidence of Ogopogo's existence. On their first day out, the thermal imaging from the helicopter picked up a thermal trail which led to a spot where many fish were jumping. They sent out a team in a Zodiac boat to investigate, and when they arrived at the spot, the lake suddenly became very still, and nothing was there. They had assumed that Ogopogo surfaced to feed. Many sightings of the Ogopogo include fish jumping nearby. Later in the day, they were exploring some of the caves in Squally Point. In a cave, 65 ft. deep, a diver found a carcass at the entrance of one of the caves. It was 10 inches long and snake-like. They sent it to the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario for DNA testing, only to find out it belonged to a species of salmon. The next day, the crew used the hydro-acoustic equipment for the first time. A diver they had sent down was checking caves just north of Rattlesnake Island while Bill was broadcasting an audio signal of 20 hertz into the lake. Bill increased it just slightly when suddenly the diver started calling for help. He was engulfed in a huge amount of sediment from the cave and couldn't get out of it. Two other divers were sent down to help him, and when the water cleared, it revealed a large scooped-out area of the cave that was about 5 meters long, 3 meters wide, and 2 meters deep. The discovery of the burrowed cave raised the question of what animal had burrowed into the sinkhole and left in a hurry when the frequency increased. That was the end of their expedition, and the documentary Whitewater Entertainment made is still being produced on the History channel.
Their last and most recent expedition was on September 21st, 2023, when Bill Steciuk was contacted by Bill Gibbons. Gibbons is a Calgary resident and a longtime researcher of the Ogopogo. Gibbons wanted to do a joint expedition. Steciuk was quite excited because he knew Gibbons had spent years searching for all kinds of cryptids all over the world, which gave Steciuk a lot of hope that, between the two of them and their research, there was a possibility of finding sufficient evidence of Ogopogo. This time, they were focused on an area south of Squally Point and north of Carr's Landing. They were interested in exploring the deeper water closer to the shore, mainly those at the tributaries that feed the lake. Gibbons brought a remotely operated vehicle which could descend to 328 ft. and had a video camera with light. On the first day of their expedition, they launched at 9:30 a.m. with the owner of the boat and Gibbons' son. The crew of four went out south of Kelowna past an area where a marathon swimmer reported having not only seen the Ogopogo but swum alongside it as well. They spent nearly 2 hours out on the lake at Rattlesnake Island, Squally Point, and close to the shores of Kelowna. Unfortunately, they didn't see anything during their time on the lake. The next day, they went out they launched from the same spot at the same time. They planned to search the waters near the mouth of Bear Creek. They stopped about 50 ft. from the shore and set up their equipment. Steciuk saw a dark form moving swiftly under the boat heading towards deeper water. The captain of the boat saw it as well, and they both agreed it was black and longer than 3 ft. in length and 6 in. in width. They came up with the idea that, because of the depth of the water and all of the nutrients supplied by the creek, this spot would be an ideal nursery or hatchery for an immature species to develop. After waiting another hour to see if the creature would reappear, they went out to the deepest part of Okanagan Lake, where it is 760 ft. deep. There were two separate sightings in this spot, so they were feeling hopeful. Two hours of waiting later, a black form appeared, causing waves and making the water churn in a zigzag motion. Steciuk began filming immediately and was lucky enough to get a 20-second recording before the lake became calm again.
Even now, nobody really knows if the Ogopogo is real or just a myth. This mysterious creature, often described as a big, snake-like thing, has caught the attention of both locals and tourists. What's clear, though, is that Ogopogo is a huge part of the Okanagan and First Nations stories and is a huge part of the region's culture. The legend has been passed down through generations, with various Indigenous tribes sharing tales of a fearsome creature living in the depths of Okanagan Lake, a place known for its stunning beauty and mysterious depths. Ogopogo remains the unsolved mystery of Okanagan Lake, drawing in curious visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of this legendary beast. Over the years, people have reported sightings, claiming to see a long, wavy shape moving through the water, often with waves and disturbances that are hard to explain. But if Ogopogo isn't real, how do we explain what people have seen? Skeptics often say these sightings might just be mistakes, like mistaking big fish or otters for something else, or maybe they're just natural things like waves or underwater currents. Still, the number of reports and similar descriptions from different people gives some credence to the legend. Vice versa, if he is real, what happens then? The idea of such a creature existing has big implications, not just for the local environment but also for the cultural identity of the Okanagan Valley. The thought of a living Ogopogo raises questions about conservation, tourism, and balancing folklore with science. These are the questions everyone is curious about as they explore the line between myth and reality. So, what do you think? Is the legendary Ogopogo real or just a myth?
Grant Island
Coelacanth
Ogopogo / nx̌ax̌aitkʷ
Comments