Ogopogo

The monsters of Lake Okanagan, British Columbia, are known both as Ogopogo and by their native name, naitakas. They were first encountered by Indians and then by the earliest white settlers in the 1860s. Ogopogo is described as log-like, about forty feet long, with dark green, black or brown skin, and sometimes with serrations on its back and/or a mane on its head. Kelowna, British Columbia’s Annual Regatta, celebrates Ogopogo. The first chronicler of Ogopogo, British Columbian Arlene Gaal, did much to gather sightings, films, photographs, and aboriginal evidence that other researchers have used for decades to analyze the Ogopogo mystery. Cryptozoologist Gary Mangiacopra and retired University of Chicago biologist Roy Mackal relate Ogopogo to the ancient extinct elongated whales, the zeuglodons. Another cryptozoological theory holds that Cadborosaurus (“Caddy”) and Ogopogo may be related and reptilian. Retired Royal British Columbia. Museum cryptozoologist Dr. Ed Bousfield, a relentless researcher in the field, makes the reasonable assumption that both animals may have eaten salmon ten thousand years ago. Thus Ogopogo, he reasons, could have become landlocked in Lake Okanagan, where Columbia River dams have blocked direct access to the ocean for both salmon and serpents. Eyewitness descriptions of both animals describe a horse-like head, snake-like body, flippers, and a split tail.

“Glacial and post-glacial evidence suggests that Okanagan’s Ogopogo is probably a freshwater form or variant of the reptilian species Cadborosaurus willsi,” says Bousfield. He adds that it bears no resemblance to whales, seals, or otters. From his reading of the sighting, Native Canadian folklore, and film evidence, Caddy and Ogopogo are a separate unknown reptilian species.

SOURCE:

The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters,Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature
Written by Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark – Copyright 1999 Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark