Ogopogo: Canada's Loch Ness Monster | Puget Sound Monster Club

Ogopogo lives in Okanagan Lake, British Columbia. Or at least, that’s what everyone says.

But “Ogopogo” is a messy label. Sometimes it’s treated like a flesh-and-blood lake monster. Other times it’s describing a sacred lake spirit and a teaching about respect for water. Those are not the same thing. (Tourism Kelowna)

So this case file splits the story into two tracks.

PSMC Case File Snapshot

Name used in pop culture: Ogopogo

Primary location: Okanagan Lake (kɬúsx̌nítkw), BC

PSMC Classification

Track A (Spirit/Teaching): Class IV – Elemental Manifestations → Water Spirits

Track B (Creature-Claim): Class II – Corporeal Cryptids → Aquatics

PSMC Confidence Meter (Track B only): Campfire Tale → Local Lore → Witness Trail → Corroborated Pattern → Physical Clue → Verified Evidence

PSMC note: We do not “score” Track A on the evidence meter. That track is living tradition and cultural teaching, not a cryptid contest.

Track A: The Spirit of the Lake (Class IV)

Many visitors know “Ogopogo” as a lake creature. Within syilx/Okanagan tradition, the being is commonly described as nx̌aʔx̌ʔitkʷ, the sacred spirit of the lake. This is not a novelty monster story. It’s a teaching about relationship, reciprocity, and respecting the water.

You’ll also see the name written as n’x̌ax̌aitkʷ in Westbank First Nation sources. The core message is consistent: the lake spirit is not a cartoon villain that “eats people.”

Clearing up the “offerings” misunderstanding

A lot of modern summaries claim people had to toss flesh into the lake “or it would kill you.” Local museum sources push back hard on that. Offerings (often tobacco or other gifts) are described as acts of respect and thanks, not fear. Early settler interpretations helped twist this into a “monster demands meat” story.

PSMC takeaway: Track A is best read as sacred geography plus water-respect teaching. It can include a spirit that takes a serpent-like form in story, but it does not automatically mean “unknown animal.”

Track B: European Settler-era Reports and the Modern “Lake Monster” (Class II)

Now we shift to the version most cryptid fans mean: the large, unknown monster in the lake.

One widely cited settler-era incident is an 1855 account associated with John McDougall while crossing the lake with horses. Another commonly repeated early “sighting” is attributed to Susan Allison in 1872. From there, Western explanations branch out fast: sturgeon, living fossil, “sea serpent,” or just weird surface disturbances that people can’t easily explain.

Ogopogo Description (as reported in modern cryptid culture)

*^{Basilosaurus (source: Wikipedia.org) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilosaurus}*

Witness claims are all over the place, but recurring descriptions usually land here:

Dark green to black coloring
Long, serpentine body
Often claimed at 30–50 feet (sometimes more)
Reported as thicker than a log or “telephone pole”
A head described as horse-like or ram-like (less consistent)
Typically seen as humps, a wake, or a single long disturbance rather than a full breach

You’ll also see comparisons to “prehistoric survivors.” Two common ones:

Plesiosaurs (marine reptiles, not dinosaurs) (Natural History Museum)
Basilosaurus (an ancient whale, not a dinosaur) (Encyclopedia of Alabama)

PSMC stance (for now): those comparisons are fun, but they are speculation, and they should stay labeled as speculation.

Track B Case Log: History of Ogopogo Sightings (Class II)

Let’s shift to the modern creature-claim, the serpent-like “thing in the lake” version of Ogopogo.

Quick note before we log cases: the name “Ogopogo” catches on in the 1920s and is strongly tied to a popular song that got associated with the creature. Westbank Museum covers this directly and also explains how tourism and outsider retellings helped turn a sacred lake teaching into a “monster story.”

PSMC Case Log (selected, widely cited)

This is not every report. It’s the most cited reports.

Year	Case	What’s claimed	Evidence type	PSMC evidence notes
1855	McDougall crossing	Horses pulled under while crossing	Secondhand historical retelling	Often cited as an early settler-era incident. Treat as history of the legend, not proof of an unknown animal.
1872	Susan Allison	Large, snake-like creature seen in the lake	Historical account / retelling	Frequently referenced as a key early report in the settler record.
1890	Capt. John Shorts	“Serpent body” with a ram-like head	Report / retelling	Good “descriptor seed” for later descriptions, but still Witness Trail territory.
1924	Name “Ogopogo”	Name popularized via song association	Cultural/tourism history	Important because it changes how the creature gets marketed and remembered.
1968	Art Folden film	Large wake/object moving across calm water	Film footage	This is the most famous early film claim. It’s discussed in multiple investigations, including Unsolved Mysteries coverage and later analysis.
1980	“50 tourists” report	Group watches something off a Kelowna beach	Mass-witness report + short film claim	Often cited. Evidence is still thin publicly, but it helps form a pattern narrative.
1989	John Kirk report	Multiple black humps + lashing tail	Witness report	A commonly cited modern case linked to a known cryptozoologist. Still, it remains Witness Trail without strong physical evidence.
1992	Paul Demara video	Objects near a water skier, filmed multiple times	Video footage	Frequently cited because it includes a moving reference (the skier). Analysts have proposed mundane explanations (otters, debris).
2008	Viloria / Weager photo	Humps/disturbance near Peachland	Single photo	Widely circulated. Hard to validate without more context or supporting media.

PSMC summary: “Hundreds of sightings” is the right phrasing here. Counts vary by catalog and what each source accepts as a “report.”

Reader Submission: Erick Rodriguez (June 29–30, 2024)

A PSMC reader, Erick Rodriguez, and his wife reported unusual activity on the lake and shared photos. You can read the full account in the comments.

Ogopogo’s Habitat

*^{Ogopogo sightings have been reported in Okanagan Lake since the 1880s}*

Okanagan Lake is big water. It’s long, narrow, and deep. That matters because big lakes produce big illusions.

Lake Snapshot

Length: ~135 km (84 miles)
Width: roughly 4–5 km in many stretches
Max depth: ~232 m (~760 feet)
Winter ice: the lake rarely freezes over completely (it has happened, but it’s uncommon)

So yes, if a large aquatic animal existed, the lake has the physical space to make sightings feel plausible. But the same size and depth also makes it easy for distance, waves, wakes, floating logs, and clustered wildlife to fool the human brain.

Food web reality check

The lake supports fish species including kokanee, burbot, rainbow trout, and lake whitefish. That gives you a real prey base for any large predatory “something,” at least in theory.

PSMC speculation:
A 30–50 foot animal would need a serious calorie budget. That would likely produce repeatable signs, such as consistent feeding zones, seasonal movement, or a pattern of carcasses. A monster would follow its prey as it moved around the lake. We didn’t find that migration publicly documented. So for now, this stays in Witness Trail.

“Lair at Rattlesnake Island”

*^{Ogopogo’s lair is an underwater cave at Rattlesnake Island (speculation)}*

Local lore often pins Ogopogo to Rattlesnake Island and underwater caves. Treat that as Local Lore unless you can tie it to a documented survey, sonar work, or a source that can be checked.

Also, modern reports suggest “it can surface anywhere,” which is exactly what you would expect if the core mechanism is misidentification plus a big lake full of variables.

Track B: A Cryptozoological Perspective

*^{By William Conybeare – Transactions of the Geological Society of London (1824), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9379220}*

This section focuses on some highly speculative reasoning to explain how a sea serpent could live in Okanagan Lake.

Below are the most common cryptozoological theories.

Hypothesis 1: “A sea serpent got trapped in the lake”

Explanation: A marine creature entered Okanagan Lake when waterways were open, then got stranded when geography changed.

Reality Check: Okanagan Lake is freshwater, and the most “sea serpent” candidates people reach for are ocean animals. Only a few animals, like crocodiles, eels and sturgeon, can live in fresh and salt water, but they don’t grow the sizes reported by witnesses. Also, there’s no connection to the ocean. Unless someone can demonstrate a plausible route and and survival story, it’s probably not a sea serpent.

PSMC Confidence Meter (for this hypothesis): Campfire Tale

Hypothesis 2: “There are underwater tunnels/rivers to the Pacific”

Pitch: Hidden waterways connect the lake to the ocean.

PSMC Reality Check: This is classic lake-monster lore. It’s fun. It’s also where speculation can run away from you fast. If we keep it, we label it as Local Lore and move on.

PSMC Confidence Meter (for this hypothesis): Local Lore

Hypothesis 3: Oarfish

Pitch: Oarfish are famously long, snake-like, and linked to sea-serpent stories. So… oarfish.

PSMC Reality Check: Oarfish are deep-sea, marine fish. They’re not freshwater lake residents. If you want to use them here, use them as a shape-comparison (“this is why people imagine sea serpents”) not as a literal ID for Okanagan Lake.

PSMC Confidence Meter (for this hypothesis): Campfire Tale (as a literal ID) / Corroborated Pattern (as “sea-serpent inspiration”)

Hypothesis 4: Plesiosaur (Loch Ness-style)

Pitch: Long neck, prehistoric survivor, boom — lake monster.

PSMC Reality Check: Plesiosaurs were marine reptiles (not dinosaurs) with a very specific body plan. The classic “humps” look most people describe doesn’t map neatly to “long neck + broad body + four flippers.” It’s a fun comparison, but it stays in the Speculation Lab.

PSMC Confidence Meter (for this hypothesis): Campfire Tale

Hypothesis 5: Basilosaurus

Pitch: Something huge. Something ancient. Something terrifying.

PSMC Reality Check: Basilosaurus was an extinct primitive whale from the Eocene. It’s also marine. If you use Basilosaurus here, treat it like a pop-culture mental image (“what people picture when they say ‘prehistoric sea monster’”), not a serious freshwater candidate.

PSMC Confidence Meter (for this hypothesis): Campfire Tale

Track B: A Skeptic’s Perspective

*^{Source: Joe Nickell (2006). Ogopogo: The Lake Okanagan Monster, Skeptical Inquirer, Jan-Feb 2006, p.18}*

When skeptical investigators looked hard at Ogopogo reports, they didn’t need one magical animal. They needed three very normal things:

1) Animals that swim in a line

A small group of otters (and sometimes other wildlife) can create a “humps in sequence” effect that reads as one long creature from a distance.

2) Logs and debris

Floating logs, partially submerged debris, and wind-driven drift can look alive, especially on a big lake with complicated surface conditions.

3) Big-lake perception problems

Distance on water is brutal. Speed estimates inflate. Size guesses balloon. And once a story has a famous “shape,” witnesses often describe what they think they saw, not what the eye actually resolved.

PSMC takeaway: This doesn’t “debunk” every report. It explains why Witness Trail can persist for generations without graduating to Physical Clue.

Ogopogo Wave Phenomena

Some of the strangest “monster-like” moments on Okanagan Lake may have nothing to do with biology.

One explanation reported by researchers and journalists is a stratification-driven wave — when lake water forms layers of different temperature and density, those layers can shift and generate sudden surface waves that look like a moving object, or a traveling “wake” that seems to appear out of nowhere.

PSMC calls this the “don’t underestimate water” rule:

calm surface doesn’t mean “simple” surface
layers can move differently than the top layer
seasonal transitions (especially spring and autumn) can amplify weirdness

If you’ve ever watched a lake do something that looks impossible for thirty seconds, this is the kind of process that can be hiding underneath it.

What To Do If You Encounter Ogopogo

If you see something that looks like Ogopogo, don’t chase it. Don’t harass wildlife. Don’t become the story.

Do this instead:

Step 1: Get usable footage

record 30–60 seconds minimum
keep the horizon steady if you can
zoom after you’ve captured a wide shot
include a reference point: buoy, shoreline, boat, dock, anything

Step 2: Capture the “boring” data

date + exact time
location (nearest beach / bay / landmark — or a GPS pin)
wind, waves, boat traffic, and light conditions
estimated distance and what you used as a reference (boat length, buoy spacing)

Step 3: Keep the original files

Screenshots and re-uploads destroy details. Originals matter.

Step 4: Send it to PSMC

If we’re going to treat this like a case file, we need the same basics every time. That’s how we move from Witness Trail to the next tier.

PSMC Confidence Meter (Ogopogo, creature-claim): Witness Trail
We’ve got longevity, story gravity, and recurring descriptions. What we don’t have (publicly) is the kind of physical evidence that forces the meter upward.

Sources

CRYPTOZOOLOGY + FOLKLORE
Professor Geller (June 9, 2017). Ogopogo, Mythology.net, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://mythology.net/monsters/ogopogo/

S.E. Schlosser (no date). Ogopogo the Lake Monster, American Folklore: The Spooky Series, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://www.americanfolklore.net/ogopogo-the-lake-monster/

Editors (no date). Ogopogo Monster – Canada’s Famous Lake Monster, OgopogoMonster.com, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://www.ogopogomonster.com/

Alex Postrado (no date). Ogopogo: Lake Monster, Sacred Spirit, Canada’s Loch Ness Monster, LoreThrill: Fables and Legends, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://lorethrill.com/ogopogo-canadian-loch-ness-monster/

SKEPTICAL / INVESTIGATIVE
Joe Nickell (January 2006). Ogopogo: The Lake Okanagan Monster, Skeptical Inquirer Magazine, Vol. 29, Issue 6, p. 16-19, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2006/01/22164616/p16.pdf

JOURNALISM / MAINSTREAM
Shelby Thom (June 12, 2019). ‘Pretty creepy’: Okanagan man believes he’s captured ‘definitive Ogopogo sighting’ on video, Global News (Canada), retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://globalnews.ca/news/5381999/pretty-creepy-okanagan-man-believes-hes-captured-definitive-ogopogo-sighting-on-video/

Lisa Kadane (March 10, 2020). Canada’s mysterious lake monster, BBC News, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20200309-ogopogo-the-monster-lurking-in-okanagan-lake

Marnie O’Neill (Sept. 28, 2018). New video of Canada’s legendary Ogopogo lake monster surfaces, News.com.au, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/animals/new-video-of-canadas-legendary-ogopogo-lake-monster-surfaces/news-story/c81bf6fd15b59a2e4e3e845c99206584

Cassandra Yorgey (Jan. 9, 2023). Famous Ogopogo Lake Monster Spotted in British Columbia, Exemplore, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://exemplore.com/news/ogopgo-lake-monster-sighting#tiktok-7186549421818072366

VIDEO
Seen This? (Oct. 16, 2020). Ogopogo spotted Lake Okanagan?, YouTube, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOeXWsCJWOo

Global News Canada (Dec. 27, 2022). The Legend of Ogopogo: The history of lake monster sighting claims in BC, YouTube, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOgKuMV76KM

REFERENCE + MAPS
Editors (Dec. 10, 2022 – last updated). Ogopogo, Wikipedia.org, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogopogo

Editors (Aug. 3, 2022 – last update). “Susan Louisa Moir Allison,” Wikipedia.org, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Louisa_Moir_Allison

Google Maps (Jan. 14, 2023). Okanagan Lake, Google.com, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Okanagan+Lake,+British+Columbia,+Canada/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x537df476713fa79b:0x12b0f0aa9cbc5002?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiX5qOYw8f8AhVPMjQIHe1MCLAQ8gF6BQiZARAB

Genadiy S. (May 2022). Rattlesnake Island, Google Maps (photo), retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Rattlesnake+Island/@49.7479325,-119.7171193,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipP0-ueTzuvxf3su8etmESCHCLj4wIn7Z-jvoYbK!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP0-ueTzuvxf3su8etmESCHCLj4wIn7Z-jvoYbK%3Dw152-h86-k-no!7i4000!8i2250!4m5!3m4!1s0x5482724a465ae631:0x51db7358b7551ed5!8m2!3d49.7479325!4d-119.7171193

Bill Steciuk (no date). Does Ogopogo Exist? The Mystery of Lake Okanagan, Ogopogo Quest, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2026, from: https://ogopogoquest.com/index.php

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Ogopogo: Canada’s Loch Ness Monster