Lake Monster Mysteries (17 page)

Figure 6.4
Detail of the “creature” showing elements related to its authentication: U.S. Customs sticker and old fin-attachment markings. (Photo by Joe Nickell)

Still another 1930s mystery was solved with the discovery—on a beach at Ludington, Michigan—of the remains of a wooden monster thirty feet long. Reports one writer, “Made in numerous sections and wired together, it gave the appearance of swimming when pulled through the water. It was effective enough to scare many local swimmers and spawned monster stories for years to come” (Stonehouse 1997, 163).

Watrous's hoax aside, there have been intermittent reports of a real monster in Lake George. Interestingly, the single case of a “real” sighting reported by Lord (1999, 188–89) also involved a Mrs. Bates—possibly the same one in the party hoaxed by Watrous. If so, that seems quite a coincidence—or two variants of the same story. However, when I stayed at Silver Bay, I spent some time looking for, and inquiring about, monster sightings. They seem to be a thing of the past.

Mark Rutkowski, senior program director of the Silver Bay Association, told me that in his fifteen years in the area, he had no knowledge of any monster reports. A maintenance man and the nature center operator likewise had no monster stories to report, although one staffer told me that she had recently seen “either an otter or a mink” with a fish in its mouth, and others have definitely seen mink in the area (Nickell 2003). Such animals could be mistaken for a lake creature under the right conditions.

It appears that the only true specimen of “George” is the one that is safely preserved behind glass—verily a creature to behold.

Bolton, Richard E. N.d. George the monster. Information sheet by supervisor, township of Hague, Warren County, N.Y.

Colombo, John Robert. 1999.
Mysteries of Ontario.
Toronto: Hounslow Press.

Grishkot, Walter. 2004. Telephone interview by Joe Nickell, June 18.

Henry, Ginger. N.d.
The Lake George monster story.
Hague, N.Y.: Hague-on-Lake George Chamber of Commerce.

It's monstrous, “George”: Public invited to bid farewell to the monster of Lake George. 1962.
Ticonderoga (N. Y.) Sentinel,
November 15. Cited in Zarzynski 1980.

Katonak, Tom. 2004. Personal correspondence with Robert Lewis, June 29.

Kellogg, Phil. 2004. Telephone interview by Joe Nickell, June 18.

Lord, Thomas Reeves. 1999.
Still more stories of Lake George: Fact and fancy.
Pemberton, N.J.: Pineland Press, 187–89.

Nickell, Joe. 2003. Interview notes, Silver Bay, N.Y., August 27.

Stonehouse, Frederick. 1997.
Haunted lakes: Great Lakes ghost stories, superstitions and sea serpents.
Duluth, Minn.: Lake Superior Port Cities Inc.

Watrous, Harry W. 1934. Is there a sea serpent in Lake George? Flyer reprinted from official program, Lake George Gold Cup Regatta, August 3–5; itself reprinted from
New York Evening Sun.
Copy obtained from Hague Historical Museum.

Zarzynski, Joseph W. 1980. The Lake George monster hoax of 1904.
Pursuit
(summer): 99–100.

Lake Okanagan in British Columbia is said to be home to “Ogopogo,” purportedly “one of the most thoroughly documented unidentified lake creatures,” second only to Scotland's “Nessie,” and “possibly the most famous North American monster aside from Bigfoot” (Blackman 1998, 69). Although Ogopogo has been dubbed Canada's Loch Ness monster, cryptozoologist John Kirk (1998, 4) counters that, “since the appearances of the Canadian beast predated those of its Scottish cousin, it ought to be said that Nessie is Scotland's Ogopogo.” But does such a monster exist?

Joe Nickell

Ben Radford and I have long been fascinated by the alleged Lake Okanagan denizen, and we resolved to look into the mystery. As luck would have it, National Geographic Television was interested as well.

Okanagan is the largest of a group of five interconnected lakes in the Okanagan Valley of south-central British Columbia. Named for the local forest-dwelling Native Americans, the narrow freshwater lake stretches for some seventy-nine miles from its southern extremity at Penticton to its northern tip near Vernon (
figure 7.1
). It is thus more than three times the length of Loch Ness and, at a maximum depth of
762 feet, slightly deeper as well. (Greater depths have been claimed; according to Gaal [2001, 14], the deepest point of Lake Okanagan is “nearly 1,000 feet.”) Formed from an ancient valley, it was filled by waters from glacial melting about ten thousand years ago (Roed 2005).

Figure 7.1
Map of Lake Okanagan showing selected sites. (Map by Joe Nickell)

Okanagan is one of many Canadian lakes reputed to contain lake monsters. At least thirty-nine lakes in British Columbia alone have such “aquatic anomalies,” according to Kirk; however, he singles out Okanagan as “the lake of mystery” (Kirk 1998, 28, 11). The scenic lake rarely freezes over—this has happened only about four times in the twentieth century (Okanagan 2005a)—and it is famous for its sandy beaches, campsites, and resorts. Fishing charters promise “big fish,” which include rainbow trout and kokanee (Okanagan 2005b). Lake Okanagan is within the home range of such aquatic mammals as beavers, muskrats, and otters (Whitaker 1996), as well as numerous types of waterfowl, including ducks and geese (Bull and Ferrand 1994). Some of these creatures might provide food for a giant lake monster, if it indeed exists.

According to folklore attributed to the native culture, the monster was a demonic entity called N'ha-a-itk (Ben discusses this in greater detail in the second part of this chapter), and its home was Rattlesnake Island or a cave beneath it or adjacent to Squally Point (Gaal 2001, 113, 122–23; 1998, 47). With the arrival of white settlers, interest in the Okanagan monster continued, though it was not always taken seriously. The palindromic name Ogopogo (it reads the same forward and backward) came from a 1924 music-hall song titled “The Ogopogo: The Funny Fox-Trot,” about a banjo-playing water-being from Hindustan (Shuker 1995, 100). It was performed at a luncheon in Vernon, B.C., on August 23, 1926. And according to an account I discovered at the library in Kelowna, “the guests left the Kalamalka Hotel to spread the fame of Ogopogo far and wide” (Brimblecombe 1930). (Others have misreported the facts about the song. For example, Blackman [1998, 71–72] says that W. H. Brimblecombe wrote the song, and Gaal [2001, 88] says that it was sung at Vernon in 1924.)

National Geographic Television (NGTV) invited Ben and me on an expedition to Lake Okanagan—a week's quest to find the fabled creature or to explain the monster phenomenon. We spent more than four days at the lake investigating the mystery by interviewing eyewitnesses; studying photographic evidence; conducting historical and other research (although much of this was done in advance); performing an experiment involving one of the recorded sightings; and traversing the lake and its shores by foot, auto, sonar-equipped boat (with professional divers on board), and seaplane.

Accompanying us for much of this grueling work was Canadian cryptozoologist John Kirk. We were also assisted by Arlene Gaal, whose book
In Search of Ogopogo
was never far from our fingertips. In her home in Kelowna, she allowed us to study many of the photographs, films, and videos that purport to depict Ogopogo. Despite our skepticism, our relationship with these two monster hunters was respectful and cordial;
NGTV producer Noel Dockstader seemed to wish for more sparks between us, which would make for better television.

The second full day of our expedition—Saturday, February 5, 2005—was the most exhausting. After an early breakfast, we boarded a houseboat at the Grand Okanagan Lakefront Resort, where we roomed. We were loaded for monster hunting: besides Ben, John, and me, we had a four-person TV crew, the boat pilot and his relief, two men in charge of sonar, and a diving crew of three—plus an impressive amount of gear and equipment, including a motorboat that we towed behind us.

We covered much of the southern half of the lake, giving special attention to Rattlesnake Island (a.k.a. Monster Island) and its environs. Two divers went down to search for the caves that are legendarily home to Ogopogo (
figure 7.2
), while Ben, John, and I took the motorboat to the island and scrambled onto the rocks. These searches yielded only underwater fissures too small for a monster and an island devoid of bones or other traces of Ogopogo's supposed prey.

Figure 7.2
Divers with the National Geographic Television expedition in search of
caves beneath Rattlesnake Island. (Photo by Joe Nickell)

Darryl Bondura searched the depths with side-scanning sonar, which also turned up nothing of significance (
figure 7.3
). He says that he has scanned several square miles of Okanagan's bottom—once identifying an ultralight plane at about a hundred feet deep—but has never seen a large lake denizen or even the skeleton of one (Bondura 2005). Two days later, Ben and I flew over the same area in a seaplane (
figure 7.4
), scouring the waters for any sign of Ogopogo. Despite the excellent view, Ogie was still a no-show.

Thus, much of our assessment of the Ogopogo phenomenon necessarily depended on the reports of eyewitnesses, including Gaal and Kirk. We also analyzed the numerous sightings chronicled by Gaal (2001, 185–208) and studied original photographs and film and video footage (see
appendix 4
for more on that).

Figure 7.3
Side-scanning sonar search of a portion of the lake revealed no leviathan.
(Photo by Joe Nickell)