In Search of Ogopogo: Sacred Creature of the Okanagan Waters

by Arlene Gaal

Gaal investigates further the mystery of Ogopogo. The native legend of this illusive lake monster was passed on to the first white settlers in the north west. Since that time sightings and explorations of the sacred Ogopogo have continued only to produce more questions. Arlene analyses photos, videos and eye-witness accounts to distinguish the real sightings and facts from pranksters and hoaxers. Learn where 'Oggie' lives, and the theories of what kind of creature it may be.

Genres: Cryptozoology, Nonfiction

210 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2001

Reviews

[RainyCraze · Rating 3 out of 5]

While certainly an interesting collection of accounts regarding a yet unidentified swimming animal in Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, more scrupulous editing would have made this a much better read. The chapters don't seem to be organized in a particularly logical way, which would have been fine if Gaal constructed a stronger narrative setting, or if references to the author were consistently first or third person; around the middle I felt rather fatigued. This book would likely benefit by being structured chronologically, which would help avoid a lot of repeated information.

Despite the editing problems, I do like that it (kind of sort of) started with native tales of the lake monster, & (mostly-ish) concluded with very real concerns of pollution & conservation failures regarding the lake, of which is not only home & recreation to many but also provides the drinking water of Kelowna inhabitants.

My takeaway is that natural lakes such as Okanagan absolutely deserve the care & respect of sustainable conservation practices. We aren't masters of the natural world by a long shot, & carelessness is no excuse for destroying the world we live in or the animals we share it with.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hamlet, having just seen his father's ghost, says to his friend and schoolmate Horatio, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." (Act I, s.5) In this century's English (ca. 1599–1601), the word "philosophy" means the whole of knowledge including arts and sciences. Cryptozoology is a science or pseudoscience which concerns itself with animals which are unknown to biology, legendary, and/or of challenged existence. Among such animals are sasquatch or bigfoot, yeti or abominable snowman, chupacabra of Latin America, Jersey Devil of the US, Loch Ness Monster, Mokele-mbembe of the Congo River Basin, kraken of Scandinavian waters, Mongolian death worm of the Gobi desert, yowie of the Australian Outback, and Ogopogo. Ogopogo (English name) or nx̌ax̌aitkʷ or N'ha-a-itk (in the First Nations languages of the Secwepemc and Syilx peoples) is an aquatic cryptid reputed to live in Okanagan Lake, British Columbia, Canada. There is no way to date the myths, legends and beliefs about N'ha-a-itk other than to say that they are very old. The first white people in Western Canada heard them from the aboriginal people. The first sighting by a white person (Susan Allison) was in 1872. There have been numerous sightings, drawings, photographs, video tapes, and sonar tracings since. Television producers from Britain, the US and Japan have staged hunts and made documentaries. While it is difficult to put a description together from widely-differing descriptions, the creature is generally thought to be 30-50 feet long, dark coloured, serpentine, thicker than a totem pole, and capable of high speeds creating a wake unlike anything else in the lake. Arlene Gaal, the unofficial local expert on Ogopogo, wrote a book about the monster -- three books, in fact. Gaal, a Kelowna resident (on Okanagan Lake) since 1968, died in 2021. Her culminating book is organized in part and rather like going through boxes in your grandmother's attic in others. The story certainly tempts one to try out the tourist hotels in Kelowna and visit the Westbank Museum, in West Kelowna, the Sncewips Heritage Museum in West Kelowna, and the Museum and Archives of Vernon, in Vernon. And maybe take one of the electric-boat cruises on the lake to look for Ogopogo ourselves!

[✨ Bookferatu ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author/Researcher Arlene Gaal is clearly passionate and dedicated to tracking the many sightings of the famous cryptid lake monster Ogopogo of British Columbia and to being a supporting voice for those individuals who have by most accounts, inadvertantly had the experience of encountering this largely elusive aquatic monster.

In her sincere efforts to help substantiate the claims of folks who come to her with their reports, she has accumulated an amazing amount of data over the past several decades in which she has exhaustively spent researching, documenting, interviewing witnesses and archiving records, photos and films.

Though she has penned a couple books prior to In Search of Ogopogo: Sacred Creature of the Okanagan Waters concerning the monstrous animal of gigantic proportions that purportedly inhabits Okanagan Lake, this particular book is the last one to date and plainly demonstrates why Miss Gaal is the unofficial expert and consultant on Ogopogo.

Noted cryptozoologist John Kirk of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club said that “The catalogue of films and video of Ogopogo are more numerous and of better quality than anything I have personally seen at Loch Ness and I believe that several of them are very persuasive that there is a large living unknown creature inhabiting the lake” (2005) and therefore, it is surmised that the Ogopogos could be some of the most credible of the world’s lake monsters.

Arlene Gaal has certainly put together a comprehensive volume rich with numerous accounts of the search for Canada's most famous lake cryptid including fascinating sightings from convincing witnesses that I had never heard of.

Gaal's writing style is a bit unconventional in that it's casual, though I attribute that to her exuberance for her subject. In Search also contains many eyewitness submitted illustrations of what they saw along with an introduction to the creature’s history and lore known in Indian traditions in which the beast is referred to as N’ha-a-itk meaning “water demon” or “lake monster”, so readers particularly interested in folklore and mythology will especially enjoy that section.

My summary -

PROS: Plethora of accounts with Ogopogos, many reports i'd never read before, Gaal presents serious and objective research while remaining conversational enough for the curious.

CONS: Published in 2001 it's somewhat dated. A tad unorganised and I really would have liked to see source citations for many of the reports presented as evidence.

WHAT I LIKED BEST: There is a really cool chronology from the 1700s to 2001 at the end.

Overall, I totally recommended this volume for both those who enjoy pleasure-reading about cryptids and for the more serious cryptozoology researcher and consider "In Search of Ogopogo" essential for lake monster research.

[Kpent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very interesting and convincing sightings and some very outlandish legends, but a very interesting read. I'd have preferred for her to organize the sighting from earliest times to most current. Jumping around was a little frustrating.