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The episode explores the claim that the Ogopogo, a mysterious sea monster, inhabits Okanagan Lake, despite a lack of scientific evidence.
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00:00On a sunny day in July 1977, Erin Neely was water skiing with Ed Fletcher and his daughter in Canada's Lake Okanagan.
00:13As shown in this reenactment, Erin was an expert and had skied these waters many times.
00:19Neither Ed nor his daughter was alarmed when Erin took a spill, but they were when she started screaming.
00:30Safely in the boat, young Erin told a terrifying story of coming face-to-face with her.
00:59A huge serpent-like monster.
01:06Erin was not the first person to see such a creature in Lake Okanagan.
01:14Nor the last.
01:21Erin was not the first person to see such a creature in Lake Okanagan.
01:28Nor the last.
01:35It was a long creature about two feet wide and about forty feet in length.
01:42It was just incredible the way it moved.
01:49It was a long creature about two feet wide and about forty feet in length was on the top of the water.
02:06It was just incredible the way it moved.
02:11His head seemed to be the shape of a snake.
02:13Eyewitnesses claim that a monster rises from the depths and surfaces unexpectedly.
02:19They call him Ogo Pogo.
02:29This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture.
02:34The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily the only ones, to the mysteries we will examine.
02:41Many believe that a mysterious monster lives in the depths of Loch Ness in Scotland.
02:51This ancient ruin marks the spot where St. Columba first sighted the creature in 565 AD.
02:57Loch Ness, however, is not the only place where forbidding monsters are reported to dwell.
03:02In British Columbia, Lake Okanagan is reputed to be the home of a giant water creature similar to the one in Loch Ness.
03:11Both lakes are remarkably alike, lying at almost the same latitude.
03:16Both are long and narrow, having areas of great depth.
03:20Both were formed by cataclysmic shifts of the Earth's crust.
03:24They have similar temperatures and contain almost identical types of fish.
03:31This is a famous picture claimed to be of the Loch Ness monster.
03:35The head bears a striking resemblance to that of a prehistoric creature.
03:40Reports of beasts of immense length indicate that creatures like these may still exist.
03:46But how could it be possible for them to survive undetected for millions of years?
03:52If such creatures unknown to science do indeed exist, what could they be?
03:58Fish? Mammal? Reptile? Or some species long thought to be extinct?
04:04Forty years ago, the scientific world was stunned by the discovery of a coelacanth.
04:09A fish believed to have been extinct for 60 million years.
04:13Not only was it very much alive, but many times larger than any of its ancestors.
04:18If such a discovery happened once, could it not happen again?
04:23On the surface, Lake Okanagan presents a scene of calm beauty.
04:27But this view can change in a moment.
04:30Winds rise seemingly from nowhere, whipping the lake into a fury.
04:34Can it be that below this changeable surface dwells a creature rivaling the famous Loch Ness monster?
04:43The Okanagan Indians have lived near the shores of the lake for centuries, long before the white man.
04:49Like all Indians, they hold a deep reverence for nature, believing that all of creation is part of the plan of the great spirit.
04:57The Indians of Okanagan both respect and fear their lake.
05:01Many of their legends are built around it.
05:10These legends are passed down around the campfires from generation to generation.
05:14And this lake is like a living, sacred thing.
05:31In an hour or two hours, this lake can be a raging, raging body of water and very dangerous.
05:44In this lake, we have the Nkaka'itku.
05:53It's a serpent that lives in the water.
05:57And it's been told to me by my great, great grandfather and told to him by his ancestors.
06:07In early times, according to legend, no Indian would attempt to cross Lake Okanagan without first offering a small animal to the lake monster.
06:16There are stories of those who failed to make such offerings and whose horses were sucked under by a mysterious force.
06:24Stories of canoes wrecked and scattered on the rocks.
06:27The Indian's offering can be viewed as a spiritual act of sacrifice or as the pragmatic act of appeasing a hungry monster.
06:39The Indian's offering was a spiritual act of sacrifice.
06:50At the Kelowna Museum near Lake Okanagan, we talked with curator Ursula Surtees, who has devoted years to the study of the local Indian culture.
06:59The Indian lived in. Nahatik lived about midway down Okanagan Lake in a little cavern underneath Squally Point.
07:07And Ogopogo, or Nahatik, was a creature that had to be appeased whenever the occasion arose.
07:15Many people have cast some doubts as to whether Ogopogo was really there.
07:20But the Indian people have for years known about Ogopogo, and we have learned over a long period of time that Indian legends, for the most part, have a very substantial amount of fact and truth in them.
07:37Mary Moon is the author of Ogopogo, the Okanagan mystery.
07:40I first came up into this lake country in 1972 as assistant editor of a magazine to write seven or eight stories about this area.
07:50And everywhere I went, up and down the valley, they kept saying this funny word, Ogopogo, Ogopogo.
07:58And I said, what's an Ogopogo? And they said, oh, the snake in the lake. And I said, what?
08:04They said, the snake in the lake. And I said, please tell me about it.
08:08And they rounded up half a dozen people, seven or eight people, of stunning respectability and great enthusiasm and great sincerity.
08:18And they told me their stories, and they all hung together.
08:21We launched our boat at Peachland.
08:23Harry and Betty Staines have often cruised these waters.
08:26About one third of the way across, we noticed a commotion in the water to our right.
08:31And we turned our boat in that direction.
08:33When we got near this area, we noticed this huge creature emerge from the water and was swimming in a northly direction.
08:43When I looked at it, I was just scared to death. It looked so huge.
08:47And I remember, in particular, the fins on the top of it, the bone structures, you know, was just so, really stood out, the white bone structure.
08:58And I said, oh, it's got fins, you know. And I said, Harry, let's not go any closer.
09:03It just may tip the boat over. It was so big.
09:06We've been holidaying in this area for the past 30 years with our family.
09:11We've heard of Ogopogo, but we never believed in it.
09:15But Betty and I are real believers now that there's a huge creature in this lake.
09:21Jeffrey Sherwin remembers.
09:23It was a calm day, just like it is today.
09:24We were fishing on the lake, my son David, myself and his two friends.
09:28Parallel to the shore, we were trolling when one of the boys shouted, look at that funny-looking wave.
09:33I turned and looked at the strangest-looking thing I'd ever seen in my life.
09:39I saw two humps sticking out of the water, heading for shore.
09:43We watched it for a full three minutes as the object, whatever it was, reached the shore.
09:50It was five feet short of the shore. I expected to see it walk up out of the water when the whole thing sank.
09:55I don't know what it was, but I think I saw Ogopogo.
09:58I've been ridiculed about this many times since, but I'll tell you right now there's no way that I'd make a liar out of my son and his friends.
10:06Ed Fletcher and his daughter Jill.
10:09Joe and I were idling out in the bay there, and we were all about two blocks from the shore, and all of a sudden this huge mound came up in front of us.
10:22We shut the boat off, and by the time that the boat had stopped, we had almost coasted up to within reaching distance of it.
10:32And that particular day, we chased Ogopogo for about an hour and a half, and out of an hour and a half we got five pitchers.
10:40We saw just around 50 feet out, just one hump. There was just one hump there. I guess it would have been around three feet high, and it was dark.
10:53And one of the reasons we believe that we've seen it so many times is because of the boat.
10:58The boat has an electrical current developed by the motor going through into the rudder, and this creates what they call electrolysis.
11:14And electrolysis is a high amperage which attracts marine life.
11:18And the first year that we went out, we thought we were chasing Ogopogo, but we find that Ogopogo's attracted to the boat, and it's following us.
11:28We've seen Ogopogo 40 or 50 times.
11:33At first glance, Ed Fletcher's pictures look like a wave.
11:39But a closer look reveals something much more difficult to explain.
11:43Intrigued by Ed Fletcher's pictures, our camera team decided to explore beneath the surface of Lake Okanagan in search of the Ogopogo monster.
11:57Cal Bevan, in red scuba gear, is a local diver who's made many attempts to find the monster.
12:04He agreed to try again.
12:07Our cameraman is Barry Heron, an expert underwater photographer.
12:11As the lake is over 80 miles long, his chance of filming the monster is slim.
12:18They decided to dive in the area where Ed Fletcher stated he had sighted Ogopogo many times.
12:25It was near this spot that young Aaron Neely reported a face-to-face confrontation with the monster.
12:31It was near this spot that young Aaron Neely reported a face-to-face confrontation with the monster.
12:48The heavy underwater camera and housing becomes buoyant and easy to handle below the surface.
13:03Strangely, no fish were found in an area where they are known to feed.
13:18And after a long and careful search, no monster.
13:22At least, none in this section of the lake.
13:24Hoping for new information, a public meeting was announced through the local press.
13:28We were amazed by the number of people who related unusual sightings.
13:30How many people have seen Ogopogo here?
13:31How many people have seen Ogopogo here?
13:33How many people in this crowd have seen?
13:34Hold your hand up.
13:35Good.
13:36It was a hot summer morning, and the lake was just like a mirror.
13:49And when my mother and I saw it, it was between Trout Creek Point and Summerland.
13:54And the lake was just like a mirror.
13:57And when my mother and I saw it, it was between Trout Creek Point and Summerland.
14:04And this head came up out of the water like a huge horse's head.
14:11And the back of it was quite calm.
14:15The lake was still there.
14:16Then its head went down, and the back of it just lashed like this.
14:21And I would estimate it would be about 35 feet long.
14:25And the whole thing I seen, head and all.
14:28And boy, he all at once, he went down.
14:30He must have seen me.
14:31He went down, and the waves all.
14:33And another guy by the name of Ed, he's not here anymore.
14:35He's in Prince George.
14:36He stopped behind me.
14:37And he says, what did you see?
14:38I just seen Ogopogo.
14:40And all at once, he says, gee, look at the waves in there.
14:43I says, yeah, I just seen Ogopogo, the whole thing, I says.
14:46He didn't believe me.
14:47He says, but oh, it must be true then.
14:49So he says, let's go to the Willow Inn for coffee.
14:51And I went down the Willow Inn and told everybody, you're crazy, you're crazy.
14:54What have you been drinking?
14:55I says, nothing.
14:56I says, I just seen Ogopogo.
14:58Didn't he believe me, eh?
14:59Obviously, these people had seen something.
15:02But moving images reflected in the water can be deceiving.
15:05Well, I grow grapes across the lake, and I was sitting on my tractor cultivating my vineyard.
15:11And I looked down in the water, and there was a big black, looked like a big black log about 50 or 60 feet long.
15:17So I stopped the tractor, and I thought, well, maybe I should go down there and cut that up, because I'm looking for some cedar posts.
15:24A few minutes later, some little waves started coming from my log, and I thought, well, that thing must be alive.
15:29And suddenly, it started up, made a huge circle, and a terrific lashing of water.
15:36And then two coils came out of the water, about four or five feet high, and they were the most beautiful green you have ever seen.
15:45We were part of a large group on a family picnic sort of thing in the summertime.
15:51And about six o'clock in the evening, the water was all quiet and calm, much as it is right now.
15:56And all of a sudden, it started to churn.
15:59Yes.
16:00It was definitely something serpentine about this creature.
16:04It made its own wake behind it.
16:07Waves from passing boats often take five minutes to reach the shore.
16:12Could such waves appear to be large humps moving through the water?
16:16It had three humps, and it looked like the shadow of a tail at the back.
16:23One day, our crew was the victim of a hoax.
16:26Someone with a sense of humor tied three tires together.
16:31For a moment, the In Search of Camera team thought they'd seen Ogopogo.
16:36Even allowing for optical illusions, there's much that is difficult to explain away in the many sightings.
16:42One thing is certain, the sincerity of the people interviewed.
16:46Ed Fletcher, for example, has spent a great deal of time and money continuing his own investigation.
16:52Do I understand that you saw a creature in the lake that had texture something like the skin of the shark that's swimming past here?
17:00Yes, very much similar, sir.
17:02Very smooth and shiny.
17:04No scales?
17:05No.
17:06Very similar to the shark and very similar to a whale's skin.
17:10Have you seen sharks and whales up close?
17:13Oh, yes, I have.
17:14In an attempt to identify what he had seen, Ed met with Willard Bascom, director of the Southern California Coastal Waters Research Project.
17:23Beside the tanks at a nearby museum, Fletcher compared the monster he had seen with some of the aquarium's underwater creatures.
17:30Oh, no.
17:31It swam this way.
17:32Side to side.
17:33Yeah.
17:34This creature we saw didn't have fins.
17:38When it was swimming, it would show mounds in the water only because of the way it was swimming like a snake.
17:45Ed learned that whales are capable of withstanding sudden and extreme changes of depths and pressures.
17:52But whales are saltwater mammals, not likely to be found in a mountain lake.
18:01Some believe Ogopogo to be a giant eel.
18:05Eels are known to grow to lengths of 20 feet, and they do inhabit freshwater lakes.
18:11One theory states that eunuch eels, with little or no sex drive, do not participate in the mating migration,
18:18but remain feeding on the bottom of lakes and grow to enormous size.
18:22Could Ogopogo be one of these?
18:28As their first attempt was inconclusive, our divers decide to try again.
18:35This time off Squally Point, where Indian legends tell of the cave-like home of the lake monster.
18:48As the divers descended, the water grew painfully cold.
19:04Amid the rocks, our divers found many cavernous openings, but no signs of Ogopogo living in any of them.
19:12Unable to capture the monster on film, our searchers had one more contact to make.
19:21The authoress of Beneath the Depths, Arlene Gall, who owns the only known motion picture footage reputed to be of Ogopogo.
19:30The most conclusive evidence that I personally feel that we have on the Ogopogo is the Folden film.
19:41The Folden film actually shows a large animate object servicing, submerging, and propelling itself through the waters at a very high speed.
19:55There is very little doubt in my mind that there is a creature or creatures of massive size beneath the depths of Okanagan Lake.
20:08We optically enlarged the film, and on close examination there was indeed a large object moving through the water, as shown by the white foam.
20:16Professor Willard Bascom comments on the conditions necessary for the development of a monster.
20:28One of the difficult problems is this is in a fairly small lake, which is only 90 miles long and 2 or 3 miles wide,
20:35and it just doesn't seem likely that you could have developed any animal quite so large in the relatively short time available,
20:43since that lake was frozen solid during the ice ages. It just seems very unlikely to me.
20:47I do believe that in the open ocean there's probably lots of very large animals that are so rarely seen by man,
20:54see monsters if you will, animals of a certain kind which are much larger than any others like that that have ever been seen.
21:01All animals have certain problems of getting oxygen and of feeding and of living through the winter time
21:06and of mating and raising young and all the other things, and all of those things still need to be described about this particular creature, whatever it may be.
21:13But there's no question there are very large animals in the sea which are only rarely seen,
21:19so anything might be a sea monster if it grew to a very unusual size.
21:26The persistent question remains, what is it so many reliable witnesses say they've seen in the lake?
21:34Could so many people be wrong?
21:36Whether the creature is something known or unknown, it's difficult to ignore these pictures,
21:44and the large number of sightings of a creature scientists cannot explain.
21:49What it is, we still don't know.
21:51Perhaps someday, a scientific expedition will tell us.
21:55In the meantime, the fold in film provides us with the most conclusive evidence
21:59that something very large lives in Lake Okanagan.
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