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| THE LEGEND OF OGOPOGO |
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Many have had what they believe are sightings of "Ogopogo"
but they are afraid of being ridiculed if they talk about it. Although
sightings of "Ogopogo" or N'ha-a-itk as the native Okanagan residents named him hundreds of years ago,
have been numerous, many residents of the Okanagan Valley surrounding the large lake known as Lake Okanagan, equate the myth of
Ogopogo with the statue in Kerry Park in downtown Kelowna.
Click
here to learn about how Ogopogo got its name
and the origin of the legend |
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How does
a legend like Ogopogo start? It starts with sightings of something
unexplainable. When, over the past several centuries, countless
people have claimed to have seen what they believed to be Ogopogo
or N'ha-a-itk, and many in modern times have taken photographs of
this anomaly, it certainly lends credence to this so-called "myth".
Even scientists have put forth the theory that unlike the world-renown Loch Ness "monster", the Lake
Okanagan "resident" must be a form of primitive whale,
Basilosaurus Cetoides which tallies almost exactly with the loglike
descriptions of the creature known locally as Ogopogo.
The Canadian Government even issued an
Ogopogo postal stamp in the 1990's, reflecting one artist's idea
of what Ogopogo may look like, as described during many reported
sightings up until that time. |
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How
to explain the unexplainable?
While filming a documentary on Ogopogo,
a film crew consisting of 14 people all saw what looked like two
or three humps undulating in and out of the water at almost the
same spot where Bill Steciuk, the Legend Hunters' expedition leader,
had first sighted what he believed to be Ogopogo over 24 years before.
This photo brings up
a very intriguing point: since light usually only reflects off an
object, the light may be assumed to reflect off something solid
and not just a wave. What appears to be several humps of a rapidly
moving aquatic animal certainly tallies with the descriptions of
sightings of Ogopogo over the past several hundred years. Click here to see two similar points of light in another photo...coincidence? |
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| This photo
taken with a Yashica SLR, FX2 with a Kiron 200mm lens, distance
to object approx.150 meters. |
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