Lake Okanagan is a very deep and long lake, and we have our own monster called The Ogopogo. Although Indian legends support a monster living in Okanagan Lake long before white men arrived in this country, Ogopogo is very much a present day phenomenon. Each year, sightings are reported of a creature some 20 to 50 feet long, with a horse shaped head and an undulating serpent like body! Okanagan Lake is about 80 miles long extending from Vernon at the north end to Penticton in the south with the fast growing city of Kelowna in the center. Sightings have been reported throughout the length of the lake but the monster appears to favour an area just south of Kelowna in waters near Peachland.
There are a number of similarities between Lake Okanagan in British Columbia and Scotland's Loch Ness. They are both long and narrow and lie at about the same latitude. And they are each famous for their resident monsters.
The Ogopogo, actually made its media debut long before the Loch Ness Monster. In 1926, seven years before Nessie's came to the public's attention, Roy W. Brown, editor of the Vancouver Sun, wrote, " Too many reputable people have seen [the monster] to ignore the seriousness of actual facts." While there are serious questions about whether there are non-retroactive Nessie sightings before 1930, but there are archival records of Ogopogo's existence going back to 1872 and sightings have been reported regularly up to the present.