It seems Ogopogo is making waves again.
Only this time, it’s not a new sighting. Instead, the legendary lake monster in B.C.’s Southern Interior — whose name makes Okanagan residents light up with excitement — is being profiled in a documentary.
The investigative report is titled Cursed Waters: Creature of Lake Okanagan.
Ogopogo’s name in Syilx is na-ha-ha-tik-w, the sacred being in the water.
The documentary is produced by Small Town Monsters, a production company that investigates facts behind folklore.
Director Eli Watson travelled to locations where some people reportedly saw the mythical beast.
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“When you look past just the surface level of people seeing a monster, there’s a lot of human elements to it,” Watson told Global News.
“There are people who see these things every day and then the people who look into them. And it’s fascinating when you look at it from that perspective; why would someone look for something that might not exist?”
One expert tapped to help investigate was Jason Hewlett, a cofounder of the Canadian Paranormal Society.
“People are seeing something in the lake,” Hewlett said. “It’s the most documented lake monster in the world, even more documented than the Loch Ness monster (in Scotland).
“Sometimes there are 12 people, 15 people, seeing this at once, and sometimes you see more than one of these creatures. I think that feeds into our general love of a good mystery.”
“Within the film, we have five pieces of evidence,” said Watson. “We have three videos and two photographs presented, and I think that’s pretty good for a documentary. But there’s well over 100 pieces of evidence for Ogopogo, and that’s from within the last 50 years.”
The documentary is out on Amazon Prime, though Watson is back on the road, following the oversized tracks of Big Foot.