The Ogopogo is a legendary lake monster said to inhabit Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Described as a long, serpent-like creature with humps rising above the water, it has been compared to Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster. Indigenous oral traditions of the Secwepemc and Syilx peoples tell of a water spirit known as N’ha-a-itk, a powerful guardian of the lake. European settler accounts of the Ogopogo began in the 19th century, and modern sightings continue to fuel its reputation as Canada’s most famous cryptid. While no scientific evidence supports its existence, the Ogopogo remains a symbol of local folklore, tourism, and mystery.

Historian Mark M. Orkin explains that the monster was given its colonial name “on a night in 1924, when the tune of an English music-hall song first echoed through the city of Vernon, British Columbia.” He quotes the song’s playful lines:

His mother was an earwig,
His father was a whale;
A little bit of head
And hardly any tail—
And Ogopogo was his name.

Orkin also points out that a variant of the song had already been published earlier in the Vancouver Province (August 24, 1926), and that other sources claim the name was first used as early as 1912. Over the years, the creature has sometimes been affectionately nicknamed “Oggy,” while smaller versions are occasionally called “Ogopups.”