Rattlesnake Island (Okanagan Lake)
Rattlesnake Island is a small island on Okanagan Lake, directly east from Peachland. The land and shore surrounding the island form part of Okanagan Mountain Park. Legend has it that Rattlesnake Island is the home of Ogopogo, the lake's legendary monster.
In the 1970s, the island was developed as a tourist attraction, including a mini-golf course with a replica of the Great Pyramid at Giza and a Giant Camel (confectionary was going to be built on it, but that plan was later abandoned after only one day of business after opposition from the provincial government and others). In 2003, a lightning strike near the island started the Okanagan Mountain Park Fire that burned a large portion of the surrounding park but not the island.
Read more about Rattlesnake Island (Okanagan Lake): History, Folklore
Famous quotes containing the words rattlesnake and/or island:
“When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“The shifting islands! who would not be willing that his house should be undermined by such a foe! The inhabitant of an island can tell what currents formed the land which he cultivates; and his earth is still being created or destroyed. There before his door, perchance, still empties the stream which brought down the material of his farm ages before, and is still bringing it down or washing it away,—the graceful, gentle robber!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)