Folklore
Okanagan Indians claimed a water beast lived in the lake near the island. They called the creature N'ha-a-itk, meaning "snake of the water". Their native superstitions demanded certain traditions before entering N'ha-a-ith's domain. One of these traditions was a ritual sacrifice of a small animal as a peace offering before crossing the lake. Tying their horses behind their canoes, they would paddle out to where they believed the serpent lived in a cave beneath the water, now known as Squally Point, and make their offering, in hopes that this appeasement would protect their horses and they would not be dragged under and drowned by the monster.
In 1890, Captain Thomas Shorts was steaming on the lake and claimed to have seen a finned creature about sixteen feet long with a head like that of a ram. The creature allegedly disappeared however when he turned his ship in its direction, and virtually no one believed his reports of it. Some people began to examine the lake in more careful detail believing intently in the creature's existence. Many others liked the legend of the lake serpent, and playfully named it Ogopogo. Some, especially those associated with the tourism industry in the Okanagan Valley, came to call the island "Ogopogo Island", and the name stuck for many years. Prior to that, in the early part of the 1900s, it was simply known as "The Island". Robert Columbo, in his book Mysterious Canada, notes that the Pogo Stick was a popular craze since its introduction in 1921 and this may have contributed to the name. According to Arlene Gaal, author of Ogopogo: The True Story of the Okanagan Lake's Million Dollar Monster, a Vancouver Province reporter named Ronald Kenvyn later parodied a popular British ditty and composed a song that included the following stanza:
- His mother was an earwig;
- His father was a whale;
- A little bit of head
- And hardly any tail
- And Ogopogo was his name.
Thanks to these songs, the name Ogopogo stuck and the First Nation name has largely been forgotten.
Read more about this topic: Rattlesnake Island (Okanagan Lake)
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—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
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—James P. Comer (20th century)