COUNTRY FILE · NORTH AMERICA

Cryptids of Canada

What cryptids are in Canada? The best-known are Ogopogo, Bigfoot, Cadborosaurus and Memphré, among 11 on file.

Canada is lake-monster country. Glaciers scoured the land into tens of thousands of long, deep, cold lakes, and almost every region seems to have one with a creature of its own. The most famous is Ogopogo of British Columbia’s Okanagan Lake – a settler name for a much older being, nx̌aʔx̌ʔitkʷ, sacred to the Syilx people – but there is also Memphré in Lake Memphremagog on the Quebec–Vermont border, reported since 1816, and Igopogo in Ontario’s Lake Simcoe, whose “Kempenfelt Kelly” nickname nods to Barrie’s waterfront. On the Pacific coast, the horse-headed sea serpent Cadborosaurus, or “Caddy,” has been a Victoria favourite since a newspaper named it in 1933.

11 cryptids11 recorded sightings1 news story

Cryptids reported in Canada

LAKE & SEA MONSTER · Pre-colonial

Ogopogo

Okanagan Lake, British Columbia

Canada’s most famous lake monster: a long, humped serpent said to swim Okanagan Lake, rooted in the Syilx being nx̌aʔx̌ʔitkʷ, spirit of the lake.

WIDELY REPORTED

Frame 352 of the 1967 Patterson–Gimlin film: a dark, hairy upright figure walking across a creek bed and looking toward the camera

HOMINID · 1958

Bigfoot

Pacific Northwest forests, reported across North America

North America’s most famous cryptid: a huge, hairy, upright ape-like being reported from the Pacific Northwest to Florida since the 1958 “Bigfoot” tracks.

WIDELY REPORTED

Black-and-white 1937 photograph of a long, slender carcass laid out on boards at the Naden Harbour whaling station

LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1933

Cadborosaurus

Cadboro Bay and the Salish Sea, off Victoria, British Columbia

“Caddy,” the horse-headed sea serpent of British Columbia’s coast, named in 1933 after Victoria’s Cadboro Bay and still reported in the Salish Sea.

WIDELY REPORTED LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1816

Memphré

Lake Memphremagog, Magog (Quebec) to Newport (Vermont)

The horse-headed serpent of Lake Memphremagog, a border lake shared by Quebec and Vermont, reported since 1816 and adopted as Magog’s friendly mascot.

REGIONAL LEGEND SPECTRAL · Pre-colonial

Wendigo

Boreal forests of Canada and the northern Great Lakes

A being of winter, hunger and greed from Algonquian traditions – Ojibwe, Cree, Innu and others – whose teachings warn against selfish excess.

FOLKLORE

LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1823

Igopogo

Lake Simcoe, Ontario

Ontario’s answer to Ogopogo: a grey, dog-faced creature reported in Lake Simcoe since settler days, honoured by a sea-serpent sculpture in Barrie.

LOCAL LEGEND

LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1819

Champ

Lake Champlain, New York–Vermont border

A long-necked monster said to live in Lake Champlain, made famous by Sandra Mansi’s 1977 photo and protected by local and state resolutions in the 1980s.

REGIONAL LEGEND

The Presque Isle River flowing over rock ledges in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1977

Pressie

Lake Superior, near the Presque Isle River, Michigan

A serpent-like monster said to swim Lake Superior, named for sightings near the Presque Isle River in Michigan’s Porcupine Mountains.

LOCAL LEGEND

A group of North American river otters – the “land otters” of Southeast Alaska – along Ward Creek in the Tongass National Forest

HUMANOID · Pre-colonial

Kushtaka

Southeast Alaska (Tlingit homelands)

The Land Otter Man of Tlingit tradition in Southeast Alaska – a shape-shifting being linked to people lost at sea, later recast by outsiders as a cryptid.

FOLKLORE DOGMAN & CANINE · 1700s (French colonial era)

Rougarou

Bayous and cane fields of south Louisiana

South Louisiana’s Cajun werewolf: a cursed shape-shifter of the bayous, born of French loup-garou tales and now the mascot of Houma’s Rougarou Fest.

FOLKLORE HUMANOID · Pre-colonial

Deer Woman

Oklahoma and many Native nations of the Plains and Eastern Woodlands

A spirit being of many Native nations who appears as a beautiful woman with deer’s feet, and who punishes men who harm women and children.

FOLKLORE

The legends of Canada

Canada’s forests also gave the world the word “Sasquatch.” It comes from sásq’ets, a being in the traditions of the Sts’ailes people of the Harrison River valley, anglicised by a schoolteacher who published their accounts in Maclean’s in 1929. Across the boreal north, Algonquian-speaking nations such as the Cree, Ojibwe and Innu tell of the Wendigo, a spirit of winter hunger and greed that is a living teaching about restraint rather than a monster to hunt. These traditions deserve to be heard on their own terms, from the communities that hold them.

Shared waters and borders mean Canada shares monsters too: Champ swims Lake Champlain, which reaches into Quebec; Lake Superior’s Pressie is reported along the Ontario shore; French-Canadian loup-garou tales are cousins of Louisiana’s rougarou; and the Tlingit Kushtaka is known in northern British Columbia and the Yukon. For travellers, the classic monster road trip runs from Kelowna’s Ogopogo statue to the Sasquatch country of Harrison Hot Springs, or from Magog’s Memphré sculpture to the shores of Lake Simcoe.

Hotspots

Okanagan Lake, British Columbia

Home of Ogopogo and of the Syilx being nx̌aʔx̌ʔitkʷ, with Kelowna’s famous 1960 Ogopogo statue on the waterfront.

Harrison Hot Springs and the Harrison River valley, British Columbia

Sts’ailes homeland and the origin of the word Sasquatch, celebrated as Canada’s Sasquatch country.

Cadboro Bay and the Salish Sea, British Columbia

The Victoria beach that lent its name to Caddy, the sea serpent reported off southern Vancouver Island since the 1930s.

Lake Memphremagog, Quebec

Border lake where Memphré has been reported since 1816; Magog’s lakeside park has a Memphré sculpture.

Lake Simcoe, Ontario

Cottage-country lake an hour north of Toronto where Igopogo has been reported since the 1820s.

Sightings timeline

1823
David Soules’s sighting Igopogo
The settler David Soules, tending sheep near the lake, is credited with the first account: a long creature that left a wake on the water and a track in the mud. The story survives through later retellings rather than a contemporary record.
1855
McDougall’s horses Ogopogo
According to local history, Métis settler John McDougall was swimming his horses across the lake behind his canoe when they were suddenly pulled under. He reportedly cut the ropes to save the canoe – the first settler encounter in the Ogopogo canon.
1872
Susan Allison’s account Ogopogo
Susan Allison, one of the earliest settler women in the region, wrote about a large, unknown creature in the lake. Her account is often cited as the first detailed description by a European settler.
August 24, 1882
“The Sea Serpent Captured” Igopogo
The Northern Advance ran a sea-serpent story under this headline, one of several 19th-century newspaper items about a strange animal in Lake Simcoe now indexed by the Simcoe County Archives.
1952
Four witnesses, including a First Nation chief Igopogo
A group of four people, among them Wellington Charles, chief of the Georgina Island First Nation, reported seeing the creature together. The account is one of the most frequently cited Igopogo reports.
July 24, 1963
“Igopogo Looms its Ugly Head” Igopogo
The Barrie Examiner reported that Bradford resident Neil Lathangue and his family had seen the creature while boating near Jackson’s Point, a sighting that made headlines across the county that summer.
August 1968
The Folden film Ogopogo
Home-movie enthusiast Arthur Folden filmed about a minute of footage showing a large, moving object leaving a wake on calm water below Highway 97. It is still called the best film of Ogopogo; a 2005 re-analysis for the National Geographic Channel concluded the object was a real animal but far smaller and closer than first thought.
1983
The sonar contact Igopogo
A sonar operator, William Skrypetz, reported a reading he interpreted as a large animal with a long neck. Skeptics replied that a school of fish could produce the same trace.
1991
Japanese television expedition Ogopogo
An expedition financed by Japan’s Nippon Television searched the lake with a remotely operated vehicle and a small submarine, reportedly diving to the deepest part of the lake. No creature, carcass or bones were found.
Autumn 2011
The West Kelowna winery video Ogopogo
Visitor Richard Huls shot a shaky phone video from a winery showing dark shapes in the water and told reporters it was not a wave. Investigator Benjamin Radford noted the footage seemed to show two short objects floating side by side, most likely logs.
August 2011
Memphré on a coin Memphré
The Royal Canadian Mint issued a coloured 25-cent coin featuring an artist’s impression of Memphré, bringing the lake monster national attention.