Also known locally as Kempenfelt Kelly, Beaverton Bessie, and Simcoe Kelly, Igopogo is a name given to unknown animals seen in the waters of the 287-square-mile Lake Simcoe in southern Ontario, Canada. Sonar readings and videotapes taken in recent decades have been cited as evidence that there are indeed large, unknown creatures frequenting the lake.
Local historians credit an early settler, David Soules, with the first sighting of the creature by European Americans. While tending their sheep in 1823 on the shores of Kempenfelt Bay, a deep inlet on the western edge of Lake Simcoe, Soules and his brother watched a long animal that left a wake in the water as it swam and a trail in the mud as it rounded a point. Later in the century a story from a local newspaper reported that Mr. E. J. Delaney had found an outlandish creature in his boathouse that sported two long antennae, four arms somewhat like those of an octopus, three pairs of legs, and six feathery appendages resembling external gills (Frim 2002, 38).
Most subsequent sightings have been of animals of more mundane appearance. In 1903 two railway detectives boating near the town of Barrie on Kempenfelt Bay reported an unidentified animal with horns, while in 1906 two women in Beaverton, on the opposite side of the lake, saw something long and serpent-like while canoeing (Frim 2002, 38–39). A creature sighted in 1952 near Georgina Island was large and black with a face like a dog and ears like a cat. Significantly, it was described as being about the size of a seal. The four witnesses included Wellington Charles, chief of the Georgina Island First Nation (Fleming 2011, 6). Then in 1983 sonar operator William W. Skrypetz, who worked for a marina in the lakeside town of Lefroy, tracked an animal with a large body and a long neck, characteristics that recalled the 1906 sighting (Colombo 1999, 44).
Although some reports of Igopogo over the years may have been prompted by groups of otters swimming in line, it seems very possible that many others have been of seals, at least two species of which are known to enter eastern Canada’s rivers and lakes. This tentative identification is strengthened by a sighting that took place in 1991, when a videographer taping a friend racing his hydroplane captured images of something unusual. The driver had been forced to stop for repairs on the water, at which time a large animal surfaced to watch the boat and driver. After a few minutes it submerged all of its body except its head before eventually swimming away.
After viewing the tape, John Kirk, president of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, concluded that the animal was a large pinniped—that is, a seal or sea lion. Kirk had experience working in an oceanarium, but there was not enough detail in the tape for him to guess the species. While many pinnipeds lack external ears, those of the family Otariidae, which includes sea lions and fur seals, have them, which may be an explanation for sightings in which “horns” have been mentioned.
The name Igopogo itself is probably derived from that of Ogopogo, an unidentified animal thought to live in Lake Okanagan in British Columbia, or Manipogo, an alleged inhabitant of Lake Manitoba (Colombo 1999, 43). It is believed that the name was bestowed by Chief Wellington Charles, one of the witnesses involved in the 1952 sighting (Fleming 2011, 6). The name may also have been suggested by the campaign slogan “I Go Pogo,” on which Walt Kelly’s comic strip possum ran for president in 1952. Local resident Arch Brown copyrighted the name Kempenfelt Kelly in 1967 and donated the rights to the city of Barrie. As portrayed in a whimsical image created by Anne Binkley, Kempenfelt Kelly has been officially adopted as a mascot by the city’s Chamber of Commerce (Frim 2002, 39).
Grove Koger
See also Apotamkin; Big Water Snake of the Blackfoot; Champ; Chessie; Hudson River Monster; Ogopogo; Sharlie/Slimy Slim; Whitey
Further Reading
Colombo, John Robert. 1999. Mysteries of Ontario. Toronto: Hounslow Press.
Fleming, Rae. 2011. “Igopogo: The Legend Lives.” Ramara Chronicle (March/April): 6–7.
Frim, Monica. 2002. Secrets of the Lakes: Stories from the History of Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching. Toronto: Lynx Images.
“Igopogo (Lake Simcoe).” British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club website. http://www.bcscc.ca/igopogo.htm. Accessed March 12, 2015.
Radford, Benjamin, and Joe Nickell. 2006. Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating the World’s Most Elusive Creatures. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.