Saskipogo - [Fearsome critter|Cryptid]

Saskipogo.  - [Fearsome critter | Cryptid]

• About this Critter: Often classified as one of "ogopogos cousins." A Bizarre Goldfish & Wombat cross that has "never been spotted in 'Lake Saskatchewan' but they wanted to be included too. … a cryptid that never appeared: in a lake, that also doesn't exist!!

• History: The earliest record that I could find about "Saskipogo" was published in a book by Alan Gringer in his book "Water Monsters: Opposing viewpoints" [1991] however, it also debunks it in the same paragraph:

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[List of "Ogopogo cousins" in an article about the creature, an Ogopogo sighting, and a contest surrounding it by the Calgary Herald, Aug 23, 2001. ]

[from a 2005 bathroom trivia book - 'Tankopogo' (who is also not listed any where else) seems to be a variant of 'hidebehind.']

The funniest part of all this is that there is technically NO "Lake Saskatchewan" (within Saskatchwan.) There are several lakes IN Saskatchewan with more than enough unique monster sightings since the 1929 onward, to fill a book. But as a matter of fact, there is no lake which shares the name of the province, within the Province. -- Somewhat Ironically, There is a lake called "Saskatchewan lake" but, that's up over in Ontario!!

• Other Lake Monsters from Saskatchewan: Despite the implication saying that Saskatchewanians felt 'left out' of the lake monster hype - There have in-fact been well over 10 different "newsworthy" sightings of various lake monsters across Saskatchewan begginning in 1929, onward. - [Fearsomecritters.ca has an impressive list of news clippings about monsters from Saskatchewan, there are too many for me to list here!!] - Of those listed, I'd say the "Turtle Lake monster" is the one most similar in appearance to your standard 'Ogopogo.' (I'll cover them in more detail another time.) - 

Perhaps the people just weren't aware of any lake monsters from the area (this happened during the time before search engines were as easily available.) perhaps they didnt want to choose just one lake, or perhaps they didn't feel that theirs were 'popular enough' compared to the others listed, so they made something fresh up instead? Who can say for sure?

/*edit/ • Possible typo/Misidentification? - "Saskipogo" might've also been a typo for "Saskapogo" which name caught on... (though nothing much comes up if you search either!) - in a much earlier leader-post news article from 1964: wherein James laments the government's choice not to include an illustration in their tourism booklet...

he goes onto tell of one persons sighting...

[The description of the monster sounds a lot like the Turtle-Lake monster!!! one grade 7 french language booklet (the only thing that comes up when you search saskapogo) seemingly confirms this too. No mention of a goldfish, but i suppose you could mistake a wombat for a bulldog...] *we just need to find said tourism booklet from 1964 that mentions saski/saskapogo and we might have the final key to the mystery!

• 'Saskipogo' In UMA culture: (JP: サスキポゴ ) - "サスカチュワン湖のサスキポゴ" - Much to my surprise & delight, 'Saskipogo' seems to have a bit of a following in Japan's U.M.A culture (Though; even then, its still very obscure.) - In 2006: A Japanese UMA-site "UMAFAN" drew their idea of what the cryptid might've looked like. The website stayed as the only art & online mention of the critter that appears when you google 'saskipogo' for years. -- There have been a few other cryptid focused websites  (including pixiv) & across the Japanese net that seem to have mistakenly listed the 'Saskipogo' as an actual Cryptid as well. - Perhaps most Famously, celebrity and ufologist @Nakazawatakeshi [who i constantly run into whilst researching various topics, and have featured in a few of my articles before.] also did a video in 2022 on the subject of Saskipogo, He even drew what he thought the creature might look like. --(But, of course he left out the fact that the saskipogo was 'never seen.')

[It's adorable Nakazawa! video here]

In conclusion, it should go without saying, of course, if the Saskipogo where real, it goes against nature: goldfish and wombats cannot be cross-bred! (...for that matter, neither can Capybara. Reguardless of the fact that the Vatican classifies them as fish.) --Wombats aren't even native to Canada! You're lookin' for the land down under, Australia, Croiky!!! --it leads me to the question, if it was real, would it lay square eggs???

I'm not quite sure how to end this, so regardless of what you might or might not believe, I hope you enjoyed my little article & artwork of this mysterious cutie.

Sticker art by @samkalensky, part of my fearsome critters & cryptid collection of stickers, check my shop and follow @samkalensky for many more!