June 14, 2009 

This is an account of Larry Weatherhead (Owner of Green Power in Taber, Burdett and Medicine Hat) photographing the sea monster in 40 Mile Park and Recreation Area.

“I was out for a short walk this morning to enjoy the first bit of sunshine we have had in a long time when I saw something move out on the lake.  I had a better look and saw some rather large ripples in the water about three quarters the way across.  I stopped and got my camera ready thinking this may be a beaver or large bird which are fun to take pictures of..  Much to my surprise I saw something rather large and black appearing out of the water.  I couldn’t tell at first what it was but I started snapping my camera.  Then it was obvious!  I was looking at Oliver the Sea Monster of 40 Mile Park.  I couldn’t wait to get back to my cabin and show my friends what I had photographed!”

One day (August 18, 2007) my family and I were camping at 40 Mile Park.  We were at our friend’s cabin. He has a dock there that we love to sit on. I must make this clear, first. 40 Mile Lake is a huge lake many miles from end to end. This lake is undoubtedly very deep and possibly hundreds of acres from shore to shore. Anyways, my two children and I (one 10 and one 13) were sitting on the dock eating some ice cream cones looking at the water. It was a calm evening, probably about 9:30 so it was still light outside but just starting to darken. The water was still, like glass, with ripples only from passing boats and none came anywhere near close to us. When my 13 year old daughter nudged me in the arm and told me to "look here" and pointed at a waked spot in the water. It was churning, almost creating a small whirl pool.. A massive hump (well ok it wasnt that big but it was bigger than anything I wanted to see) slowly and gracefully rose out, about 1 foot away from the churning water. Then it moved quickly about 2-3 feet and rapidly went back under.  I remember it didn’t have scales like a fish, more like a snake or maybe it had some kind of pattern that made it look like scales. It was dark dark dark greenish or blue. We were playfully "freaked out" while we watched for more, not thinking about the safety of us. Then, we saw a head... a very good-sized oval or sphere, a bit bigger than a bowling ball (but it wasn’t perfectly round, it was like a lizard or a horse's head). The head arose, i could see it had the same pattern and colors as the hump I had previously seen. It had its head out and about 2 inches of its neck, and it swam very very very quickley through the water. The only part of its body that made the wake was its head, and i knew the creature must have been big, so it must have had a fairly LONG neck for its body to not disturb the surface. It swam probably a dozen yards, then its mouth opened, it appeared to take a gulp of air, and then it went under. Just a split second later I saw the same hump role under the water, then i saw the last part of its tail  (it was a fairly stumpy tail) splash out. My children and I were too dumb-founded to say or do much. Then we saw its head again and it was coming toward our dock. About 1-2 feet away from the dock supports (the poles that hold it up), it went under. Less than a second later we felt a huge bump and a large "THUD" sound. The dock shook violently for a few seconds. By this time, we were terrified and ran back to the shore as fast as we could.   We have been going back to 40 Mile Park every chance we get to look for the serpent and perhaps take a picture! 

Len Hunt

Vulcan, AB

Sighting by George Nixon of Medicine Hat

I've had several encounters over the last 10 years with the 40 Mile Lake Serpent. My friends and I have been attacked at the Spillway several times, always the second Saturday of the month because that's the day we're off.

The first time we were out sitting in our boat, drinking Appleton's. All at once we had to pour the drink out because we saw the Lake Patrol headed our way. It was then that this big shadow came up under the water and swam at the boat. It hit the boat and knocked my buddy Taylor into the water. He crawled back into the boat and as we sped off, we hit the monsters back and were launched into the air. Taylor  looked back and swears he saw the monster's head come within a foot of the boat. The monster glared at him and dropped back into the water.

Then last year friend Tim and I were in his boat.  It was about midnight and the sky was cloudless. We sat huddled close together as the wind was getting up and Tim said he was cold. All of a sudden, we heard a roar coming from somewhere nearby. Tim suddenly spun his head around and yelled.  I saw two large humps rise above the surface several times.  Needless to say, we sped out of there. Tim was too scared to go home so we spent the night at our parent's cabin and finished the Appleton's.  Since these encounters always could be seen from the Oliver Hodge Viewing Centre we decided to call the Serpent "Oliver"!!!