Creature record / 1962
August 1962. A small motorboat on northern Lake Manitoba, near the mouth of the Waterhen River. Two men on a fishing trip. Richard "Dick" Vincent and John Konefell, both television men. About 300 yards ahead, something long and black moved through the water. Snake-like. A hump in the middle. No head visible. They gave chase. Their 10-horsepower boat could not keep up. Vincent raised his camera and took a single picture. The Winnipeg Free Press published it, and within days it was reported abroad. It is still called "the only photo to ever come from a Manipogo witness". Critics later called it a log with branches. Vincent, years on, would only say he had seen "something".
Lake Manitoba had a reputation long before 1962. Settlers had reported something in the province's lakes since 1909, when Hudson's Bay Company trader Valentine McKay described a creature at Cedar Lake. In 1960 the sightings came in a rush. On 24 July, 20 picnickers at Toutes Aides saw it, followed by 17 more witnesses in August. One of them, Tom Locke, gave the creature its name, Manipogo.