A vast, tree-covered island surfaced without warning in a Canadian lake, baffling locals and officials alike — only to disappear soon after authorities who were initially doubtful confirmed it was real.
The floating island, believed to be roughly the size of two NFL football fields, was first seen drifting across the Williston Reservoir in early August.
The sprawling man-made lake, located in a remote stretch of northern British Columbia, is the seventh-largest reservoir on the planet.
One local resident captured an unsettling long-distance photograph of the strange landmass sitting alone in open water before heading out by boat to record video from closer range.
The remarkable close-up footage shows trees along the island’s edge moving eerily up and down with the waves, making the forested mass appear almost alive.
The boater later shared the photo and video with another local, Rocky Avery, who posted them on social media on August 12. The images quickly drew widespread attention online.
Avery told Canadian outlet CBC: “It was a pretty amazing sight to see, never seen anything like that in my 40 years in this country.”
He said he made the post to warn BC Hydro “in case [the island] was floating down their way.” The Canadian utility generates hydroelectric power for British Columbia through the WAC Bennett Dam, the massive structure that created the Williston Reservoir.
This mysterious island was spotted in Canada’s Williston Reservoir in early August before it suddenly disappeared
A local sailed near the island and took a close-up video of it, which officials were initially skeptical was real
BC Hydro spokesperson Bob Gammer was initially skeptical about the existence of the island when CBC reached out to the company.
He said that he thought the video might have been generated by AI because of how difficult it was to believe and the increasing prevalence of AI videos on social media.
But BC Hydro soon confirmed the existence of the mysterious island by examining satellite images.
One of the photos dated to July 21, about three weeks before Avery posted the video of the island, showed it floating in the reservoir’s main body of water about 60 miles west of the WAC Bennett Dam.
The picture allowed the company to estimate that the island was about 105,500sq ft in area, which is a little smaller than two football fields combined.
But since BC Hydro was able to confirm the existence of the island with that more than month-old photo, efforts to spot it in more recent satellite imagery have been unsuccessful.
‘It’s disappeared now,’ Gammer told CBC. ‘It doesn’t mean it’s gone to the bottom of the reservoir. It may have returned to a more sheltered area along the shoreline.’
The spokesperson said that the most likely explanation for the mysterious island is that the Williston Reservoir is currently full for the first time in 14 years.
The island was confirmed to be real through satellite images, but more recent attempts to locate it through satellite photos were unsuccessful
The island is likely floating on driftwood that broke from the shore because of higher water levels this year. This new photo of the island in a different location was posted Monday evening
During the nearly decade-and-a-half that the reservoir’s water levels were depleted, it is probable that driftwood accumulated near the shore, and trees took root in decomposing debris, Gammer said.
With this year’s higher water level, the loose base beneath those trees could have been lifted and separated from the shore before wind blew the island out into the lake, the spokesperson explained.
Gammer said that there has already been a higher-than-usual number of trees and debris along the reservoir’s shores that have been pulled into the lake this year.
He also said that BC Hydro does not expect the island to cause any operational problems, but the company is on the lookout for its re-appearance.
Although BC Hydro was not able to find more recent satellite images of the island, the man who posted the initial photo and video shared brand new pictures of the island on Facebook on Monday evening.
‘The floating island has been found again up the ospika,’ Avery wrote in the post. The Ospika is a river that flows into the Williston Reservoir.
