Creepy vineyard monster has more than 20-year history in Okanagan
It started as a small group of Virginia creeper vines that latched themselves to an old telephone pole and grew into a full-fledged monster of the South Okanagan.
It has many names: vineyard monster, creeper, the redeemer, the green glob, banshee and the man who cultivated the legend always thought it looked like it was pointing towards the Osoyoos cemetery along Highway 97.
Penticton resident Michael Welsh used to own the property the creeper calls its home and when he originally purchased it in 1997, it was just a baby network of vines. Back then, the location was an old apple orchard and Welsh installed a vineyard and looked after the monster for more than a decade.
“That vine was working its way up the old telephone pole and when it hit the wires, of course, it just started to spread it along and I called it the banshee vine,” he said.
“It seemed particularly fitting because right above the vineyard is the local cemetery… and I’d always laugh because the longest arm would point right at the cemetery.”
It also served as a warning for pests. Leafhoppers would first be attracted to the monster before the vines so it’d be an indicator of when to put pesticides on the vines, Welsh said.
“Someone a couple years ago put eyes on it and I thought that was clever.”
The vines continued to grow and he continued to maintain the “banshee” until Welsh sold the property in 2006.
Welsh thinks he may have had a role in cultivating the legend, by spreading its eerie name around.
“It reminded us that life is not everlasting, there’s always an end and that it’s pointing to so you should enjoy it while you’re here,” he said.
The vineyard monster has gained an almost cult-like status in the South Okanagan. Its image is sold on t-shirts and it’s also a popular geocache site, said the property’s current owner Teya Coty.
READ MORE: Growing Osoyoos landmark lands on T-shirts
“People sure love that guy, I’m telling you there have been lots of stories about it,” she said.
When Coty and her husband first bought the property, they considered cutting it down but decided to keep it due to its public popularity.
“He look the weed wacker to the base of it, and of course that made it grow even more,” she said.
No power line provider has said anything about it and Coty and her husband continue to maintain its arms, she said.
“I’ve seen vines growing on a pole before but never this shape,” she said. "Everybody stops to take pictures with him."
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