Does a large hairy covered humanoid roam the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest ? Chances are more likely that you will encounter this creature close to civilization than in the deep woods. If very lucky it may even be in your own back yard. This creature was no stranger to the first nations people of western Canada and the U.S. In fact the name "Sasquatch" loosely translated means "Wild Man of the Forest". It's tracks and sightings have been made from the mountains ranges in northern California to the tundra of the Yukon and Alaska. To the none natives in the U.S., it is called "Big Foot", and in the Himalayas the "Yeti". A recent T.V. program on the learning channel revealed that a dozen other countries, including Australia have similar creatures with their own names.
In this article we will only cover our own area. For obvious reasons many peoples names and some locations cannot be given. Also the sightings will be given in the order that they were received in the late 1960's a veterinarian by the name of Dr. Proctor opened a clinic on the 4600 block on Lakelse Ave., just east of the Bank of Montreal. In the front window there was a pair of large plaster cast footprints. When he was asked for the reason of the display of these footprints, the reply was that he was very interested in this creature. The sight of these big feet may bring in more information and it did.
Sighting # 1
In 1974 a friend and I applied for two expired gold placer leases on Lorne Creek, 30 miles east of Terrace, British Columbia, on the railroad side of the river. The boat used to cross the river was tied up at Jim's place on the highway side of the river. Since there were grizzly bear in the area we carried rifles. In shooting the breeze one evening, we asked Jim what kind of wildlife was in the area. Of course there was Moose, but recently he had seen something different. While doing some work there he spotted a moving patch of brown a short distance away. Curious as to what it may be, he sneaked closer. It appeared to be a brown coloured bear that had its back towards him and was standing up on its hind legs eating Saskatoon berries, however, it was using its front paws like hands. The last cover was 50 feet from this creature and this was as close as he could get. from this point he saw that the paws were hands and this was not a bear, but some kind of hair covered human like creature a little over 6 feet tall. Also it had a very strong odor that reminded him of a camel smell when he once worked in a circus. After about 10 minutes the creature sensed that something was near it and turned sideways and spotted Jim who then saw it was a female as it had breasts. The creature then just trotted off.
It was then Jim's wife spoke up. The previous summer about the same time of the year she was home alone. Suddenly their two tied up watch dogs raised an awful commotion, more so than if a bear was around. Stepping outside she saw through the trees about 100 yards away skirting the yard a large black bear walking on it's hind legs. She knew a bear didn't walk on it's hind legs. This couple were told of Dr. Proctors interest and if they would be willing to grant him an interview if he came out. They agreed and he was notified. Later on down the street I asked him how he made out. His reply was that it certainly appeared that this is what they saw.
Sighting # 2
This also occurred in 1974. At that time the new highway bridges into Terrace had reached a point in construction where it was safe for the public to inspect them after working hours. Taking advantage of this, Dick and a friend decided to cross to Ferry Island from the Terrace side and explore it. On the river bank they found fresh large footprints. They went back and picked up some plaster of paris and a camera. After the casts were made a through search was made for the creature but it was not seen. They kept their find a secret until they were sure it was no longer around. It is quite possible that this was the one that was seen at Lorne Creek.
Sighting # 3
This took place near the end of January at one of our local landfills. At about 2:00 AM a worker returned to the landfill to pick up a set of keys that had been left in a piece of equipment. As he was walking past the area where the last dumping was, he saw a figure crouching amongst the garbage. He called out with a "hello there, what are you doing in the dump at this time of the night." The figure stands up and this worker who was about 100 feet away was amazed at it's huge height and size. It stood at over 10 feet tall. The creature turned and looked at the worker, then just walked out to the bush at the rear of the landfill, looking back several times to see if it was being followed. When it was a safe distance away the worker went to the spot where it was first seen. The footprints were 5 feet apart, further than the worker could spread his legs. Also it walked through 2 feet of snow as easily as a human could walk through ankle deep snow. It was learned later that 2 days after this sighting, a similar sighting, maybe of the same creature was made at Usk about 12 miles east of Terrace.
Sighting # 4
This took place around 1950. Two logger brothers set up a bush sawmill on the Babine Lake road just out of Smithers. The staff and workers built cabins to be near the mill. One Sunday having nothing else to do, the younger brother decided to do a little exploring in the woods. Coming across a game trail, he decided to follow it. On the trail were giant footprints that looked like those made by a large grizzly bear, but they had no claw marks on their ends. Also the steps were 5 feet apart and still 4 feet apart even when going up a steep hill. The logger was 6 foot, 2 inches tall and could barely match the stride by stretching his legs to the limit. Even when going up the hill his steps were only half as long.
While following the tracks he noticed the trail was littered by a lot of fresh stripped twigs. Looking up he saw all the alder trees up to 20 feet on both sides of the trail had all of their upper branches stripped bare. The taller 20 foot trees had 4 inch trunks near the ground. It was very evident that this creature was big and strong enough to bend over these trees to get at the tender tips, leaves and buds on he top branches. The twigs that broke off were spit out like humans do with fruit or berry stones. When the logger tired to bend these trees he could hardly move them.
Sasquatch researchers have long speculated what these creatures ate, and especially during the wintertime in the woods. So far two things were mentioned, Saskatoon berries and alder buds and shoots.
Sighting # 5
This took place around 1980. two men were driving to Kitimat one summer morning. Coming down the airport hill they could see a ground fog over the William Creek flats. This was a 2 mile fairly straight stretch of highway that was built over a swampy area that was part of the north end of Lakelse Lake. The grade or fill here varied between 5 to 6 feet high. As the car came around a slight bend at the bottom of the hill they could see arms waving in the fog ahead of them. Thinking that someone had gone off the road they prepared to stop. Since it was foggy the driver had to get over the white line and right on the shoulder. When the vehicle was still several car lengths away from the figure, the passenger who told me this story saw that it was not human. It was a very tall hair covered human like creature that was standing in the water at the foot of the grade and was facing the highway. When the car came to a stop they were alongside the creature. The creature's head was level with the occupants in the car and about 5 feet away from the passenger. After a brief moment the creature's eyes and mouth opened wide in terror. The head was thrown back and it's arms crossed over the front of it's head as to be warding off a blow from a club. It then turned around and dashed into the swamp, going at times through waist deep holes of water until lost in the fog and leaving two stunned men in the car.
While mulling over this story I measured the eye level height off the road in a similar type of car and it was 4 feet. Since the grade shoulder would have sloped a bit it would have been about 5 feet above the water. The creature was standing in water halfway to it’s knees. Adding up each foot of height on my fingers took all ten of them. This was followed up by another visit where two questions were asked. The first was if the creatures face was relatively free of hair as we see on the T.V. shows of the chimps and apes. The reply was that the face was covered with hair much the same as a full beard would be on a man. The next question was, "did you see the dished face of a chimp or ape or was it more human like"? The answer was that I saw a human face. It definitely was not the face of a chimp or ape.
What apparently had happened here was the Sasquatch was feeding on the brush on the road grade as it was standing in the water. The movement of the arms through the fog was the creature reaching out and pulling the bushes towards him. Like most wild creatures it did not pay much attention to the traffic as they went by at highway speed. However, if you slow down much or stop, then they are gone. You can imagine the creatures surprise when this large object suddenly stopped in front of it.
Sighting # 6
This sighting was from a lady now living in terrace, B.C. in 1985, she was living in the Queen Charlotte Islands in a cabin by the Honna River. One afternoon an acquaintance stopped by to tell her of a strange event he had just witnessed. He had been fly fishing further along the river when a very tame Deer came out of the woods near him to drink from the river. he had stopped his casting to admire the Deer. Suddenly a rock flew out from the trees, striking the Deer and knocking it down. This was immediately followed by a very tall hair covered human like creature who threw the Deer over it's shoulder and dashed back into the woods. Of course this took the pleasure out of further fishing and he didn't want to stick around with the rock chucking ape in the vicinity. This is the first that I heard of the Sasquatch being on these islands. According to this lady, the local native people speak quite openly about them. Now if anyone is curious whether or not this Deer was roasted, just read on.
Sighting # 7
This took place in 1967. Fred arrived in Canada in 1960 along with a flood of German immigrants. In 1967 he was in the Houston area where he had joined an outdoor club. In the fall Fred went hunting because it was a man think to do. This is an urge that harkens back to a dim and distant past where humans had to hunt in order to survive. A favorite place to hunt was on a prospector trail that ran up a mountain in the direction of Kemano in the Bower Lake area. This weekend Fred was only accompanied by a medium sized dog as he was after a young Moose that he could drag back down the trail himself. Halfway up the mountain he ran into a fresh fall of snow a foot deep. Suddenly he was hit with a very strong pungent odor similar to a large decaying carcass. He was up here the weekend before and there was nothing like that here. When he tried to go on, the dog laid down on it's belly blocking his way. When he tried to go around the dog, it crawled forward continuing to block his way.
Fred then climbed up on top of a rock that was beside the trail but he could see nothing ahead. However, he decided to heed the dogs warning and headed back down the mountain much to the dogs relief.
In sighting # 7 Fred had moved to Terrace in 1974. During that summer he visited another German immigrant family with 8 children who were living in an acreage community of Rosswood about 30 miles north of Terrace. There was a houseful of guests that day and the hosts had a strange story to tell. The previous winter had a very heavy snowfall. In March the snow was still 4 feet deep but hard enough to walk on. The snow had melted away from around the smaller jack pine trees to leaving them sitting in holes in the snow. During the Easter school holidays the children saw two hair covered human like creatures about 100 yards behind the house. One was an adult and the other a youngster about half as tall. It was presumed that the larger one was the mother but it kept its back to the whole family who were watching from the back of the house. These two figures were going from one small jack pine to another, picking and eating the needle tips of the branches. Here we have another item on their menu.
Two days later on the afternoon a large passenger airplane without wings, tail or engines, and making no sound, flew very low and slow, following the path that these creatures had taken. In my correspondence with UFO*BC they had mentioned having a number of reports from people who had seen a Sasquatch and a UFO in the same area around the same time. They were wondering if there as some kind of connection between them. It is my feeling that the aliens are every bit as curious about these creatures as we are.
This covers the verbal stories collected so far. The remaining printed stories will be photo copied.
A local moose hunter once mentioned that he could easily have shot a Sasquatch. However, it looked so human like that he didn't dare. Although it would have been a real boom to science, he was concerned that he could be charged with man slaughter if it would be classed as a sub human by these scientists. This question was put to the homicide department of the local R.C.M.P. The reply was that they couldn't answer this question and referred me to the crown prosecutor. His statement was the same as the police, so the next visit was to the game warden. According to him the Sasquatch was not a game animal, so it has nothing to do with his department. If one was shot and declared a sub human, then it would be up to the police and courts to deal with it.
It seems here that the safest thing to do would be to capture one alive. If it turns out to be some form of human, then it could always be turned loose. However, if it realizes that it can just laze around and still be fed, it may not want to leave. If food is put out for a homeless dog or cat, it sticks around.
The next question would be, where doe the Sasquatch fit in to the scheme of things. It appears that this was one of nature’s experiments in evolution that got stuck in a rut. Anyone that listens to the news and watches the T.V. educational channels will be aware the oldest human bones found go back almost 6 million years. Here we have an upright walking primate that was very good at climbing trees. However, its brain was the same size as the primates that were still walking on their hands as the chimpanzee does today. The chimp branch had forked sometime earlier with each branch then going its own way. With the upright walking primates the hands were now free for other tasks and the brain began to increase in size to accommodate this dexterity. As these hands were used more and became more skillful, the greater the brain increased in size until two distinct species had developed.
Somewhere near the beginning of this separation a third branch had spouted between these two species. This primate also walked upright but it's brain remained chimp size. Here we have half of each main branch, with the body following the upright walking side, and the brain following the side where the primates still walked on their hands, like the chimps do today.
However, it must have had something going for it, for this species also survived along with the other primates including the one that became humans. The Sasquatch is now comparable in size and weight to the gorilla and probably has the same size of brain. In all of natures evolution only the human primates has made it into the stone age and beyond. Humans were the only creatures that made tools and weapons. We are the only ones that used fire for warmth and cooking. The other primates do not even have the intelligence of how to keep a fire going. Humans were the only creature to have a full and written language, and the only creatures that built permanent shelters.
The Sasquatch had none of these and probably didn't even need them. Its heavy fur coat was adequate for all weather. Like our moose it just spent its days roaming the wilderness in search of food. There is no evidence that it even had its own territory as many animals do. It just followed its food supply. When needing to rest any comfortable place would do. A permanent bed was a disadvantage as it would soon have been heavily infested with fleas, lice, mites and tics. As its diet was mostly vegetation it did not have to complete with the more intelligent human primates for the available food supply. The Sasquatch was for the most part a solitary creature that just came together with a female to mate like much of our wildlife. Most of the sightings are of a single creature. It was up to the female to raise the offspring alone. If like humans, it would take a good many years to raise a youngster to where it could look after itself. This would mean a mother could only raise 2 or 3 children in its lifetime, which would barely sustain their numbers. This would explain the scarcity of these creatures.
For those who have watched the wildlife documentaries on the T.V. educational channels will be struck by the almost human behaviour of the chimpanzee. They tend to remind us of our children quarreling. For a long time scientists had thought that the dividing line between human and other creatures was in the use of tools. However, many wildlife pictures do show that the chimps, other animals and even birds will use sticks and rocks as tools in order to obtain food.
With our recent rapid advancement of our genetic research scientists are now saying that the chimpanzee, depending on its species have from 98 to 99.3 per cent of the genes of a human. In fact they are more closely related to humans than they are to the other large apes. Because of this some scientists have started a movement to declare the chimp a sub human with all the protection humans have. The Sasquatch with its upright walking and very human face could fit in between humans and the chimps. Does this mean the Sasquatch is the missing link? Not likely as all 3 species evolved from an earlier life form around the same time.
After all, in the scientific category humans are classified as a primate or more crudely an ape. Keep this in mind the next time you call someone a big or stupid ape.
Sighting # 8
This report was received after my report had been completed and photo copies made. In the summer of 1988 Dan and his wife visited a friend on Old Lakelse Lake Road past Jackpine Flats. After awhile Dan had to stretch his legs and decided to look at his friend’s garden, which was a little distance behind the house. Midway on the way back on his left was a dense grove of low leaf trees. Suddenly there was movement there and Dan thought he saw what looked like a very large rear end of a moose taking off. Dan, an avid hunter couldn't believe that a moose could be that high. At that moment the owner let out his two small housedogs. Dan hadn't smelled anything but apparently the dogs did. They ran yapping into the dense grove of trees. A few seconds later they came yapping back with high-pitched yelps right up to the house and scratches madly at the door to get back into the house.
The owner came out and asked Dan what made the dogs act so strangely. Dan said he didn't know but would take a look around. He couldn't find any moose tracks in the grove of trees. There were a number of large faint impressions in the moss that were still rebounding out. Dan was familiar with the stories of the Sasquatch and suspected that this is what he saw. However, since there was no firm evidence to back him up, he decided to keep quiet rather than face teasing or ridicule. However, this event shows that although the Sasquatch will usually avoid humans, they can occasionally still stumble into their yards. In this area a story of bear and moose in your yard is believe able but a Sasquatch still isn't. It should also be noted in this report and the other information included, the strange reaction of the dogs. These dogs will not hesitate to go after a full-grown grizzly, but yet run and hide from a Sasquatch. Do they instinctively know something that we don’t?
Sighting # 9
This took place in 1991 during ate July or early August. Dan and his wife were returning to B.C. from a visit to Ontario. Midnight found them near the Ontario - Manitoba border close to Westhawk Lake.
Suddenly ahead of them in the car headlights they saw a large hair covered human like creature running hard across the highway. Dan remembers that the hair on the top of the creature’s head was standing upright like a comb or brush. His wife noticed that steam was rising from its shoulder. It was obvious that the creature was in a panic situation and was running from something. Later they heard that others had seen it and it made the news on the local radio stations and the newspapers.
From the above report is proof that the Sasquatch is not confined to the Rockies but can be anywhere, even on the prairies.
My thanks goes out to a kind gentleman from my area for his report.
If anyone wishes to contact me about this story, feel free to at:
http://www.hbccufo.org/
Important: I will not be giving out any personal information about the fellow who sent me this report as I have been asked to keep his identity private.
