November 2006 - A Most Frightening Sasquatch Encounter

Introduction
After a month's layoff, I am back with a new article for the BigfootBuzz. I am fortunate that the work I do allows me to meet and speak with a great number of people, most of who have lived, currently live or recreate in unpopulated areas around northwestern Ontario and southeastern Manitoba. As a result, I have been privileged to have heard a number of stories relating to encounters with the Sasquatch. Some of these stories are freely shared y the individual without me asking any leading questions, while inevitably most are shared only after I mention my interest in the Sasquatch.

Generally the stories that I have heard have been brief encounters that last no more than half a minute or less, and did not involve too many people. Occasionally though I hear of a story that lasts longer and involves more than two people. Recently I was very pleasantly surprised and honoured to have had shared with me a story about an encounter with a Sasquatch that not only involved five people, but was a prolonged encounter lasting approximately five minutes or so. The only thing about the encounter that I was disappointed in was that it occurred over 20 years ago. Nonetheless, I feel that it ranks up there with any of the Sasquatch encounters that I have ever heard.

Although I have received permission from the person who shared their encounter with me to write about it in the BigfootBuzz, I am not going to reveal any names or the exact location at this time. I was so impressed with this encounter that I am planning on doing follow-up interviews and a visit to the site, even though as mentioned the encounter occurred over 20 years ago. Readers please note that this encounter was shared with me when I did not have any means of writing down the details of what I was hearing, and I have not had the opportunity to contact the person who shared the story with me to gather additional details and to confirm others. As a result, some areas of the story are a little sketchy. However, I have endeavoured to recall to the best of my ability the gist of the encounter and the details that I remember. In a future article, after having spoken with the person involved, I will provide additional details as necessary to complete the telling of this encounter.

The Encounter

The People Involved The person who shared their encounter with me, (who I will refer to as "Jane") is now 38 years old, but at the time of the encounter she was 16 years old. I found Jane to be an intelligent and articulate person who I believe truly encountered what she described to me.

Including Jane, there were five people in total that had the encounter. I did not speak with any other of the people involved in the encounter. These other four people involved in the encounter were approximately the same age as Jane.

The Location of the Encounter
As mentioned above, I will not reveal the exact location of the sighting. However, I can say that the encounter took place on a First Nation reserve in southern Manitoba. The area on the reserve where the encounter took place was away from the more populated area where the main community resides. While there are some trees in this area, it was by no means a "wilderness" area as the location of the reserve is generally within the Great Plains area.

The Details of the Encounter
I believe that the encounter took place either in the fall or early winter. One night Jane and four of her friends were driving in a car around an unpopulated section of the reserve looking for something to do. Three people, including Jane, were in the back seat and two people were in the front seat. The moon was either full or close to full as there was a lot of natural illumination for the people to see outside of the car to the surrounding fields and trees. Jane made it quite clear to me that there was no "partying" going on, only some bored kids looking for something to do, or as she put it "another typical night on the rez."

The driver of the car was pointing the car towards the surrounding trees and brush to see if they could spot any deer or other animals by the illumination of their eyes by the car's headlights. The driver of the car was known amongst Jane and her friends as a "kidder" always joking around and having fun, whereas the other person on the passenger side was known as a more serious type of guy. After having just flashed the car's headlights into the trees and brush at the side of the road again, all the occupants of the car smelled something very, very rank. Jane compared it to the smell of a skunk or something that had been dead awhile. Everyone thought that the smell must have been a dead deer that was hit by a car and lying just off the side if the road.

After having been hit by the smell, Jane saw the driver look into the rearview mirror and saw his face take on a look of shock. Jane then saw the drive nudge the guy in the passenger side with his elbow and point with his thumb towards the back of the car. Jane said that the guy in the passenger side later told her that he thought his friend, in keeping with his reputation as a "kidder", was messing around but nonetheless looked in back of the car. Jane, in watching this guy look back, saw his face take on a look of shock to match the drivers.

At this point, Jane was asking what was happening and what they had seen to which the driver replied that no one should look back and quickly floored the accelerator. Jane quickly looked out the rear window thinking she was going to see a bear but at first could not see anything of worry. After a second she saw what she thought was a tall tree stump by the road where they had just been. Turning she told her friends in the front seat that it was only a tree stump, and then turned back to look at it again - at which point the tree stump lifted up an arm so that it was parallel to the ground and began to run after the car!

At this point the other people in the back seat saw the creature too and began screaming for the driver to hurry because whatever it was behind them was chasing them. Jane related that the driver was driving as fast as possible to get back to the populated area of the reserve because he felt that they would be safe then. Jane explained to me that the roadway to get back to this populated area had a right hand turn followed by a long stretch of road and then a left hand turn with a long stretch of road, and that the road was surrounded by fields without many trees.

As the car was approximately 100 feet from making the right hand turn, Jane looked back and saw that the creature had cut across the field as if to cut them off after they made the right hand turn. This "freak-out" Jane and she started to yell at the driver to hurry up because the creature was going to cut them off and catch them. The driver increased speed after negotiating the right hand turn and the creature missed them by about 15 to 20 feet. As they approached the left hand turn, Jane looked back to see the creature cutting across the field again as if to cut them off after they made the left hand turn. Jane yelled to the driver to hurry up as it was going to try to cut them off again. The creature just missed catching up to the car after it had made the left hand turn but continued to chase after the car and its screaming occupants as they made their way towards the populated area of the reserve.

Jane stated that at its closest down the straight stretch of road the creature was approximately 30 feet away. The creature finally gave up the chase after the car went across a small bridge that lead to the populated area of the reserve. By this time the people in the car were hysterical, and drove to the local arena as they knew a hockey game was going on with a lot of people around. Once arriving at the arena, all the occupants of the car rushed into the arena where they met a number of friends and family who looked at them and said that they looked liked they had just seen a ghost. At this point, Jane and couple of her friends broke down into tears and related what had just happened to them. Their friends and family then took them to see some Elders to inform them of what had happened and to get some advice. Although there is more to the story, I will not go further into it.

Details as to the Creature
At first Jane thought that the creature was a large tree stump in the middle of the road. It was only after the creature raised its arm parallel to the road did she then realize that it was not a tree stump. In describing the raising of the arm, Jane imitated it as a person lifting their arm straight out in front of them and off to the side a little bit. Jane said that once the creature lifted its arm, she could tell that it was immense by the size of its arm. In addition, Jane stated that when it ran you could not only hear its foot coming down, but you tell it was an immense creature by the way its body shook under its own weight.

At some point during our discussion, Jane had made statements that lead me to believe that she knew it was covered in hair, but I do not recall the exact details. Also, I do not recall Jane mentioning anything regarding eyes, shining or otherwise, or other facial features of the creature. All of these details will have to be discerned from future discussions with Jane at a later date. On thing that Jane stated was that due to the size of the creature, its speed, and its apparent intelligence as demonstrated by attempting to cut them off, if it wanted to have caught them it could have easily have done so but for some reason chose not to. Jane hypothesized that it had young around and was simply trying to chase off a perceived danger to such young; needless to say it did a fine job in that regard.

Conclusions
I believe that Jane and her four friends saw a Sasquatch that night over 20 years ago. I recognize that my report is not complete and that there are many details missing, but I hope to remedy this in future conversations with Jane, and a visit to the encounter site. I find this encounter one of the most frightening and most intriguing. Frightening because a huge freakin' Sasquatch chased a car load of people for over five minutes - that really does not need an explanation! Intriguing because of the perceived intelligence of the creature as demonstrated by its attempt in cutting off the car by crossing the fields. To my mind this type of behaviour speaks of a higher intelligence that is not generally found in animals. In any event this encounter bears a more detailed investigation to catalogue the events more clearly even though it occurred over 20 years ago.

If anyone has any comments on this article, or has a first-hand report or oral history that they would like to share with me, please contact me at the email address below. And remember; when on the rez always look in your rear-view mirror at night!