Cryptomundo
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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has a reputation for always getting their man – with one exception. A member once tracked a criminal to Hawaii, but fell in love with the place, so much so that he never came back. There is no other police force that has had to deal with more cryptids than the RCMP has dealt with.

Sasquatch, in particular, is the cryptid that the RCMP has found itself in a position of having to investigate the most. Since the 1920’s, people have been reporting encounters with sasquatch to Canada’s national police force and each report to the RCMP is taken seriously. Although I work for the RCMP, the opinions expressed in these columns are exclusively my own and not those of the force. I do not purport to be a spokesman for the RCMP, but am simply reporting the historical aspects of policing involving ‘hidden animals’.

John Green reports in his magnum opus Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us that back in 1973, the RCMP detachment in Poplar Point, Manitoba was asked to investigate sightings of a sasquatch roaming around the bush near this isolated northern community. As you can read in the following extract from John’s book, the Poplar Point officer-in-charge wrote to British Columbia headquarters asking for advice on how to handle this investigation. They obviously were of the view that their Western Canadian counterparts must know how to handle this type of thing because of the proliferation of sasquatch sightings in British Columbia!

It was reported to our office on July 26, 1976 by the chief of the Polar River Indian Band that many of his people have sighted on the reserve many times a large hairy animal that walks on two legs. Polar River is located approx. 76 miles to the south of Norway House. An investigation was conducted and the results are as follows:

Several people were interviewed and they all stated that the animal was approximately seven to eight feet tall and was very broad at the shoulders. It had the general body structure of a man only many times larger. A foot cast was taken of the foot impression that was left behind by the so-called monster and is held at this detachment. It measures 16 inches by five inches, and has only three toes. Its fur is a glossy gray color and it has white hair on it’s head. They stated that it was very powerfully built and one man reported that he saw it swimming. To date there have been no further reports of sightings in our area. It should be noted that this so-called monster seemed very inquisitive towards the people and would come around the houses on the settlement and look in doors and windows.

The RCMP report stated the general consensus among witnesses was that the animal was seven to eight feet tall, very broad but with the general body structure of a man, yet many times larger, and had gray glossy fur with white hair on its head. A cast of a footprint allegedly left by the animal measured 16 inches by 5 inches, but only had three toes. The RCMP report concludes that "this so-called monster seemed very inquisitive towards the people and would come around the houses on the settlement and look into doors and windows."

Twenty two years later the RCMP detachment in Norway House, Manitoba – to the north of Poplar Point – were called in to deal with the purported sighting and filming of a sasquatch by local ferryman, Bobby Clarke. When news of Clarke’s video hit the headlines the local RCMP detachment would likely have found themselves dealing with all sorts of safety issues that arise when people start flocking to a small remote town to look for a sasquatch. Among the issues police forces have to face are the dangers of individuals wanting to make a name for themselves by bagging a sasquatch. The last thing any police force wants is a bunch of yahoos opening fire on anything that moves in the bush.

It would seem the 10 man detachment at Norway House were well in control of the situation as there were no reports of anyone taking a bullet from an overzealous hunter of sasquatches. After having seen Clarke’s video of his sasquatch sighting, I’m of the opinion that this was big fuss about nothing. The ‘thing’ in his video is so indistinct that I believe it qualifies as the ‘Blobsquatch of the Year’. Clarke may well have seen a sasquatch, but I can’t honestly say that I think his video shows one.

Canadian Cryptid Cops II 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 8th, 2006 at 6:56 am and is filed under Bigfoot, Cryptid Universe, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Eyewitness Accounts, Forensic Science, Sasquatch. You can follow responses via our RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.