Sasquatch in the Yukon
Posted by: John Kirk on May 10th, 2006
It’s amazing to me sometimes how the media will seize on a story that really is no big deal. It is patently obvious that a lot of media types don’t do enough research before they write a story. Here’s an example. There are so many sasquatch research groups out there that I have lost track of many of them. I belong to several such as the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club (BCSCC), Cryptosafari, Westcoast Sasquatch, and The Texas Bigfoot Research Center.
I was really quite amazed that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation decided to make a big deal recently about a nice enough guy starting a sasquatch organization in the Yukon. We have tons of sasquatch researchers in Canada and quite a few like the Western Canada Sasquatch Researchers Organization (WCSRO). In fact, Red Grossinger, who started the Sasquatch Yukon organization is actually working with WCSRO according to Sean Viala who heads that group.
According to the article Mr. Grossinger said he started the group after residents of Teslin in the Yukon had a series of encounters with a “bushman” last year. Grossinger said that the incident made it clear to him that sasquatch researchers in southern Canada knew nothing about the many sightings in Yukon. Well, I’m sorry to contradict Mr. Grossinger, but quite a few of us do and have been collecting reports from there for over a decade.
In fact, we have had reports since 1990 of a creature from the Carmacks area which describe a creature called the Beaver Eater which we have not yet eliminated the possibility that it might be a sasquatch.
I personally collected my first clear sasquatch sighting from Yukon in 1991 when Eugene Field from Electric City, Washington sent me a report of his sighting of a sasquatch walking across the Alaska Highway in plain view of Mr. Field. The creature was in excess of seven feet tall and seemed totally nonchalant about the presence of Mr. Field and his wife approaching the hominid in their car. Mr. Field could see its tracks in the snow as the sasquatch walked off into the distance, but I can’t recall if he measured them.
Myself and other southerners (we are actually Western Canadians) like Thomas Steenburg avidly followed the Teslin sighting reports of last year long before the supposed ‘sasquatch hair’ – it turned out to be buffalo – was found. So it is a little disappointing to see the media fail to contact any of the Canadian sasquatch groups to see if any of us had actually looked into the matter of the Yukon sasquatch/bushman before making it look like we did not have a clue that sasquatch was alive and well in that territory.
While few of us have ventured to the Yukon to investigate sightings there, it is not because there is a lack of interest, but is actually due to two factors:
1) Most of us respect provincial boundaries and don’t go traipsing into someone else’s backyard unless we are invited or if the local groups shows no interest in following up.
2) It is pretty expensive to fly up there and then one has to arrange accommodations, vehicles and food as well. We just don’t have the money to do that in another territory when we have to budget carefully to carry out research in our own provinces “down south”.
I wish Mr. Grossinger and his team every success up north and nothing would gratify me more than a Yukon researcher being the first to find evidence of sasquatch in his/her own province.
About John Kirk
One of the founders of the BCSCC, John Kirk has enjoyed a varied and exciting career path. Both a print and broadcast journalist, John Kirk has in recent years been at the forefront of much of the BCSCC’s expeditions, investigations and publishing. John has been particularly interested in the phenomenon of unknown aquatic cryptids around the world and is the author of In the Domain of the Lake Monsters (Key Porter Books, 1998).
In addition to his interest in freshwater cryptids, John has been keenly interested in investigating the possible existence of sasquatch and other bipedal hominids of the world, and in particular, the Yeren of China. John is also chairman of the Crypto Safari organization, which specializes in sending teams of investigators to remote parts of the world to search for animals as yet unidentified by science. John travelled with a Crypto Safari team to Cameroon and northern Republic of Congo to interview witnesses among the Baka pygmies and Bantu bushmen who have sighted a large unknown animal that bears more than a superficial resemblance to a dinosaur.
Since 1996, John Kirk has been editor and publisher of the BCSCC Quarterly which is the flagship publication of the BCSCC. In demand at conferences, seminars, lectures and on television and radio programs, John has spoken all over North America and has appeared in programs on NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, TLC, Discovery, CBC, CTV and the BBC.
In his personal life John spends much time studying the histories of Scottish Clans and is himself the president of the Clan Kirk Society. John is also an avid soccer enthusiast and player.
The scientific paper written regarding the find of the Teslin, Yukon’s “Sasquatch-bison hair” and its analysis is the subject of a previous posting on Cryptomundo.
When are one of these many groups going to come up with some hard evidence?
Define “hard”. Many prople are in prison, convicted on less evidence than exists for the presence of a large North American ape. Add up all the circumstantial evidence and it seems pretty convincing to me.
What do these many sasquatch research groups actually do?
Uhmmm…the Beaver Eater…I’ll fight temptation and leave that one alone.
i agree all evidence points to an ape like creature, i have been fascinated since i saw the expose the national wildlife federation did in the early seventies, but still why don’t we have more than a lot plaster castings and a lot of fuzzy photos.
“why don’t we have more than a lot plaster castings and a lot of fuzzy photos.”
Money? Or lack of it for a real concerted effort? Hard for a few people in a few spare weekends to make a dent in the possibilities.
Jack D. You hit it right on the “MONEY” so to speak. A few weekend here and their but they all count.
I live in Carmacks and although I have not seen anything I have heard many stories from other people. The ‘beaver eater” is supposedly some sort of ground sloth.
My name is Red Grossinger from Whitehorse, Yukon. the subject of the above mention by John Kirk.
First, I would like to forward my appreciation to John for bringing this subject to the attention of the readers.
Secondly, CBC Yukon has done us a favor by informing the public of our existence.
One has to understand that the Yukon is a small place, people wise, with only some 32,000 or so, of us up here in a fairly large part of Canada. Only a few communities with very few roads, which adds up to plenty of empty spaces, room to roam for any creature that wishes to remain unseen.
The reason that a group of us interested Yukoners have started this, is simply to have our very own Yukon team of local investigators, to add a home flavour so to speak.
We are members of the Western Canadian Sasquatch Reasearch Organization (WCSRO), which conducts research and investigations in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Yukon.
Prior to us getting more involved and so informing the public, there was only one member of WCSRO up here and he was not able to spend the time required to conduct appropriate field research.
So this is not really news of something NEW. Its more like a revival, a given of a new breath, a kick re-start.
With today’s high cost of gas, for ever increasing cost of food and lodging, it only make sense that a home group will do the work, under the guidance of more experienced researchers such as those at the WCSRO.
And it has produced results, as since the CBC reports I have received ten encounter reports, from sightings, to footprints, to odors, to hair samples. All of which have investigated or being in the process of investigating. Results of which have been or will be sent to the WCSRO.
Reader tim_hendrix was asking what do researchers do actually do, if you will allow me I would like to walk through an investigation and I will use a recent footprint investigation that I recently conducted as an example.
I received a report of someone finding extremely large human looking footprints. First I called the reporter and she confirmed that they were large and looking like a bare human foot, then she explained the details of how it was found, date, time, location, etc… I then set a date for visit, which actually was the day after she called me, the key is to investigate ASAP. I then told her to use a rope and encircle the site so that people would not destroy it by walking over the prints.
This community is six hours drive away from Whitehorse, when I got there I met the lady in question and she took me over to the site. It was secured with a rope but I added red surveyor tape just to make the site more evident.
As prints were pointed out to me I marked each one of them with a blue flag at mid foot, in sequence. At the same time I checked them to see if any were good for casting. Unfortunately none were.
I then took photos and a video of the entire scene and of each print from various angles.
Then I started measurements, first each print was measured in sequence, length followed by width at the toes, mid foot and heel.
While so doing, photos were taken with the measuring tape in situ with a “loonie”” on the tape for comparison.
I then took more photos with a measuring graph on each print.
Following that I took measurement of the distance in between each footprint, from the flag marker that I had placed at mid foot of each.
GPS reading was then taken and all the above recorded in my field note book as measurements were taken.
If prints would have been good enough for casting I would then have taken casts of them. But this was not the case.
When casts are taken, the caster must at least write the location, date, time and his/her name in the cast using a sharp instrument.
If there are two team members doing the investigation, one of them should video the entire investigation.
Once the measurement was done, I then conducted an in depth interview of the reporter. This should be recorded as well.
I then double checked my notes and all other records before calling it a day.
I returned to Whitehorse the following day and after checking everything again sent the whole bit to our lab and analyses facilities.
One has to keep in mind that since each encounter is different the investigation and follow up research will be different.
Good investigation teams should have written procedures as to what to do during field investigations.
Hope this helps.
Now a note for chi01 from Carmacks, Yukon, would you please get hold of me at [email protected]
Thank you , Yukon Red
I forgot to mention, John could you forward the two reports that you are talking about; one about the “Beaver Eater” from Carmacks and the sighting of Mr Eugene Field. They sound interesting and maybe I could follow up or at least compare them with those in our database. Yukon Red
Hi, this is now Tuesday 13 June 2006, I am still waiting from the person in Carmacks, Yukon, to get in contact witn me. My contact ewmail is as above, LETS TALK. Red
I also think there are quite a few people out there very interested, but have no idea how to get started, let alone where to look. I have a couple places near here I would like to check out, but finacially and such I just can’t. Of course there would be sightings in the Yukon, it would be the best place for any crypid to hide out.
well, i just checked the postings again and am going to contact yukon red
Good morning John,
Thanks again for the “Beaver Eater” story.
When you have time could you send me the report from Mr Eugene Field?
cho01 and I are now in contact, lots of work ahead.
Have a good one, Red
Hello Folks,
Since the above mentioned information has hit the public via newspapers, radios, TVs, a magazine and various web sites, I have received quite a few encounter and sighting reports, all dating back from the 80s, 90s and 2000 +, none for 2006, yet.
I would like to acknowledge what this site has done to help us here at Sasquatch Yukon and I would also request that if any other person believe that they may have had a Sasquatch encounter of some sort while in the Yukon, or a close location such as Alaska, BC or NWT, please do contact me.
Every bit of information helps.