WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:05.759 For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace. 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:10.279 Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:14.160 refuses to believe in. But those who have survived they 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.679 know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we 5 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.839 share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness bigfoot, 6 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:28.239 dog man UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make 7 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:32.280 it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because 8 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.640 once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the 9 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:38.920 woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close, and 10 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.840 remember some things in the woods don't want to be found. 11 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:46.240 Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads, 12 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.399 and let's head off into the woods if you dare. 13 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:05.280 There are stories in the world of sasquatch research that 14 00:01:05.319 --> 00:01:08.120 you hear once and they stay with you. Not because 15 00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:11.840 they're the most dramatic, not because they involve screaming witnesses 16 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:15.640 or footprints the size of snowshovels, but because they're told 17 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:17.680 by the kind of person who doesn't need you to 18 00:01:17.719 --> 00:01:20.760 believe them, the kind of person who's already made their 19 00:01:20.799 --> 00:01:23.400 peace with what they saw and simply wants to put 20 00:01:23.480 --> 00:01:26.280 it on the record, the kind of person who will 21 00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:29.959 swear to it legally formally in front of a notary 22 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.840 public and sign their name to it and let the 23 00:01:32.840 --> 00:01:36.040 world decide what to do with it. William Rowe was 24 00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:38.519 that kind of person. Now, I want to be straight 25 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:41.359 with you before we go any further. I wasn't there 26 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:44.719 on Michael Mountain in October of nineteen fifty five. I 27 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:48.079 wasn't crouched behind that bush watching something that shouldn't exist 28 00:01:48.439 --> 00:01:51.840 eat the leaves off a wild cherry tree. I'm going 29 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:53.879 to tell you this story the way I believe William 30 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:58.319 Rowe experienced it, drawing from his own sworn affidavit, from 31 00:01:58.319 --> 00:02:01.200 the research of John Green and I Van Sanderson and 32 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:04.439 others who documented this case carefully in the years that followed, 33 00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:07.560 and from nearly four decades of my own time spent 34 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:10.439 in this field talking to people who've had encounters that 35 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:14.199 changed their lives. Every detail I give you is grounded 36 00:02:14.199 --> 00:02:16.800 in what we know. I'm not going to make things up, 37 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:20.280 because with this case I don't have to. The truth 38 00:02:20.360 --> 00:02:22.560 is more than enough. This is one of the most 39 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:27.000 important sasquatch sighting reports in recorded history. It predates the 40 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:30.879 Patterson Gimlin film by twelve years. It predates the Jerry 41 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:35.000 crue Bluff Creek footprint discovery by three years, and unlike 42 00:02:35.039 --> 00:02:37.800 a lot of the early accounts that circulated in newspapers 43 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:42.039 and around campfires, this one came with something extraordinary attached 44 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:46.520 to it, a sworn legal affidavit signed by the witness himself, 45 00:02:47.039 --> 00:02:50.039 making it one of the first formally documented close range 46 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:54.560 sasquatch encounters in North American history. The year was nineteen 47 00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:59.159 fifty five. British Columbia was a different world. The highways 48 00:02:59.199 --> 00:03:02.240 being carved through the mountains of Western Canada were opening 49 00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:05.360 up terrain that had been largely inaccessible to the average 50 00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:09.400 person for generations. The wilderness up there wasn't just big, 51 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:12.520 it was immense in a way that's almost impossible to 52 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:16.280 communicate to someone who hasn't stood inside it. Mountains that 53 00:03:16.360 --> 00:03:19.840 go on and on, valleys so deep the sunlight only 54 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:23.000 hits the bottom for a few hours a day. Forests 55 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.280 so dense you can walk thirty feet off a trail 56 00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:30.039 and feel completely swallowed. It was and still is the 57 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:32.560 kind of country where the idea that something large and 58 00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:36.319 unknown could be living quietly in the shadows isn't just plausible, 59 00:03:36.759 --> 00:03:40.039 it almost makes sense. William Rowe had spent most of 60 00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:43.199 his adult life working in country like that. He wasn't 61 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:46.639 a man prone to imagination or superstition. He was a 62 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:50.840 highway worker, a trapper, a hunter, a man who'd spent 63 00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:53.599 more nights in the bush than most people spend indoors, 64 00:03:54.199 --> 00:03:56.439 and who knew the difference between what belonged in a 65 00:03:56.479 --> 00:04:00.719 forest and what didn't. He'd heard stories about the Sasquatch 66 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:04.319 the way everybody up there had heard stories. He didn't 67 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:07.000 give them much weight. He had a worldview built on 68 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:10.120 observation and evidence, and as far as he was concerned, 69 00:04:10.360 --> 00:04:13.960 there wasn't any evidence. And then came October of nineteen 70 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:19.399 fifty five and Micah Mountain, and everything changed. What follows 71 00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:22.600 is the story of William rose encounter, told as close 72 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:26.639 to his own experience as the historical record allows. Close 73 00:04:26.680 --> 00:04:30.399 your eyes if you want, picture a big, quiet man 74 00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:33.199 with a rifle on his back, climbing alone through the 75 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:36.519 spruce and fur of a British Columbia mountain side, with 76 00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:39.000 no idea that the next hour of his life was 77 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:42.680 going to rewrite everything he thought he knew. Let's go 78 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:46.439 up that mountain together. But first, one more thing about 79 00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:48.839 what this kind of account does in the broader world. 80 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:53.000 There's a tendency in popular culture to treat sasquatch encounters 81 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:57.600 as entertainment, as fodder for television shows and campfire stories 82 00:04:57.639 --> 00:05:01.959 and internet arguments. And I underst stand that the subject 83 00:05:01.959 --> 00:05:04.800 sits at the edge of the acceptable, and anything that 84 00:05:04.839 --> 00:05:07.120 sits at the edge of the acceptable gets handled by 85 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:11.879 culture in particular ways. It gets mocked, or it gets sensationalized, 86 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:14.959 or it gets turned into content that's more interested in 87 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:18.720 generating feelings than in getting at truth. I've spent four 88 00:05:18.759 --> 00:05:22.360 decades watching that happen, and I've spent four decades trying 89 00:05:22.360 --> 00:05:25.560 to be something different, trying to take the account seriously, 90 00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:28.879 trying to honor the witnesses who came forward at real 91 00:05:28.920 --> 00:05:32.240 personal cost, who told the truth about what they saw, 92 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:34.920 even when the world wasn't going to thank them for it. 93 00:05:35.800 --> 00:05:38.199 William Rowe is the model for that kind of witness 94 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:41.680 What he did, the care he brought to his observation, 95 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:44.839 the patience he showed in sitting with the experience before 96 00:05:44.879 --> 00:05:49.160 going public, the formal seriousness of the affidavit. All of 97 00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:51.680 it points toward a man who understood that what he'd 98 00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:55.560 seen mattered beyond himself, and who felt an obligation to 99 00:05:55.600 --> 00:05:58.639 the truth that was stronger than his desire for an easy, 100 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:03.160 uncomplicated life. He didn't make it up, he didn't embellish it, 101 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:06.720 he didn't sensationalize it. He put it on the record, 102 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:09.920 plain and clear, and then he stepped back and let 103 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:12.639 it be whatever it was going to be. We owe 104 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:15.680 him the same respect, We owe him the careful attention 105 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:19.000 he gave to what he saw. Before we can understand 106 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:21.879 what William Row saw on Michael Mountain, we need to 107 00:06:21.959 --> 00:06:25.600 understand who William Rowe was, because the witness is always 108 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:29.759 part of the evidence. When you're evaluating any encounter report, 109 00:06:30.120 --> 00:06:32.199 one of the first questions you have to ask is 110 00:06:32.759 --> 00:06:36.240 who is this person? What's their background? Do they have 111 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:39.199 anything to gain from making this up? Are they the 112 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:42.120 kind of person who gets rattled by shadows in the woods. 113 00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:46.480 With William Row, those questions are easy to answer. Roe 114 00:06:46.519 --> 00:06:50.639 was a big, plain spoken, working class man from Alberta, Canada. 115 00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:53.040 He'd lived the kind of life that builds a particular 116 00:06:53.079 --> 00:06:56.399 sort of character, the sort that doesn't embellish and doesn't 117 00:06:56.480 --> 00:07:00.759 dramatize because the work itself is dramatic enough without any help. 118 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:03.920 He was employed as a road worker during the mid 119 00:07:04.040 --> 00:07:08.879 nineteen fifties, contributing to the massive highway construction projects that 120 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:13.519 were transforming Western Canada's interior during that period. Before that, 121 00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:17.480 he'd spent years trapping and hunting throughout the Canadian wilderness. 122 00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:20.639 This wasn't a hobby for him, it was how he lived. 123 00:07:21.319 --> 00:07:24.399 He knew animals the way a carpenter knows would by 124 00:07:24.439 --> 00:07:27.920 their grain, by the way they behave under pressure, by 125 00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:31.199 the signs they leave behind. He was a family man 126 00:07:31.240 --> 00:07:35.600 with a reputation in his community as a straightforward, trustworthy individual. 127 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:38.720 When he eventually decided to go on the record about 128 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:41.399 what he saw on Michah Mountain, the people who knew 129 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:44.879 him weren't surprised that he came forward. They were surprised 130 00:07:44.920 --> 00:07:47.480 by what he was coming forward about, but not by 131 00:07:47.480 --> 00:07:49.720 the fact that he did it in a serious, formal, 132 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:53.959 no nonsense way. That was just who he was. He 133 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:57.279 stood roughly five feet ten inches tall himself, which is 134 00:07:57.319 --> 00:08:00.079 relevant when you understand what he estimated about the creature 135 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:03.360 he encountered. He knew how to judge scale and distance. 136 00:08:04.040 --> 00:08:06.519 He was accustomed to sizing up animals in the field, 137 00:08:06.920 --> 00:08:10.360 making quick, accurate assessments of weight and height and behavior, 138 00:08:10.839 --> 00:08:13.199 because out in the back country, those assessments could mean 139 00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:16.759 the difference between a good day and a very bad one. 140 00:08:16.920 --> 00:08:19.439 When William Rowe told you something was six feet tall 141 00:08:19.480 --> 00:08:23.439 and three hundred pounds, he wasn't guessing wildly. He was 142 00:08:23.480 --> 00:08:27.519 doing what he always did, observing carefully and reporting accurately. 143 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:30.560 By the time he sat down to formalize his account, 144 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:33.320 he'd had nearly two years to think about what he'd seen. 145 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:36.919 He hadn't rushed to tell anybody. He'd sat with it, 146 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:40.120 turned it over, examined it from every angle he could 147 00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:43.159 think of, tried to find an explanation that made sense 148 00:08:43.159 --> 00:08:46.919 within the world he knew, and he couldn't. So in 149 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:50.240 August of nineteen fifty seven, he walked into a notary's 150 00:08:50.279 --> 00:08:53.960 office in Edmonton, Alberta, and he swore a legal affidavit 151 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:55.879 about what had happened to him on that mountain in 152 00:08:55.919 --> 00:09:00.240 October of nineteen fifty five. That affidavit would eventually make 153 00:09:00.279 --> 00:09:04.279 its way to John Green, the pioneering British Columbia journalist 154 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:09.360 and sasquatch researcher who spent decades collecting and verifying encounter reports. 155 00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:13.159 Green recognized immediately that what Row had given him was 156 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:17.399 something rare, a detailed, thoughtful, legally sworn account from a 157 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:20.960 witness with first hand wilderness experience, and nothing to gain 158 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:26.000 from fabrication. He published it. Researchers like Ivan T. Sanderson, 159 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:28.679 who was then working on what would become his landmark 160 00:09:28.720 --> 00:09:32.159 book on wild Men of the World, took notice, and 161 00:09:32.200 --> 00:09:35.320 the William Row encounter became and remains, one of the 162 00:09:35.320 --> 00:09:39.480 bedrock cases in serious sasquatch research. But I'm getting ahead 163 00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:42.679 of myself. Let's go back to where it started. Let's 164 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:45.159 go back to the fall of nineteen fifty five and 165 00:09:45.240 --> 00:09:48.080 a mountain road outside a small town called Tate John 166 00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:52.240 Cash in the heart of British Columbia. Tet John Cash 167 00:09:52.279 --> 00:09:55.360 sits in the Rocky Mountain Trench in British Columbia, right 168 00:09:55.399 --> 00:09:57.759 about where the Fraser River and the upper reaches of 169 00:09:57.799 --> 00:10:01.240 the North Thompson River come together. If you've never been 170 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:04.399 to that part of Canada, imagine what wild country looks 171 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:07.600 like in your mind, and then multiply it by about ten. 172 00:10:08.519 --> 00:10:12.639 The mountains there aren't just tall, they're overwhelming. They press 173 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:15.360 in on you from all sides, covered in timber so 174 00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:18.720 thick that even in the fall, when the deciduous trees 175 00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:21.960 are losing their leaves, the dark spruce and fir create 176 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:25.759 a canopy so dense that whole hillsides stay in shadow 177 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:28.960 for most of the day. The fall of nineteen fifty 178 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:31.279 five was a quiet one in that part of the world. 179 00:10:31.960 --> 00:10:35.159 Highway construction was underway in the area, part of the 180 00:10:35.200 --> 00:10:38.639 ongoing effort to connect the remote interior communities of British 181 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:42.120 Columbia to the outside world. William Rowe was part of 182 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:44.759 that work. He'd been spending time in the region for 183 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:47.960 months by the time October rolled around, and like any 184 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:51.000 outdoorsman worth the name, he'd been paying attention to the 185 00:10:51.080 --> 00:10:55.360 landscape around him. He'd noticed Micha Mountain. He'd been curious 186 00:10:55.399 --> 00:10:58.720 about it, and one October day, on his own time, 187 00:10:59.080 --> 00:11:01.159 with his rifle on his back, more out of habit 188 00:11:01.240 --> 00:11:04.840 than any particular expectation of needing it, he decided to 189 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:08.159 climb it. He'd heard the word sasquatch before. Of course, 190 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:11.559 everybody up in that part of the world had. The 191 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:14.480 indigenous peoples of British Columbia had their own names for 192 00:11:14.519 --> 00:11:18.519 these creatures, and their own long traditions of acknowledging their existence. 193 00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:22.600 The set salespeople who lived in the Fraser Valley used 194 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:26.320 the word saskets, which is where the English name eventually 195 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:30.519 came from. These weren't fringe stories or folk tales for decoration. 196 00:11:31.159 --> 00:11:34.519 They were serious, matter of fact acknowledgments that something large 197 00:11:34.519 --> 00:11:37.960 and upright and not quite human shared the wilderness with people. 198 00:11:38.679 --> 00:11:41.200 But for a man like William Rowe, raised in a 199 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:43.480 culture that put its faith in what could be measured 200 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:47.120 and categorized, those traditions were something he'd heard about without 201 00:11:47.159 --> 00:11:50.919 really taking seriously. He wasn't scared of the mountain. He 202 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:54.279 wasn't nervous. He was a man who climbed mountains because 203 00:11:54.279 --> 00:11:56.960 mountains were there, and because the view from up high 204 00:11:57.080 --> 00:11:59.720 told you things about the country below that you couldn't 205 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:02.799 see any other way. He set off in the morning, 206 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:05.600 working his way up through the timber, moving with the 207 00:12:05.679 --> 00:12:09.120 quiet confidence of someone who spent a lifetime reading terrain. 208 00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:12.679 The mountain was doing what mountains in British Columbia do 209 00:12:12.759 --> 00:12:16.200 in October, putting on its last show before winter shut 210 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:20.480 everything down. The high slopes were already cold, the kind 211 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:22.480 of cold that gets into your bones if you stop 212 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:26.159 moving for too long. Below the tree line, the undergrowth 213 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:28.799 was thick with the rusty reds and burnt oranges of 214 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:32.600 dying leaves. The wild berry bushes had mostly given up 215 00:12:32.600 --> 00:12:35.639 their fruit weeks earlier, but some of the heartier shrubs 216 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:39.039 still held their leaves, still offered something worth browsing for 217 00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:42.279 a hungry animal. He worked his way through the timber 218 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:46.440 for a long time, stepping carefully, keeping his breathing steady 219 00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:50.360 the way experienced back country men do. Not because he 220 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:54.080 was hunting, not today, but because quiet was just his 221 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:57.080 default in the woods. It was part of the respect 222 00:12:57.080 --> 00:12:59.399 a man paid to wild country when he was in it. 223 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:02.720 He was somewhere near the top of the mountain, moving 224 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:05.120 along the edge of a clearing where an old, deserted 225 00:13:05.159 --> 00:13:08.440 cabin sat, the kind of place you run across sometimes 226 00:13:08.440 --> 00:13:11.600 in the deep back country of Western Canada, left over 227 00:13:11.639 --> 00:13:14.960 from some long gone trapper or prospector who'd carved a 228 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:18.159 temporary life out of the wilderness before moving on or 229 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:22.600 being moved on by harder circumstances. The cabin was derelict, 230 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:27.360 its roof caved in part way, its walls, listing nature 231 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:30.240 was in the slow process of reclaiming it. It was 232 00:13:30.360 --> 00:13:33.320 near that old cabin that he first saw something. He 233 00:13:33.399 --> 00:13:36.759 almost didn't register it right away. His brain did what 234 00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:40.720 human brains do when they encounter something unexpected. It reached 235 00:13:40.759 --> 00:13:44.440 for the nearest familiar explanation. He was looking through the 236 00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:47.639 trees at a shape that was partially obscured by the undergrowth, 237 00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:53.159 and his first thought, his honest, instinctive, experienced outdoorsman first thought, 238 00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:56.360 was that he was looking at a grizzly bear. He 239 00:13:56.399 --> 00:13:59.799 stopped walking. He was still partially hidden by the trees. 240 00:14:00.519 --> 00:14:03.360 He eased himself down, finding a spot where the brush 241 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:06.519 gave him cover, and he looked more carefully. And the 242 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:09.360 more carefully he looked, the more certain he became that 243 00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:12.600 he was not looking at a grizzly bear. Put yourself 244 00:14:12.600 --> 00:14:15.519 in William Rose's position for a moment. You've spent your 245 00:14:15.559 --> 00:14:18.759 whole adult life in the wilderness. You know what grizzly 246 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:22.000 bears look like from every angle, in every light, in 247 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:25.039 every season. You know how they move, how they carry 248 00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:28.000 their weight, how their heads sit on their shoulders, how 249 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:30.559 they go about their business of eating and wandering and 250 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:33.360 being grizzly bears. You know this the way you know 251 00:14:33.399 --> 00:14:36.519 your own hands, and what you're looking at doesn't move 252 00:14:36.600 --> 00:14:39.360 like a grizzly bear. It doesn't carry its weight like 253 00:14:39.399 --> 00:14:42.440 a grizzly bear. The proportions are wrong in a way 254 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:45.279 that your brain is already processing, even as it's still 255 00:14:45.320 --> 00:14:48.600 trying to insist on the bear explanation, because the bear 256 00:14:48.679 --> 00:14:51.679 explanation is the one that makes sense, and your brain 257 00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:55.080 is loyal to things that make sense. But the proportions 258 00:14:55.120 --> 00:14:59.360 were wrong. They were deeply, undeniably wrong. Stay tuned for 259 00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:02.559 more Back the Woods Bigfoot stories. We'll be back after 260 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:07.159 these messages. The creature was crouched down at the edge 261 00:15:07.159 --> 00:15:10.039 of the brush near that old cabin, and it was eating, 262 00:15:10.840 --> 00:15:15.360 just eating, methodically, quietly, pulling leaves and shoots from a 263 00:15:15.399 --> 00:15:17.720 wild cherry tree and putting them in its mouth with 264 00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:20.960 the focused, unhurried attention of an animal that's used to 265 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:24.440 having all the time in the world. And even crouched down, 266 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:27.679 even folded in on itself, the way it was, it 267 00:15:27.799 --> 00:15:30.799 was obvious that this thing, when it stood up, was 268 00:15:30.840 --> 00:15:35.120 going to be tall, very tall. Roe settled himself as 269 00:15:35.120 --> 00:15:38.240 carefully as he could into the brush. He was somewhere 270 00:15:38.279 --> 00:15:41.480 around seventy five feet from the creature, close enough to 271 00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:44.279 see detail, far enough that the wind and the cover 272 00:15:44.440 --> 00:15:47.679 gave him some protection. He had his rifle with him. 273 00:15:47.919 --> 00:15:50.679 He wasn't thinking about his rifle yet. He was thinking 274 00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:53.360 about what he was looking at, turning his full attention 275 00:15:53.440 --> 00:15:56.159 and his full lifetime of experience on this thing and 276 00:15:56.200 --> 00:15:58.480 trying to make it fit into a category that already 277 00:15:58.519 --> 00:16:02.440 existed in his mind. It didn't fit. Nothing he'd ever 278 00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:06.399 seen or heard about fit. The creature was female. He 279 00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:09.720 could tell this even from a distance, even through the brush, 280 00:16:10.039 --> 00:16:13.759 because she had clearly defined breasts visible beneath the dark 281 00:16:13.799 --> 00:16:17.279 fur that covered her body. That detail registered in his 282 00:16:17.399 --> 00:16:19.840 mind and stayed there because it was one of the 283 00:16:19.879 --> 00:16:22.799 things that would make this report so compelling to researchers 284 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:26.559 later on, a witness who noted not just the broad strokes, 285 00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:30.639 but the specific anatomical detail that confirmed the creature's sex. 286 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:33.480 Roe wasn't the kind of man to invent that sort 287 00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:37.000 of thing. He saw it, and he reported it. She 288 00:16:37.159 --> 00:16:40.679 was enormous, even crouched down. She conveyed a sense of 289 00:16:40.759 --> 00:16:44.000 mass and presence that was unlike anything he'd encountered in 290 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:48.480 the wild. He estimated later, after long reflection, that she 291 00:16:48.519 --> 00:16:52.799 stood approximately six feet tall, six feet, which I want 292 00:16:52.799 --> 00:16:55.320 you to keep in mind, was taller than most men 293 00:16:55.360 --> 00:16:57.759 of that era. And she was built in a way 294 00:16:57.799 --> 00:17:00.559 that made her look even bigger than that measurements suggests, 295 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:05.400 because she was wide, not fat, not at all, but 296 00:17:05.519 --> 00:17:08.519 wide and deep and powerful in a way that spoke 297 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:11.519 of a musculature built up over years of serious physical 298 00:17:11.559 --> 00:17:15.599 existence in serious physical terrain. He'd put her weight at 299 00:17:15.640 --> 00:17:19.880 around three hundred pounds. Some researchers have suggested that's actually 300 00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:23.440 a conservative estimate, given the dimensions he described, but it 301 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:26.720 was his number and he stood by it. Her shoulders 302 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:30.440 were enormous. He described them as roughly three feet wide. 303 00:17:31.079 --> 00:17:34.680 Her arms were long, noticeably strikingly longer than a human 304 00:17:34.720 --> 00:17:37.680 being's arms, hanging down so that when she moved them 305 00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:41.480 while eating, her hands nearly reached her knees. Her hands 306 00:17:41.559 --> 00:17:44.640 themselves were like a human's hands in general shape, but 307 00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:48.039 the fingers were shorter and thicker, and the palms were broader. 308 00:17:48.759 --> 00:17:52.759 These weren't delicate hands. These were hands built for serious work, 309 00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:56.759 for climbing, for pulling, for gripping things that needed to 310 00:17:56.759 --> 00:18:00.160 be gripped firmly. She had a short, thick neck that 311 00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:04.880 supported a large head. The head was interesting, distinctly interesting, 312 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:08.400 because it sat in a particular relationship to the shoulders 313 00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:11.440 that was different from a human being's. There wasn't much 314 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:14.599 visible neck to speak of. The head seemed to rise 315 00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:18.319 almost directly from the massive shoulders, giving her a powerful, 316 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:21.599 slightly hunched appearance, even when she was moving with what 317 00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:25.920 seemed like natural grace and ease. Her face and Roe 318 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:28.240 would get a very good look at her face, better 319 00:18:28.279 --> 00:18:31.799 than he expected or perhaps wanted, was wide and flat. 320 00:18:32.640 --> 00:18:35.519 Her nose was broad and flat as well, much flatter 321 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:38.960 than a human nose. Her forehead was high and wide, 322 00:18:39.480 --> 00:18:43.640 her brow ridges prominent, but not grotesquely so. Her lips 323 00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:46.680 were full. Her ears, what he could see of them 324 00:18:46.720 --> 00:18:50.519 through the hair, were small, smaller than a human's ears, 325 00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:54.319 or at least proportionally smaller given the size of her head. 326 00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:57.920 Her eyes were dark brown and large, and they held 327 00:18:57.920 --> 00:18:59.759 a quality that would stay with him for the rest 328 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:03.680 of life. But we'll get to that. Her body was 329 00:19:03.720 --> 00:19:08.400 covered entirely in dark brown hair, not black. Dark brown, 330 00:19:08.880 --> 00:19:12.160 the color of good soil. And deep timber country. The 331 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:14.559 hair was thick, but not especially long on most of 332 00:19:14.599 --> 00:19:17.599 her body, roughly an inch or so, but it had 333 00:19:17.640 --> 00:19:21.079 a particular quality to it, silver tipped at the ends, 334 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:23.440 so that when the light caught it a certain way, 335 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:27.480 there was almost a sheen to her, an iridescent quality, 336 00:19:28.039 --> 00:19:30.920 like the fur of a silver phase coyote or a 337 00:19:31.039 --> 00:19:33.440 dark phased black bear that spent a lot of time 338 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:35.920 in the sun. On the back of her head and 339 00:19:35.960 --> 00:19:38.960 around her neck and shoulders, the hair was a bit longer, 340 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:42.559 almost suggesting a mane or a rough and on her 341 00:19:42.599 --> 00:19:45.720 head itself, the hair was longer, still falling around her 342 00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:48.319 face in a way that, combined with the wideness of 343 00:19:48.359 --> 00:19:51.319 her features and the steadiness of her gaze, would later 344 00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:54.000 lead Roe to use the word that surprised even him 345 00:19:54.039 --> 00:19:58.000 when he put it in his affidavit, human like. He'd 346 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:01.319 say later that she looked not huge human exactly, but 347 00:20:01.480 --> 00:20:04.480 human like in a way that went beyond anything he'd expected, 348 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:08.119 in a way that was deeply unsettling, in a way 349 00:20:08.119 --> 00:20:11.920 that cut through his careful, experienced outdoorsman composure and reached 350 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:16.000 something more fundamental. For several minutes, and I want you 351 00:20:16.039 --> 00:20:19.240 to appreciate what several minutes means in a situation like this, 352 00:20:20.039 --> 00:20:22.920 how long and strange and electric those minutes would have been. 353 00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:26.839 William Rode just watched. She didn't know he was there, 354 00:20:27.480 --> 00:20:29.640 or if she knew, she gave no sign of it. 355 00:20:30.279 --> 00:20:33.319 She was focused entirely on her eating, moving along the 356 00:20:33.400 --> 00:20:37.160 cherry tree with deliberate attention, selecting which leaves and shoots 357 00:20:37.160 --> 00:20:40.680 to take, pulling them free with those big, thick fingered hands, 358 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:45.240 chewing them with unhurried efficiency. She wasn't frantic or nervous. 359 00:20:45.559 --> 00:20:48.000 She wasn't watching the tree line or testing the wind. 360 00:20:48.680 --> 00:20:51.039 She was an animal at ease in her own country, 361 00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:54.759 doing what animals do when they're safe, taking care of 362 00:20:54.799 --> 00:20:58.519 the basic business of staying alive. But watching her do this, 363 00:20:59.240 --> 00:21:02.319 watching her eat, was what made the human like quality 364 00:21:02.440 --> 00:21:05.839 so jarring, because she didn't eat like a bear. She 365 00:21:05.880 --> 00:21:08.920 didn't eat like any animal Roe had ever observed. She 366 00:21:09.160 --> 00:21:11.240 ate like a person would eat if that person were 367 00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:14.480 enormous and covered in silver tipped brown fur and had 368 00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:16.640 been born and raised in the deep timber of the 369 00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:20.480 British Columbia Mountains. She reached out and selected her food. 370 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:23.759 She brought it to her mouth. She chewed it thoughtfully. 371 00:21:24.519 --> 00:21:28.319 There was a purposefulness to it, an intentionality that sat 372 00:21:28.359 --> 00:21:31.599 somewhere in the space between animal and something more complicated. 373 00:21:32.319 --> 00:21:35.960 She walked on two legs. She stood upright. Let me 374 00:21:36.039 --> 00:21:38.759 make sure that lands the way it needs to. This 375 00:21:38.839 --> 00:21:43.880 creature's default, natural, comfortable mode of locomotion was bipedal. She 376 00:21:43.960 --> 00:21:46.000 wasn't rearing up the way a bear does when it 377 00:21:46.039 --> 00:21:48.240 wants to get a better look at something or make 378 00:21:48.319 --> 00:21:52.119 itself look threatening. She wasn't knuckling along on her hands 379 00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:55.920 like a great ape. She was walking on her two feet, upright, 380 00:21:56.319 --> 00:21:59.079 and essentially the same posture that William Rowe used to 381 00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:02.200 walk around when she moved along the cherry tree to 382 00:22:02.200 --> 00:22:06.359 find the next good cluster of leaves. She walked, just walked, 383 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:10.359 and the walk was something Roe paid close attention to 384 00:22:10.400 --> 00:22:12.400 it because it was one of those details that a 385 00:22:12.480 --> 00:22:16.839 hunter and trapper notices automatically, the gait, the foot placement, 386 00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:19.519 the relationship between the swing of the arms and the 387 00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:23.480 movement of the legs. She walked heel to toe, flat footed, 388 00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:26.119 in a way that was clearly comfortable and natural for her. 389 00:22:26.799 --> 00:22:29.680 Her arms swung at her sides. She moved with a 390 00:22:29.759 --> 00:22:33.720 kind of rolling, fluid ease that covered ground without wasted effort. 391 00:22:34.359 --> 00:22:39.319 She wasn't clumsy, she wasn't lumbering. She was, in her way, graceful, 392 00:22:39.880 --> 00:22:41.960 the kind of grace that comes from a body that's 393 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:45.240 perfectly adapted to its environment and has never needed to 394 00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:48.759 be anything other than what it is. Roe crouched there 395 00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:51.000 in his brush cover and watched and tried to figure 396 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:53.559 out what to do with what he was seeing. He 397 00:22:53.680 --> 00:22:57.160 was a hunter. He had his rifle. The thought crossed 398 00:22:57.160 --> 00:23:00.000 his mind. He was honest enough to admit this later, 399 00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:02.839 that if he shot this creature, if he brought it 400 00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:07.960 back down the mountain, he'd have proof, physical, undeniable proof. 401 00:23:08.680 --> 00:23:11.400