Geographical Index > United States > Alaska > Valdez-Chitina-Whittier County > Report # 1261
(Class A)
Submitted by Henner Fahrenbach on Wednesday, January 1, 1997.
Fisherman views a sasquatch through binoculars at a distance of 1000 feet
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YEAR: Early 1990's
SEASON: Fall STATE: Alaska COUNTY: Valdez-Chitina-Whittier County LOCATION DETAILS: East side of Prince William Sound OBSERVED: Ed L. was salmon fishing with a companion in Prince William Sound. After anchoring off shore, his companion took a small boat up a river to check on the state of the salmon run. As the day wore on toward evening and he didn't come back at the expected time, Ed scanned upriver and across the adjacent land with binoculars. There he saw a sasquatch walking across the tundra, with long, smooth steps and with dark hair flowing from its shoulders, bouncing behind "like a cape" at every step. The sasquatch paid no attention to the boat (distance about 1,000'). OTHER WITNESSES: On a commercial fishing boat at anchor at the mouth of one of the rivers discharging into the bay. TIME AND CONDITIONS: Early Fall, in the early 1990's.
Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Dr. Wolf H. Fahrenbach:
Ed L.is a commercial fisherman and former Air Force noncom and mechanic.
The area, according to Ed, was known for its concentration of berries and black bears. The salmon run was in the early starting stage. Solid forest was estimated to be about 100 miles away. Ed did not have even a shadow of a doubt about the identity of the animal he had seen, particularly since he had previously hunted many of the large game animals of Alaska. Hair of the described appearance can be estimated to be 18-24" long.
The interest of this sighting with its rather meager contents lies in its geographical latitude. The center of Prince William Sound lies at 60 degree, 40 minutes N. Additional Alaskan sighting reports are to be found in Green (1978), and in an article in the magazine "Alaska" of October, 1995, pp. 25-27. Aside from reports in the Alaska Panhandle, e.g., near Hyder, Ward Cove on Prince of Wales Island, and in the Wrangell Narrows (by Bob Titmus himself), all in the vicinity of 56 degrees N., there are scattered sightings farther north. On the Alaska Peninsula, a cluster of sightings have been recorded near Chignik Lake (55 degree, 54 minutes N), Manokotak near Kulukak Bay (58:40 N), Togiak drainage (59 N), Lake Iliamna (59:30 N), and yet farther north near Galena, 120 miles inland from Norton Sound (64:44 N) and Kotzebue Sound at the Arctic Circle (66:33). All of these sites are on the coast or within ready sasquatch walking distance of it and are, consequently, moderated by the ocean. Such cannot be said for inland sightings, such as that near Fort Yukon, south of the Brooks Range, or Dawson Creek (NE British Columbia; detailed in Hunter and Dahinden, 1993). Both of these locations are exposed to the full brunt of the arctic winter. Seasonal migration would appear to be of immediate advantage in these regions as compared to the overall temperate Pacific Northwest, though unlikely to be established in view of the rarity of these events. In any case, large bulk and long hair would be of decided survival value.
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