YEAR: 1975/76?

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: October

DATE: January 11, 2004

PROVINCE: Manitoba

COUNTRY: Canada

LOCATION DETAILS: This was within the bounds of the City of Portage la Prairie (really a large town, but it's called a city). The area is flat prairie. There is a lake called Crescent Lake, which used to be an arm of the Assiniboine River. The lake is just across Crescent Road from Yellowquill School. At the time Yellowquill School was mostly surrounded on the north, northwest and northeast by farmland and a branch of the CPR to the north. The school is within a stones throw of well-established residential houses (where I had used to live nearby the school) and close to two or three farmhouses to the east. There has been quite a bit of construction around there since 1976, especially the construction of a large garage and
maintenance yard for school buses that wasn't there at the time of the incident, I think that's what it's for anyway.

NEAREST TOWN: Portage la Prairie, Manitoba

NEAREST ROAD: Crescent Road

OBSERVED: It was windy a Sunday evening in late October or early November of 1976 (I think). I know this was a long time ago but I don't like to relate this story very much due to ridicule being heaped on me for no very good reason: for this reason please only e-mail me if you want to contact me as I cannot guarantee what times I will be at home due to work, etc.

I was about 16 years old at the time and I was doing some homework when I began to feel restless and in need of a walk, and so I did. I ended up at Yellowquill School (where I had attended Grade 9) when I found myself on the football/running track. It was very dark, as it was around 10 PM, and quite windy; I was at the north end of the running track when I saw what appeared to be a very large man at the south end of the track.

Being young and stupid I decided on a little adventure, to get as close as possible to this man without being seen. As I snuck closer I was absolutely dumbfounded at how BIG this man appeared to be and began to get nervous. As I got closer I noticed that he was standing on a small road between the east side of the school and a line of large trees and almost touching a baseball backstop that was there.

I hid behind a small electrical transformer next to the gymnasium and took a good look at the man backlit from the streetlights of Crescent Road about 100 meters away (actually probably further away). As I looked I was quiet surprised to realize that this man appeared to be naked, and it was too cold for that. Then I noticed that he appeared to be covered with short hair! It was at this point that I remembered that two boys on the Long Plains Indian Reserve had had a late night encounter with a large hairy man just outside of their house on the Reserve that past summer, I lost my nerve and snuck away around the north end of the school and then around the school and got on to Crescent Road and ran all the way to my home on 7th St. S.W. At no time did it threaten me; in fact I don't even know if it saw me.

It was massive! I really didn't get that good a look at it because of the light and sudden fright of the situation. It stood over 3/4 of the way up the side of the baseball backstop it was standing near and easily was about half as wide as the small track it was standing on. I'm guessing that it was between 3 and 4 meters in height and probably a good meter in width: the sheer mass was unbelievable and I couldn't even guess a weight. Its body seemed to have a slight taper down to its waist though I would probably call it a straight profile. Due to the fact that it was backlit I could clearly tell that it seemed to be covered in short hair (colour unknown) that its head appeared to be pointed (whether from its skull or its hair I don't know) and that its hands (which were clearly visible) hung down to a point slightly below its knees. It was standing just like a man would, even swaying slightly from side-to-side. Other than that it never moved. Despite the use of the word "man" at no time could I tell whether it was male or female.

I told my brother who laughed at me and a couple of other people who said nasty things. Years later I told my wife who thought I was seeing things. This is why I like to keep it quiet.

I have, since then, spent a lot of time hiking and camping in the woods and various remote places in Western Canada and I've seen one or two things that I still scratch my head about, but I've never seen anything like what I saw at Yellowquill School before or since.

ALSO NOTICED: I went back the next morning to look for tracks, but I didn't find any. I found what I thought were scuffmarks at about the place where I saw what I saw, but it would be hard to conclude anything in the hardpacked of a schoolyard.

OTHER WITNESSES: No, just me.

OTHER STORIES: Occasionally you would hear about farmers seeing something odd, especially in and around Long Plains Indian Reserve (it's called Long Plains First Nations now, I think). People would mention sasquatch, but most felt it was something more closely associated with the mountains, if sasquatches existed at all, than with the flat plains around Portage la Prairie.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Probably around 10 PM.

ENVIRONMENT: Beside a baseball backstop in the playground of a schoolyard (Kindergarten to Grade 9).

Follow-up investigation report:

I spoke by phone for about 30 minutes with the witness. He repeated the story to me just as it appears in his written account and with these added observations:
• Hiding behind the transformer, the witness watched the thing for a few minutes.
• From the transformer to where the thing stood was 50-60 yards.
• The “thing” looked athletic, thickly built, well muscled, and not fat.
• The witness could see its fingers and thought it opened and closed its hand a few times.
• Except for swaying a little as it stood and the mentioned hand movements, the thing stayed still while the witness watched it.
• The witness was sure it wore no clothing (“It was naked”) and that its body was completely covered with hair.
• The thing seemed not to have a neck and its head came to a point.
• He could not tell whether the thing was facing toward or away from him – whether it saw him approaching.
• The great size estimate by the witness was mainly based upon how the thing compared to the backstop it stood near.

The witness impressed me as completely honest as I talked with him about this thing he’d seen some 28 years ago. It was evident that the incident had stuck with him as something extraordinary. And it seemed as though his observations were true; the thing was extremely big (tall, especially); it was hair covered; and it did have a build and conformation consistent with that of a sasquatch.

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