YEAR: 2004

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: March

DATE: 24

PROVINCE: Manitoba

COUNTRY: Canada

LOCATION DETAILS: West of Fisher Branch near Sleeve Lake (just to the east of it). On a dead-end road.

NEAREST TOWN: Fisher Branch

NEAREST ROAD: #6

OBSERVED: In early April, 2004 I spoke with a witness, “W,” who had, just a couple of weeks before, seen an upright, very large, man-like creature standing out in opening surrounded by bush. The date of his sighting was approximately March 25th, 2004.

W was driving a manure truck on a dead-end road west of Fisher Branch and to the east of Sleeve Lake when he saw the animal standing out in the still snow-covered field. He got a fairly good look at it; it stayed in site for about 20 seconds as he drove past the opening. W thought the animal was about 100 yards from the road.

He didn’t see it walk but it did turned its body, apparently to watch as his truck went by, and remained upright the entire time he was able to observe it. He explained that he didn’t stop – couldn’t stop – since the road was icy and he didn’t dare brake. And W said it wasn’t until after he’d past and had time to think about what he’d seen until he fully realized what a strange animal it had been. It wasn’t a bear, W was sure of that, and he really didn’t think it was a man, either; it didn’t look like a man, and the creature was standing in a place – out in a snowy field away from everything – where a man just shouldn’t be.

W described the animal he saw as being big, with large shoulders, long arms, and uniformly dark in color. Its head was about like a man’s, he said – it had no snout. W told me he was very familiar with bears, he’d seen many, and he’d driven this road many times. He wasn’t really familiar with the bigfoot phenomenon (he’d heard of it) but, after puzzling over the animal he saw and finding no satisfactory explanation for what it was, W apparently decided maybe that’s what it was - a bigfoot.

That’s my own conclusion, really. Actually, W never said he thought it was a bigfoot, he only said he knew what it wasn’t: a bear or a man – he really didn’t think it was a man. W talked to people there around Fisher Branch about what he’d seen and I was contacted by one of them. I then called W (I doubt he would have notified BFRO – or any bigfoot organization – on his own).

Unfortunately no one went out into the field to look for tracks. The person who notified me of the sighting, Michelle Baril, inspected the area a few weeks after the sighting (after all the snow had melted) and found nothing. Michelle took the enclosed picture of the sighting location at that time.

The witness, a man in his 50’s, sounded normal and sincere; I have no doubt he was being honest with me. He saw an extraordinary animal in late March when the ground was still snow covered there about 130 kilometers north of Winnipeg.

It’s fascinating to contemplate such a creature – a sasquatch – being that far north (and away from presumed warmer “wintering grounds”) in late March. (The average temperature in Winnipeg in March is 21˚F and in April it is 40˚F).

ALSO NOTICED: No

OTHER WITNESSES: No

OTHER STORIES: No

ENVIRONMENT: Bush with occasional fields

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