The Seven Persons Sightings

The town of Seven Persons is located southwest of Medicine Hat on the prairies of Alberta, which is about the last place you would expect to hear about Sasquatch sightings, but that is exactly what happened.  In the fall of 1972 and again in the late fall and early winter of 1973, the people of Seven Persons were coming face to face with a legend.

Leonard Edvarson, who was a local rancher and who ended up being the unofficial Sasquatch hunter in the area, investigated many of the reports that came in.  The first report he received was from two boys who were walking near a place called Police Point in the fall of 1972. They spotted what appeared to be a large, upright, walking creature not too far from them.  Of course nobody took interest in the boys’ story because after all, boys will be boys.

The next sighting occured a year after the boys had made their sighting.  In December of 1973, a man reported seeing a creature in the actual village of Seven Persons at about three in the morning.  He could see the creature clearly in the bright moonlight and estimated it to be between seven and eight feet tall.  He also said the creature appeared to be missing a forearm or the forearm was doubled up and pulled tight against it’s chest.  The next day, tracks were found on a creek near where the sighting occured.  The tracks were fifteen inches long, seven inches wide, and the stride was about six feet.

Shortly after that, two men, who were fishing on the Murray Dam, found tracks in the snow there.  The stride appeared to be about six feet and the men started to wonder if it was safe to fish there anymore.

A farmer also came forward to report that four nights before the sighting in the village of Seven Persons, something had scared his cattle enough that they actually broke through the corrals.

It was at this time that Leonard Edvarson received two letters, both accompanied by sketches, from a man that wouldn’t reveal his identity, simply signing the letters “An Observer”.  The first letter reads as follows.

“The enclosed sketch is of something or someone I saw at twilight in Medicine Hat, in Kin-kouly.  At first I thought it was a bear yet knowing this could not be I watched for 4 minutes the figure which seemed to carry something in its arms.  After this it vanished in the small creek and bushes and I could not see it anymore.  I estimated it to be at about 6 or 7 feet tall, but going with an awkward and bent gait.  I was alone and there was nobody else around to show what I had seen.  Maybe it has been some kind of Halloween joke, but I thought no more about it until I read your letter in the news.  When I came home, I made several sketches, but didn’t show them to anybody.  If you are interested, I could copy some of my other sketches.  I am not giving my name at this time.  I do not want any phone calls about it.
-An Observer”

A couple of days later, Mr. Edvarson received another letter from the “observer”.  He went into more detail about what he saw that fateful evening.

“Dear L. Edvarson:
        I copied two more sketches of the ones I did that day, or better said, the evening I saw what I tried to bring down on paper.  The “Thing” was about 250 ft. Far away and going sideways at a very odd gait.  It seemed to have fur and no clothes from reddish brownish dark color.  It was going slow, not hurrying.  Carried something in its arms like a bundle.  I still think its being an early Halloween “spook,” but then, why would the figure have entered the cold creek?  Wouldn’t that have been carried too far by some jokester?  I saw no one else watching and as I said before it was dusky already.  The head I did draw certainly not so clear, but I tried to imagine what it looked like but the profile is right in its outer lines.  I will not call you as I don’t think there’s anything to it that should be made public, -I went there again, several days later in the bright daylight and I could see nothing where it had walked.  But the creek was deep on this place.
~An Observer
P.S. The legs looked short and thick.”

The two letters marked an end to the sightings in and around the community of Seven Persons.  Whether it was a hoax, misidentification, or a bona fide Sasquatch that was lurking around the area, we will never know the actual truth.  Either way, it is considered to be one of the most well known of all Alberta reports.