→ Type of Encounter:
Visual Sighting
→ Reported by:
Bruce C.
→ Location of Encounter:
Strathcona Park, Medicine Hat
→ Date & Time of Encounter:
1972-08-26 @ 1:00 PM
→ Details of the Event:
I first started reading about Sasquatches in 1972, after my first encounter. I was born in Calgary and about once a month we would go to Banff, Kananaskis or Bragg creek to go camping. I got used to seeing bats and other wildlife at a young age. On the last weekend of August, 1972 we went to Medicine Hat to visit friends. On Saturday the 26th we went to have a picnic around 10:30 am in Strathcona Park. We started a fire and then went down to the south Saskatchewan River to swim and play in the water… it was sunny and warm with no wind. At about 1:00 it was decided that we would make our way down the winding path to our campsite, which was about 150 yards. Eager to get a hotdog on a stick I ran ahead of everyone else. About 75 yards down the path I was jogging when I suddenly smelled a strong door. I stopped and it smelled like a freshly washed dog that had rolled around in garbage for a week. I heard a light rustle to the right and as I turned to look I saw a large, black & red furred back of something facing away from me to the west. I could hear the creek about 30 yards ahead of the creature I was looking at. Its butt was a couple inches off the ground, it was hunched forward at some Saskatoon bushes and it had a cone shaped head that seemed to be sitting on its shoulders. It was about 4 ft. wide at the shoulders and about 5 ft. high. It made no sound or movement but when I thought to myself “What am I looking at?” I was answered by a thought of, “You don’t see me, I’m not here.” I wondered what I was looking at and again I got the same response. Suddenly it quietly muttered a chattering sound and when I heard it, and the thought of get out of hear now entered my head. Without hesitation I started running toward the campsite and as I did I could hear a heavy thump, thump, thump sound run to toward the creek and the sound of bushes being crunched. When everyone else got back I asked if they had seen it or heard it, which no one had. I was told it must be a bear but I said it didn’t look or act like any bear I ever saw. Then a friend said I must have seen a Sasquatch and everyone laughed. I asked what is a Sasquatch, as I had never heard of nor seen the Patterson-Gimlin film. When they told me what it was I said that it was probably was what I saw and everyone laughed again. I started to read and learn as much as I could about them. I forgot to mention that the Sasquatch was about 30 ft. away with an unobstructed view.