Bigfoot Encounters

Footage shot in Manitoba shows Bigfoot, viewers say
Wednesday, April 20, 2005 and a second article from the Winnipeg Sun dated Thursday April 21

Residents of Norway House, Manitoba, approximately 500 kilometers north of Winnipeg, have been flocking to Georgina Henry`s house to view a nearly three minute videotape of what appears to be Bigfoot, taken by her son Bobby on the morning of April 16,05. Just after dawn, Bobby Clarke, a ferryman on the Nelson River, sighted what he described as "a big black figure" on the opposite side of the riverbank aprox.250 meters away. Known to never be without his video camera, Bobby was able to film the figure for almost three minutes.
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Artic Radio's Morning Man Rob Schiltroth's Audiotaped Interview with Bobby Clark in Manitoba,
Recorded April 26, 2005 --
Listen to Bobby Clarke on audiotape: http://tinyurl.com/c3psz
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Article in the Winnipeg Sun, April 21, 2005
Massive, hairy figure seen walking along shore of Nelson River the 'real deal'
By Dawn Walton
 

Hundreds of people have now streamed through a home in northern Manitoba to view a 2-minute 49-second video that has folks believing: Bigfoot lives. 
Missy Flett, a self-described cynic, said she was stunned by the image of a massive hair-covered creature walking upright calf-deep in water along a shore of the Nelson River, about 500 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
 
"I was kind of skeptical when I went over," Ms. Flett, an outreach worker with the Norway House Community Council, explained yesterday after viewing the video. "But after seeing it, I truly believe it's the real sasquatch [another name for Bigfoot]."
 
She asked whether she could take a picture of the images on the flat-screen television with her digital camera, but the family screening the video in this remote community of 6,000 nixed her request.
 
They are talking about copyrights and thinking about turning the Bigfoot video into big bucks if some media outlet were just willing to pay.
 
And now, the man who shot the video is apparently "too stressed" to deal with the press.
 
The man behind the camcorder is Bobby Clarke. He's a ferry operator responsible for bringing people and vehicles over the Nelson River at docks located about 40 kilometres north of his home in Norway House.
 
While at work 6:30 Saturday morning, he noticed a black figure walking along the opposite river's edge about 250 metres away.
 
He grabbed his camera -- something he is rarely without -- and started shooting.
 
What he captured, according to his sister, Sharness Henry, is the image of a massive creature that stands eight, nine, maybe 10 feet (three metres) tall, walking along the edge of the water through some bulrushes. Near the end of the video, the creature turns and appears to stare into the camera, but the details of its face are impossible to make out.
 
"He's really hairy," Ms. Henry said.
 
That's when her brother appears to drop the camera. The experience has left him shaken and off work for a few days, Ms. Henry said.
 
Hubert Folster knows the feeling.
 
He was a ferry operator at the Nelson River crossing about a year ago when he spotted something dark, human-like, but too huge to be human, wandering on the bulrushes locked in the ice along the riverbank.
 
"It just wasn't right," he recalled yesterday.
 
For six minutes he watched, but in the poor early morning light, from his distance and without a camera, Mr. Folster can't be sure what he saw and he has never really talked about it.
 
"You don't want to mention these things," he says now, laughing.
 
North Americans have reported Bigfoot sightings as far back as the 1830s, but interest in the phenomenon really picked up with sightings, photos and footprints during the second half of the 20th century, according to Skeptical Inquirer magazine, a publication dedicated to unexplained occurrences.
 
The most famous is the 16-mm Patterson film shot in Bluff Creek, Calif., in 1967, which shows a hairy, human-like creature walking across a clearing.
 
Many Bigfoot hunters maintain the film is not a hoax, but anthropologists have argued that the size and stride of the creature suggest it could be human.
 
The shooter, Roger Patterson, has stood behind the film as authentic. Interestingly, a known Bigfoot-track hoaxer has said he told Mr. Patterson where to look for Bigfoot and, subsequently, Mr. Patterson raked in quite a bit of money from the film.
 
As the Skeptical Inquirer pointed out in a recent roundup of Bigfoot-related evidence, until bones or a body is discovered, there's no real scientific evidence of what Bigfoot enthusiasts purport to study.
 
Ms. Flett said there's no mistaking the image in the video for a bear or some other kind of wildlife common to the area. Bears have been known to walk on their hind legs, but for short distances. This creature, she said, is walking "gracefully" kind of like a human, but not.
 
"It's awesome," Ms. Flett said. ". . . It's real. It's the real deal."
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Second article: From the Winniped Sun

The Winnipeg Sun - Thu, April 21, 2005
Sasquatch seen? Norway House video 'shaky' By Paul Turenne, Staff Reporter

While people in Norway House have been flocking to see a video shot by a local man last weekend that may show a sasquatch walking in the Nelson River, the million-dollar question remains unanswered: Are there Bigfoots in Manitoba? Bill Borody, whose home near Anola is known as the Manitoba Sasquatch Research Centre, said he's heard of more than 300 sasquatch sightings in Manitoba in the past 30 years.

Borody said he doesn't want to pass judgment on the Norway House video because he hasn't seen it, but added he understands it was shot from about 1,000 feet away -- which he thinks is too far to identify anything positively.

CBC-TV videojournalist Mychaylo Prystupa saw the tape on Tuesday and doesn't believe it proves anything.

"What I saw was a dark, shadowy figure in the distance," said Prystupa, who was shown at least 30 seconds of the clip. "It appears to be humanoid and it's tall, but the video itself is very shaky ... I think if the video could be slowed down and enhanced, then it could be interesting."

'Shape-shifters'

Regardless of whether this viewing is legitimate, Borody is sure sasquatches roam Manitoba.

"There's no doubt in my mind these things exist," he said.

Borody said one reason proof continues to elude science is native lore claims they are shape-shifters, capable of changing into almost any animal.

"I think this thing goes well beyond our logic," he said.

Bill Watkins, a zoologist with Manitoba's biodiversity conservation unit, can't imagine what the creature might be.

"Other than a black bear standing on it hind legs, there's nothing (in Manitoba) someone experienced in the woods could mistake for a sasquatch," he said. "There's always the possibility it's a deliberate fabrication, but I wouldn't suggest that until I saw the film."

Watkins said he hopes the tape will be provided to his department for analysis, but is skeptical sasquatches exist.

If they did, he said, there would need to be a large enough population to reproduce without inbreeding. If a population that size existed, someone would likely have found a dead or roadkilled sasquatch or even some bones by now, said Watkins.
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Third Article, same subject CBC Manitoba:
'Bigfoot' tape thrills northern community
Photo on this site: http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/story/mb_bigfoot-20050421.html
Last Updated Apr 21 2005 08:02 AM CDT

CBC News -- NORWAY HOUSE, MAN. – Hundreds of residents of Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba are convinced the Bigfoot legend is real after a local man captured a strange creature on videotape.

Ferry operator Bobby Clarke was taking a vehicle barge across the Nelson River at the northern end of Lake Winnipeg Saturday morning when he noticed something on the shore.

He grabbed his camcorder and shot a 49-second clip of a tall, dark humanoid-like figure moving on the riverbank.

"It's not a bear or human walking around," said Clarke's father-in-law, John Henry. "You can tell by the features."

People who have seen the video say the figure is three metres tall and resembles past descriptions of the legendary shy, hairy giant long rumoured to inhabit remote woodlands in western parts of North America.

"Couple of my friends and cousins have seen it, and some of them, first didn't believe in anything like that," said Joey Robertson. "When they seen the video, it convinced them."

But local residents flocking to Clarke's house to see the video are now coming away disappointed. The Clarke family has stopped showing the videotape, saying they're arranging for an expert to enhance the video as they hold out for the best cash offer from a media agency.

Offers have already come in from places ranging from Florida to Toronto, they say.

Michelle Baril, a Sasquatch researcher based near Fisher Branch, hasn't seen the tape, but she's confident the sighting really happened. Barrow says she has investigated many other sightings, and has found that most people don't make these claims lightly.

"I find that these people aren't looking for fame or fortune. They're just looking to unload this. You look at this person, and you see the sincerity in their eyes and in some cases, they're almost embarrassed to tell you," she says.

"I have a general idea of who's telling the truth and who's not. For the most part, if anybody's going to open themselves up to being heckled and ridiculed, I really don't think they're going to come up with some kind of tale."

Linda Queskekavow, one of Clarke's neighbours, says there's nothing to be worried about even if it turns out that Norway House is home to the legendary Bigfoot, also known by its Canadian name Sasquatch (meaning "wild man" or "hairy man" in the Salish language).

"That Sasquatch is not harmful," said Queskekavow, who saw the videotape. "I think it's scared of people."
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