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Yukon sasquatch investigator gathering tales for book

Tall, hairy, grunting beasts are roaming the territory. But make no mistake, they're not your average scruffy Yukon men. Several sasquatch sightings around the Whitehorse, Dawson City and Teslin areas were reported last year, according to Red Grossinger.
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Tall, hairy, grunting beasts are roaming the territory. But make no mistake, they’re not your average scruffy Yukon men.

Several sasquatch sightings around the Whitehorse, Dawson City and Teslin areas were reported last year, according to Red Grossinger, the territory’s leading authority on sightings of the bipedal, ape-like creature.

And if you ask him, there’s no two ways about it: sasquatch lives here.

“There is no argument in my mind whatsoever, it’s 100 per cent guaranteed,” he said.

“I’m not a believer - I know it’s here.”

The 74-year-old retired Canadian Army officer has been collecting sasquatch stories for a book titled Wild Men of the Yukon, which he hopes to publish in the fall.

The most recent sightings - which he always investigates - were reported to him in November, he said.

A member of the Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation and fellow sasquatch enthusiast saw a creature walking near the Moosehide Slide in Dawson City on Nov. 5.

She described seeing it approximately 1.8 kilometres away and estimated its height at eight feet.

Someone else also reported seeing the same creature later that day, Grossinger said.

“Last summer at the Moosehide gathering her and I held what we called the sasquatch talks - I trust her,” he said.

The other sighting took place along the South Klondike Highway near the Robinson Roadhouse historic site.

Two women, returning to Carcross after a bingo game in Whitehorse, reported seeing a sasquatch walking in the ditch.

But they refused to share any more information, Grossinger said.

“Only about 10 per cent of people will have enough guts to report a sighting, mostly for fear of ridicule,” he said.

“I try to locate exactly where the sighting took place, and see if whatever they told me jives with whatever I’m looking at. That gives me a good indication of whether people are lying or not.”

The Yukon has a rich history of sasquatch sightings.

The Canadian Sasquatch Research Organization, of which Grossinger is a former president, has reports of sasquatch phenomenon in the territory dating back to 1871.

Grossinger will spend the summer travelling around the territory, investigating the latest claims and taking pictures for his book.

He’s already published the Sasquatch Research Manual, a book designed to provide practical knowledge about procedures, protocols and techniques used to conduct sasquatch field research.

Squanga Lake, located halfway between Whitehorse and Teslin, is a hot spot for sightings, he said.

It’s where Grossinger had a sasquatch experience of his own back in 2010, when he was camping in the area.

“I got out of my tent in the morning and coughed a bit - and then I heard something out in the bush mimicking me,” he said.

“What the hell is going on, I thought? It freaked me out.

“I coughed once more and it copied me, it was scary. The more I stayed there the more I felt like something was watching me, I could feel the hair on my neck standing, so I got out of there.”

The most credible report he’s ever received was from a man who said he came within a few metres of a sasquatch in the Crestview subdivision back in 2011.

The man, who used to work for the city of Whitehorse, explained to Grossinger that he’d been driving along Azure Road when he suddenly saw the creature walking in the ditch.

He slowed down, pulled up alongside it and drove next to it for almost 100 metres.

“I’ve known him for years, he took me to the site and gave me a lot of details,” Grossinger said.

“There was no evidence, though. That’s the problem in the Yukon - the ground is so hard packed that you can’t see any footprints.”

Sasquatch sightings can be reported to sasquatchyukon@hotmail.com.

Contact Myles Dolphin at

myles@yukon-news.com