Page 74 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2023 Edition

74 Sasquatch in Thunder Bay Region of ON?

Sasquatch Sighting

Increase In Thunder Bay
Region of Ontario,

Canada

Great Lakes Sasquatch research
effort launched after strange

encounter in Minnesota

CBC News

Have you seen something strange in the
woods north of Lake Superior?

If so, Great Lakes Sasquatch wants to
hear all about it.

The Minnesota-based researchers are
collecting reports of strange encounters
from the Great Lakes area, which
"We were the only group." came over me."
includes western Ontario and Manitoba,
as well as parts of Minnesota, the upper
It was early on a Tuesday, about 1 a.m., "It was unreal, the type of fear that came
Michigan peninsula, Iowa, and
Fruetel recalled, as he and a few others over me."
Wisconsin.
sat around the fire, listening to frogs,
crickets, and the hooting of barred owls. The group left the next day, and Fruetel
And it all started with a very personal
spent a couple of weeks researching the
encounter, said Chris Fruetel, one of the
"Maybe one or two hundred yards away, area's animals, trying to find something
people behind the effort.
to our east, this vocalization starts that sounded similar to what he heard.
happening," he said. "It's really hard to
"Me and my girlfriend, who I've been
describe what it sounded like; it sounded "I wasn't finding anything that was
with for a long time, we had an
unlike anything I've ever heard. The coming close," he said. "At one point, I
experience happen to us in northern
closest thing that I could think of that it googled ape sounds in North American
Minnesota," Fruetel said. "It was pretty
sounded like was apes." woods ... thinking okay, there's this
unexplainable."
animal that, you know, it makes these
The others around the fire looked at kind of monkey-ish kind of sounds
"It's always on our mind; we can't seem
Fruetel, since he's an experienced camper sometimes, you know. I was hoping to
to shake it," he said. "You go through
and hunter. come across that."
something that pretty much changes your
whole perception of reality, and you're in
"I've done a lot of solo camping, and Instead, he found recordings of purported
an environment that you've been visiting
primitive camping," he said. "And just sasquatch vocalizations.
your whole life, been doing outdoor stuff
hunting, specifically coyote hunting, so
your whole life, and then something
I'm pretty used to hearing the sounds at "I gave them a listen, and they sounded
strange happens, and you can't explain
night." very, very similar to what I was hearing,"
it."
Fruetel said. "In the comments of those
'Primal' fear videos ... they like to say 'oh, that's not
"It kind of consumes you."
Bigfoot, that's something else.' But

"Not only was it odd, and it sounded like nobody can seem to have an answer what
Strange encounter
apes, but it was extremely powerful," that something else is."
Fruetel said. "It was loud, and it had a
The encounter took place in the Foot
huge lung capacity. It was able to belt out That piqued Fruetel's interest in the topic,
Hills State Forest during a June 2016
this powerful sound for between 20 and and realizing there aren't many groups
camping trip, Fruetel said.
30 seconds straight." collecting data about encounters with
sasquatch or other cryptids in the Great
"Usually on weekends, it's pretty busy,"
And when the sound died down, Fruetel Lakes area, Great Lakes Sasquatch was
Fruetel said. "But the way my work
said, everything was silent. There were born.
schedule is ... I'm fortunate enough where
no chirping crickets or croaking frogs.
I get to stay longer than just the weekend;
However, his own personal experience
I can stay, usually, til like a Wednesday."
"It was just dead air," he said. "This is the wasn't the only motivation.
only time in my life I got this, it was
"We got to enjoy a couple of days with no
almost like a primal sense of fear that (Continued on Page 75)
other people camping there," he said.