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September 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 29/09/2010 11:00 PM Page 37 And Now From Our Advertisers 37 T h e Real life X-Files sought in B.C.'s lakes By Maclean Kay, Times Colonist L a s t The X-Files packed up and left Vancouver to set up shop in Los Angeles. Many British Columbians were upset in 1998 when the TV series Cast and producers were open about the reasons -- weather and geography. R o s e back to film a movie and the show sucked after they left. So there. B.C. was too wet and too middle-of-nowhere. They came crawling In a lot of ways, though, the real X-Files never left. British A True Celebration Columbia remains the acknowledged world capital for cryptozoology -- of the study of cryptids. What's a cryptid? It's simple -- an undiscovered animal whose Eternal Love existence is unproven. Sasquatch and Ogopogo are technically cryptids. But whatever is making all those splashes in Cameron Lake, on the highway between Parksville and Port Alberni, is also a cryptid -- until On March 6, 2004, Thomas Pierce, his wife, JoAnn, and his it just turns out to be a sturgeon. daughter Lisa were on the water taxi that overturned in You might snicker -- and you're not alone -- but cryptozoology is Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. He lost both of them that day. perfectly legitimate and doesn't always focus on legendary creatures. There are dozens of unglamorous successes to its credit, including Pierce’s account of the accident and the letter to Lisa by one of the the coelacanth, which had been believed extinct for millions of years. reservists that rescued her give the reader a grim understanding of Last year, in Scotland, I met two cryptozoologists who work what that day was like. But this is not a book about the accident - around Loch Ness, neither of whom believed they were looking for a this book is about the power of love. Love as we know it and plesiosaur. (Large catfish is the common theory about Loch Ness monster understand it, and love that goes beyond our understanding. This sightings these days.) is a book Pierce never intended to write but he felt compelled to The word cryptid comes from a Greek word meaning hidden. share the things that carried him through this tragedy and all the That's basically what the term means: Animals hidden to us. signs that helped him move on with his life. It is truly a celebration OK, fine. Weird, but fine. But what makes B.C. such a hot spot? of two lives that will go on forever. According to John Kirk, president of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, the reasons are obvious: Lots of bodies of water and Once you have read this book you will find yourself passing it on lots of wilderness. to friends and family, so that they too can share the experience of In other words, plenty of places to hide -- or, at least, remain the power of love. undiscovered. There are 42 lakes in B.C. where some kind of unusual creature has been reported, including three new ones added to the list this www.thelastrose.com summer. "In reality, (cryptids) are animals, plain and simple, that haven't been fit into zoological taxa," says Kirk. In other words, the only thing The remarkable about them is we as humans haven't got around to naming them. If you don't remember The X-Files, the show revolved around two FBI agents, Mulder and Scully, whose task was to investigate bizarre Heartbreak cases -- frequently involving aliens or monstrous freaks of nature. In many ways, Kirk is a real-life Fox Mulder who believes the truth is really out there. And "out there" means B.C. -- Kirk moved here Option in 1987 precisely because for cryptozoologists, this is where the action is. Many cryptids aren't all that mysterious. There are mistaken identities -- sturgeons have caused no end of mischief -- and subspecies that are (probably) larger versions of common varieties, such as the yet- An Inspiring True to-be-proven giant salamander. Other times cryptids turn out to be "normal" species discovered in Story a strange place. For example, camel-like creatures have been reported in northern B.C. and the Yukon. Strange, but Kirk says some were imported as beasts of burden during the gold rush; it's not too difficult to imagine that a handful of their This is the Amazing but true story of Lori Dawn Cartagena, a descendants are still here. glamorous young Australian Entertainer who traveled to America Kirk chuckles when I ask the obvious question. No, he doesn't get after spending over twelve months from 1968 to 1969, a lot of hoax reports. And when he does, they're easy to spot. Reporting entertaining American and Australian troops in Vietnam during you interacted with or even just saw an animal for abnormally extended the war. After surviving numerous ambushes and mortar attacks, periods is usually a giveaway. This makes sense; if you've been lucky Lori eventually flees war torn Asia and arrives in Canada. After a enough to encounter, say, a bear, it's almost always fleeting. brief affair with a handsome, charming Toronto businessman, Kirk is also a firm believer in the existence of the Sasquatch and she moves to Florida to join a stage show where she finds Ogopogo; he has assembled evidence of both and says he's encountered herself in another desperate situation. Lori discovers she is the latter 11 separate times. pregnant and eventually has to make the most heartbreaking I asked him if he worried that proving these creatures exist would decision of her young life. as soon as her newborn son was in effect be signing their death warrants -- surely tourists, scientists and taken away from her, Lori vowed she would one day find him even trophy-hunters would soon be on their tail? If Kirk proves the again. She tried several times , but to no avail. However, 34 Sasquatch exists tomorrow, do its teeth become prized as aphrodisiacs in years later-he found her. The reunion was the most wonderful Guangzhou? event both mother and son could only have dreamed of over Kirk points out that any cryptid is almost certainly endangered and those long, agonising years. thus protected, but experience suggests that's hardly an ironclad guarantee of safety. www.loridcartagena.com If they do exist, one almost hopes such creatures hide as long as they can. []