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Geographical Index > Canada > Ontario > Report # 12958
 
Report # 12958  (Class B)
Submitted by witness Harold and Doris Michaelis on Wednesday, November 2, 2005.
Possible vocalizations heard at Lake Huron near the town of Bruce Mines

YEAR: 2005

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: November

DATE: 01

PROVINCE: Ontario

COUNTRY: Canada

LOCATION DETAILS: shore of lake huron, swampy

NEAREST TOWN: Bruce Mines, Ontario

NEAREST ROAD: Hwy 17 East

OBSERVED: Around 10 P.M. on a tuesday evening, November 01, 2005, on the shore of Lake Huron on Green Bay Rd. where we live in the bush, my husband went outside for to smoke a cigarette before going to bed. I was on my computer playing a game. All of a sudden he comes running in and tells me to come out quickly and listen to this. He is 57 years old and has been a bushman, hunting and fishing all his life in northern Ontario here and knows all the lakes and what's in them, and all about moose calls, and forest creatures, but his breath was quickened by the sound of this sound. He said he'd never heard anything like it ever. I stood at the open door for a few seconds and heard something in intervals but I couldn't quite make it out but it definitely didn't sound like anything I had ever heard either.

Where we live in a bungalow on Green Bay here, there is lots of swampy area around, and rocky, sloping, bush terrain with plenty of cedar, pine, spruce, poplar, some hardwood, maple, oak, lots of alder. We've seen lots of deer, moose, rabbit, partridge, fox, raccoons, beaver, black bears, timber wolf and once, in winter, a large bobcat walked up the lane here out front. We've seen humungous tracks in the snow behind our house in the bush in winter that my husband assumed must have been a very large moose, but we didn't see it. Last spring we did see a couple moose that were a fair size but we didn't figure they matched the huge holes in the snow far apart but one after the other heading in a specific direction.

Anyway, getting back to last night, it sounded like maybe...similar to the sound of the mountain lion recording, but not. Almost like what a large blue herron sounds like..squaks, but these were deeper. I listened to try to imagine the instrument, the voice box it would have come out of...and it sounded like it came out of a large throat and jaw, not that of a smaller animal. There was a heavier resonance there. No small animal could have been making that sound. It started, he said, about a quarter mile up the lane right at the creek area where heavy swamp lays beyond full of beaver. Beyond that is rocky, treed shoreline, large and smaller rocks. There is a path we take that borders the swamp area to come out at a sandy beach area close to the treeline where we swim. We've seen lots of long grass bedded or stamped down all over thru that wooded area plentiful with huge, wild raspberries, and bears will do that.

The sound pulsed a few seconds to 15 seconds apart as it came closer and closer to where we were listening. I realize that in the darkness, and it was a frosty, dark night. We turned off all outside and inside lights so we could see better. It would have difficult to see even a shape it was so dark. But the sound was very clear and very loud. I remarked to myself how loud and strong the sound and it had almost a human quality to it..you'd think someone was walking up the road making that sound to scare off wild animals. But we are the only ones on this lane besides our neighbors up a bit from us on this private lane that is a dead end. They are an older couple who only drive the lane to come and go from their home. The sound unnerved me enough to check my windows and door before heading to bed. In fact, as it got closer, it was so loud that it seemed to cross the field next to our house. I got a rush of fear and closed the window. I think that may have scared it into heading into the bush as the sound stopped.

My husband went back outside and had another smoke near the door as if he was nervous, which is unlike him, being a bushman and not in the least scared of the wild. We opened several windows around the house and shone a flashlight around the yard where we last heard the sound but saw nothing.

I am so excited about this, as soon as I finish this we are going to take a walk down to the creek area where there is soft earth in case we see any footprints. We'll also question our neighbour to see if they heard or saw anything, as the sound carries very well all up the shoreline here.

That is all I have to report for now, but we are certainly wondering what is out there that caused this very weird. If it was the bobcat in heat?? or people have said that mountain lions have been sighted up north here. In fact, my husband has seen firsthand, a mountain lion on a road-crew twenty years ago, seven miles east of Ranger Lake, up behind Searchmont, Ontaro. It was a huge, full grown male. It came out of bush, came around the truck they were sitting in. They didn't dare get out, and went back into the bush.

Now, if I was going to have to decide what the sound sounded like, having never heard a mountain lion except in a movie, I'd have to say that's almost what it reminded me of. We are about two and a half hours drive east of Searchmont, it being Hwy.17 north, and we being Hwy.17 East. Our nearest town about 5 miles east of us is Bruce Mines, Ontario. A friend in Thessalon, east of us on Hwy.17, had a large bobcat come up to his front door and look in the window, so there are quite a few up here.

I speak of bobcats, and mountain lions because I would like to find a reason for the sound other than sasquatch really, as the thought of sasquatch scares the hell out of me. My husband, on the other hand was very skeptical when I showed him the website but since has been speaking of it as though he might just be starting to think sasquatches do exist.

ALSO NOTICED: will be checking out later for prints near creek

OTHER WITNESSES: two people heard

OTHER STORIES: we will find out.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: 10 pm. very dark, cold, frosty

ENVIRONMENT: rocky, swampy, bush


Follow-up investigation report:

I spoke over the phone with both witnesses, husband and wife, and found them to be forthright and credible. Harold has 55 years of experience in the bush through living in remote areas, hunting, fishing and camping. Doris is an outdoor enthusiast who also has knowledge and experience in the outdoors. Both were able to accurately recollect their experience with regards to their original report and then even add a few more interesting details.

Although they have recently relocated, at the time of their incidents and report they resided at an address approximately 5 miles from the town of Bruce Mines. They said this town was the first copper mine in North America. Although mining no longer takes place there, it has become a tourist attraction and still has many abandoned mines and airshafts. Their home sits about 100 feet north of the Northern Channel of Lake Huron and their backyard is heavily wooded consisting of cedar, birch, pine and maple trees. There are large flat rocks (Canadian Shield) which lead into thick swamps and creeks. There is plentiful wildlife in the area such as deer, rabbit, raccoons, beaver, frogs, porcupines, bobcats and bear.

The witnesses also mentioned some other potentially relevant observations:

A couple of weeks prior to the vocals the wife, Doris, remembers going to her mailbox and smelling a foul odor that she described as reminiscent of "sewage" and "human excrement". At the time she passed it off as a possible bear in the area.

Also during that time, both husband and wife remembered seeing large unidentifiable prints in the hard clay by the creek. The prints had no detail, however, they were very large and appeared to be bipedal.

The very next night after the vocal incident described in the main report, she was sitting in her living room while her husband was asleep. She heard what she describes as loud thumping noises coming from their yard. It sounded like something very heavy was walking around the property. She said that she could feel the vibrations of the thumps on the floor in their bungalow. She became afraid and closed all her blinds/curtains and then went to bed.