In 1980 or 81 I was placer mining in the Fraser
Canyon about 1 and a half miles upstream from Spuzzum. On a Friday, I
think, in late April a native fisherman asked me if I had seen any sign of
bear or cat in the area in the last few days. He was wondering because he
had lost 2 very large Spring salmon in the 30 lb. weight class. One fish
had been carried off and of the other only the head was left and as the
fisherman put it "it had some funny teeth marks on it". He also noted that
there were no tracks of any kind and whatever took his fish must have
stayed in the creek and on the rocks. We were both a little puzzled, but I
wasn't worried about wildlife as I was usually armed and Wilf said he was
going to be thereafter.
On the
following Sunday I was giving a co-worker, from my part-time job on a
mushroom farm in Langley, a demonstration on site of how the equipment at
the mine worked and what the various pieces of equipment did. While we
were talking a stench came wafting down from the rock bluff above us
causing the hair on our necks, and other places, to stand on end and cause
Russell and I to unsling both of our rifles and point them upslope, in
response to the unseen, unknown threat? Our actions were instinctual and
probably would have looked rehearsed if someone had been watching. We were
both avid outdoorsmen, (Russell died in a car accident a couple of years
later) and this incident was completely beyond our experience. The stink
which smelled kind of like an RV septic tank being dumped down the bluff
above us drifted off but came back about 45 minutes later. This time we
were a little more cool about it (yeah right) and reacted a bit more
calmly, tried to see what it was but weren't about to go hunting for
trouble. The smell could not have come from an RV because the nearest road
was the TransCanada Highway over 600 yards away on the other side of the
Fraser Canyon.
Just
another one of life's little mysteries until about 2 years later when I
read about the capture of "Jacko" the young BC wild ape in the 1880s at
the North end of the No. 4 tunnel on the C.P.R. mainline. WE WERE AT THE
SOUTH END OF THAT SAME TUNNEL only 150 yards or so from where Jacko was
kidnapped.
Well
that's my story. I worked there for roughly 2 more months until the
freshet pushed us out, and I have been back there many, many times without
seeing, or smelling, anything like that again in spite of actually going
looking for some sign after reasoning(?) out what it might have been.
Fred
Forman, Aldergrove - May 2002
