Lumberjack's Encounter: Abducted by a Sasquatch Family in British Columbia

In a chilling account of a supposed Bigfoot abduction, a lumberjack named Albert Ostman claimed that he was kidnapped by a family of sasquatch in the 1920s while on a prospecting trip in British Columbia. The story, which was originally published in The Apes Among Us by John Green, was recently brought to light in a video by the YouTube channel Spooky Stories: Unexplained Encounters. According to Ostman, he had always followed logging and construction work, and after a year on a job, he decided to take a vacation in British Columbia in search of lost gold mines. He took the Union Steamship boat up to Lund, BC and from there hired a native man to take him to the Toba Inlet. On their journey, the guide told Ostman the story of a man who had happened upon one of these mines. The man was a heavy drinker and would frequent saloons to quench his thirst. He would stay in the town for a few days, spending money and drinking, then disappear - only to return with even more gold. But, this man's luck seemed to have eventually run out. There came a day when the people at the saloon did not see the man again. It was whispered that something had killed him. Something - not someone. According to the guide, the man had met his end at the hands of a sasquatch. Ostman said that at the time he had never heard of sasquatch. The guide described them as: "They have hair all over their bodies, but they are not animals. They are people. Big people living in the mountains. My uncle saw the tracks of one that were two feet long." At this, Ostman shrugged. He claimed that he did not believe in the creatures - or at least, he didn’t believe that they existed now. Maybe once, a long, long time ago. The two continued on their journey, finally reaching their destination in the late afternoon. Ostman set up camp and began exploring the area, looking for minerals. But, there were no signs of gold in that location. The next day he again started off early, walking while it was still cool. His path was steep, and with the added weight of the pack, he had to make several stops. After about three hours he managed to stop and find a small spring by which he had his lunch. It was later that night that he made it over the pass. It would be down hill from there. The next three days Ostman continued on his path, finding deer to eat and water to drink. He described his campsites as "lovely" with good-sized trees growing nearby and springs close by. He was able to arrange some rocks to form a fireplace for cooking and cut brush to create a bed. In his words, it was a "really classy setup." Unfortunately, this is when "things began to happen." Ostman noticed that things had been disturbed during the night. But nothing missing he could see. He roasted his grouse on a stick for breakfast and filled up the magazine of his rifle. That night he laid his rifle under the edge of his sleeping bag. He thought a porcupine had visited him the night before and porkies like leather, so he put his shoes in the bottom of his sleeping bag. Next morning his pack sack had been emptied out. Some one had turned the sack upside down. It was still hanging on the pole from the shoulder straps as i had hung it up. Then he noticed one half-pound package of prunes was missing. Also his pancake flour was missing, but my salt bag was not touched. Porkies always look for salt, so I decided it must be something else than porkies. He looked for tracks but found none. He kept close to camp these days in case this visitor would come back. One night, Ostman took special notice of how everything was arranged. He closed his pack sack, he did not undress, he only took off his shoes, put them in the bottom of his sleeping bag. He drove his prospecting pick into one of the cypress trees so he could reach it from his bed. He also put the rifle alongside him, inside his sleeping bag. He fully intended to stay awake all night to find out who his visitor was, but he must have fallen asleep. He was awakened by something picking him up. He was half asleep and at first he did not remember where he was. As he began to get his wits together, he remembered he was on this prospecting trip, and in his sleeping bag. His first thought was — it must be a snow slide, but there was no snow around his camp. Then it felt like he was tossed on horseback, but he could feel whoever it was, was walking. He tried to reason out what kind of animal this could be. He tried to get at his sheath knife, and cut his way out, but he was in an almost sitting position, and the knife was under him. He could not get hold of it, but the rifle was in front of him, he had a good hold of that, and had no intention to let go of it. At times he could feel his packsack touching him, and could feel the cans in the sack touching his back. After what seemed like an hour, he could feel we were going up a steep hill. He could feel himself rise for every step. What was carrying him was breathing hard and sometimes gave a slight cough. Now, he knew this must be one of the mountain Sasquatch giants. This is how Ostman's abduction begins. He was unable to move, sitting on his feet, and one of the boots in the bottom of the bag was crossways with the hobnail sole up across his foot. It hurt him terribly, but he could not move. It was very hot inside. It was lucky for him this fellow's hand was not big enough to close up the whole bag when he picked him up — there was a small opening at the top, otherwise he would have choked to death. Now he was going downhill. He could feel himself touching the ground at times and at one time he could feel he was below him. Then he seemed to get on level ground and was going at a trot for a long time. By this time, he had cramps in his legs, the pain was terrible. He was wishing he would get to his destination soon. He could not stand this type of transportation much longer. Now he was going uphill again. It did not hurt him so bad. He tried to estimate distance and directions. As near as he could guess, they were about three hours traveling. He had no idea when he started as he was asleep when he was picked up. Finally, he could feel him stopping and letting him down. Then he dropped his packsack, he could hear the cans rattle. Then he heard chatter — some kind of talk he did not understand. The ground was sloping so when he let go of his sleeping