Albert Ostman
Albert Ostman (c. 1893 – 1975)[1] was a Canadian prospector who reported that he was abducted by a Sasquatch and held captive for six days. He stated that the event took place near Toba Inlet, British Columbia in 1924.
The story
[edit]In 1924, Albert Ostman, a lumberjack and woodsman, went to the area for a vacation. Ostman had heard stories about the "man beasts" who supposedly roamed these woods but refused to believe them.[2]
As Ostman lay asleep one evening, a Sasquatch purportedly picked him up and carried him off while he was in his sleeping bag.[3] Ostman was carried in his sleeping bag across country for three hours by the Sasquatch.[4] The Sasquatch dropped Ostman down on a plateau. Standing around him was a family of four of the creatures.[5]
Albert was kept captive by the Sasquatch. The captors were two adults and two children which held Ostman captive for six days.[6] One of the creatures was reported as being eight feet tall.[7] Ostman did not use his gun on them as they had done him no harm.[8] He stayed with the Bigfoot family for a week.[9] Ostman ate "sweet tasting grass" that they gave him.[10]
According to Ostman, the female Sasquatch washed and stacked leaves.[11] Albert escaped by making the large male Sasquatch groggy by feeding him some snuff.[12] He did not tell his story for more than 24 years after it happened for fear of being thought of as crazy.[13] As more Sasquatch stories appeared in the press Albert decided to tell his story to a local newspaper, The Province, in 1957.[14]
In 2007, the skeptic Joe Nickell characterized the story as "more likely the result of imagination than of recollection".[15] Critics of Ostman note that he did not make the event public until 1957, thirty-three years after he said it took place.[16] Primatologist John Napier states that "Ostman's story fails to convince me primarily on the grounds of the limited food resources available."[17] Bigfoot researcher Peter Byrne cannot accept Ostman's story without more evidence.[18]
References
[edit]- ^ Guittilla, Peter (2003). The Bigfoot Files. Timeless Voyager Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-1892264152.
- ^ Juanita Rose Violini (2009). Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible, and the Ignored. Weiser Books. p. 131. ISBN 978-1609250904. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
- ^ Christopher Bader; Frederick Carson Mencken; Joseph Baker (January 1, 2010). Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture. NYU Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0814786420. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
- ^ "Mystery Man-Ape of the Cascades", Life Magazine, 64 (13), Time Inc.: 17, March 29, 1968
- ^ E. R. Stuart (October 1980). "Tracking Bigfoot". Boys' Life. The Boy Scouts of America. p. 34.
- ^ Green, John (1973). Bigfoot: On the Track of the Sasquatch. New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books. p. 25. ISBN 978-0345240811.
- ^ Michael Burgan (2004). Bigfoot. Capstone. p. 10. ISBN 978-0736827157. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
- ^ Lionel Fanthorpe & Patricia Fanthorpe (2010). The Big Book of Mysteries. Dundurn. p. 26. ISBN 978-1770704565. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
- ^ Therese Shea (2005). Bigfoot. Rosen Classroom. p. 14. ISBN 978-1404256750. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
- ^ Marjorie Halpin; Ames, Michael (1980). Manlike monsters on trial: early records and modern evidence. University of British Columbia. p. 225. ISBN 1530340802.
- ^ Philip Spencer (2008). The Wildman of Kentucky: The Mystery of Panther Rock. Reality Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-1934588383.
- ^ Bil Gilbert (2004). Natural Coincidence: The Trip from Kalamazoo. University of Michigan Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0472025466. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
- ^ Walker, Kathryn (2008). Mysteries of Giant Humanlike Creatures. Crabtree Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 978-0778741435.
- ^ Lory, Don (4 May 1957). "Kidnapped by a Sasquatch". The Province. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Nickell, Joe (January–February 2007). "Mysterious entities of the Pacific Northwest, Part I". Skeptical Inquirer. 31 (1): 21.
- ^ David J. Daegling (2004). Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend. Rowman Altamira. p. 67. ISBN 978-0759105393.
- ^ Debenat, Jean-Paul; L. Murphy, Christopher (2009), Sasquatch/Bigfoot and the Mystery of the Wild Man: Cryptozoology & Mythology, ISBN 978-0888396853.
- ^ Rick Emmer (2010), Bigfoot: Fact Or Fiction?, InfoBase Publishing, ISBN 978-0791097786.