Canada's Cryptids: Legends from Coast to Coast to Coast!

Discover the fascinating world of cryptids in Canada, where folklore and mystery intertwine in the vast landscapes of our provinces and territories. From the legendary Sasquatch and the elusive Ogopogo in British Columbia to the eerie Loup-Garou in Quebec, each region boasts its own unique tales of strange creatures that blur the line between myth and reality. Explore the deep-rooted legends and modern sightings that spark intrigue and adventure, enticing both cryptozoology enthusiasts and curious explorers alike. Join us on a journey through Canada’s hidden realms, where every shadow could hold the key to a legendary beast waiting to be unveiled.

Citations: 

https://nativephilanthropy.candid.org/events/scientists-conclude-natives-are-intellectually-deficient-and-not-civilizable/

https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aboriginal-people

https://www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/local-and-family-history/mikmaw-history-culture/

https://dailyhive.com/canada/sasquatch-bigfoot-history-north-america

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskACanadian/comments/1jo7w9c/canadian_legendary_monsters_cryptids/

https://www.omfrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/issue23-april2011.pdf

https://simcoe.ca/simcoe-county-archives-blog/simcoe-county-cryptids/

https://interior-news.com/2026/03/12/finding-bigfoot-b-c-research-trio-track-sasquatch-across-vancouver-island/

https://kingdomgames.co/about-memphre/

https://globalnews.ca/news/5381999/pretty-creepy-okanagan-man-believes-hes-captured-definitive-ogopogo-sighting-on-video/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/traverspine-gorilla-cutouts-mystery-1.7612459

https://mysteriesofcanada.com/newfoundland/the-traverspine-gorilla-a-labradorean-wildman/

https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/cryptozoology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptozoology

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/great-local-cryptids

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hey everyone and welcome back to my podcast. If you are new here, my name is Carv and you're listening to Spirits, Witches, and Demons. Well, guys, I did my research and I think I'm prepared. I don't know, but I think I'm prepared to deliver some cryptids to you this week, which makes me super, super, super excited. But before we actually dive into that, I have some pretty tantalizing news. So I was able to secure a new guest, actually guests plural, that will be coming in to the studio for an interview in the coming weeks. So look forward to that. If you're not already subscribed, make sure you are following the podcast wherever you're listening so that you don't miss when that episode drops. It will be dropping within the month of July. I'm just not exactly sure what date it will drop. What which Sunday I will drop it. But that being said, I have a lot to discuss about cryptids. I kind of focused. I here's what I did, guys. Here's what I did. So what I was going back and forth on with my research was I wanted to find out, um, not on the scientific side of cryptids, because we're a spiritual podcast. We want to keep it a little woo-woo. I do want to touch a little bit on like some some eyewitness accounts and things like that, but I'm not gonna dive into the science of it because that's not what I do, right? But I am gonna dive into the folklore side and the story side and see what's out there. So, what took me so long getting this information together and doing the research is there's so much of it that I wasn't sure exactly where I wanted to focus. Did I want to do like the top cryptid cryptid of every uh nation in the world that reports cryptids? Did I want to focus on one country? Did I want to focus on one uh area? Like, for example, the Appalachian Mountains. Like, what did I actually want to do with it? Because if I went for all the information that was out there or that is currently out there, I'd be here talking about cryptids for it'd be a series, guys. It would be a series. I mean, I'm down for that. Um, this could be a two-parter, I'll tell you that right now. Um, but I thought we'd just dip our toes today. We'd touch on the basics, and then I thought I'd focus on my home country and talk more about the cryptids of Canada. So if you're down for that, grab your drink. Today I have my trusty energy drink. I'm drinking an orange Alani. I this is the second time on the podcast I've had an orange alani, and we know how the first one went. I don't know how this one's gonna go because your girl, who is definitely not a party animal, is sitting here on a Friday evening at 8 40 p.m. And if I start yawning, it's not you, it's me. Okay, let me just put that out there. And we all know when I start reading off my script and getting into details, sometimes, sometimes the yawns come out. More often though, when I'm reading Reddit stories, maybe it's because I like a good ghost story and they put me to sleep. I don't know. Not that the not that the poster is ever boring, trust me. Um, but yeah, anyway, anyway, I'm stalling now, and I have a lot of material to get through, so I'm just going to switch my screen over to my notes because of course I have notes on this. Um, all the information I gathered was off of Google, so I will put the links to all the questions I asked and where I gathered the information in the show notes. If you so want to go look at this information yourself and maybe do even further research through the links provided, um then it'll be there for you. Okay. So here we go. Who's excited? Like, I am super, super, super excited. Um, yeah, anyway. Okay, let's let's reel it in, Barb. Let's reel it in. Oh, cryptins. Cryptins are a fascination of mine because they tend to be a fictional and folk tale animal that can be possibly real, yet are not exactly proven to exist. This is the most interesting part of cryptids to me. Now, I'm just gonna pose that question to you. What's your most interesting pull? Why do you like cryptids? Is it their mysterious, do they or don't they exist? Is it their scary, spooky uh lore? Like um different anyway. We just want to know what the hell do you guys like? I like the mysterious side, like could they or could they not be real? Now, through my research, here's a little spoiler. I found a cryptid in my home area that I've actually seen. And I'm not talking about the Wendigo. You guys have heard that story a few times. I'm not gonna fucking bore you again with the Wendigo. If you want to go listen and you haven't heard, go back a number of episodes, maybe closer to the beginning of the podcast, and you will hear my story on when I actually saw a Wendigo. However, there's another one that I actually saw, and yeah, I'm excited to get there. So let me continue. There's no official count of how many cryptas are in the world, because anyone can can create or document local myths. And true enough, crypto cryptozoology. I always have a hard time with that word, it's like a tongue twister. But to be fair, I mean have a hard time with most words, as we all know. So cryptozoologists or cryptozoology enthusiasts estimate that there are thousands of cryptids worldwide, and that's why I said, guys, this would be a series. It would take me forever. Every country, every state, every province has unique hyperlocal folklore. I love folklore. Maybe it's the Celtic side of me, maybe yeah. I just love a good folk story, little fairy tale. Uh the term cryptid broadly covers three categories. One is unknown animals yet to be classified by mainstream science. For example, Bigfoot or the Loch Nest Monster. Out of place animals for number two. Far outside their natural habitat. Example Miss Mystery Kangaroo in the US. Ooh, I haven't heard of that one. Have any of you who are from the US ever heard of the mystery kangaroos? I've heard of the uh crocod is it crocodiles or alligators in the subway of New York? Of course I've heard of the teenage mutant ninja turtles too, but we all know that that's just a movie. Um three is living fossils. Species long thought extinct that are occasionally spotted or confirmed alive. Ooh, can I say that word? Oh here we go, here we go. Example is the coal colosanth. Yeah, that's definitely not it. Let me check. Okay, so it is Silucanth. Silucanth. Oh my god, I can't get that shit right, man. Can't get that shit right. Or the giant squid. Many popular cryptids have deep roots in specific regions, such as Mothman in West Virginia or Ogopogo in Canada. Has anybody ever heard of the Ogopogo? I know you probably have heard of Mothman. Come on. Uh but Ogopogo definitely is one that has uh a slight popularity here in Canada, but I'm not even sure if most Canadians have heard of him. I have. Of course I have. Little Sippy. Okay, cryptozoology is actually the study of the hidden animals whose existence has not been proven. So the co core pillars of the study, the field relies on mix Oh my goodness. I just tripped over that whole sentence. The field relies on a mix of methods to investigate legendary creatures. Anecdotal evidence, so that's gathering eyewitness testimonies, local folklore, and historical indigenous oral histories. Physical tracking, searching for biological traces like footprints, hair samples, scratch marks or nests, and media analysis, reviewing historical and modern photographs, video recordings, and audiophiles of known animal calls. How mainstream science views it? Well, mainstream biology generally considers cryptozoology as pseudoscience. This is due to a few primary scientific criticisms. Number one, lack of specimens. Well duh science requires a physical specimen, a holotype, holotype, DNA, sample or live animal to sp to officially recognize a species. Two, reliance on anecdotes. Eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable and prone to misidentification or hoaxes. Ecological constraints. Large breeding populations are required for a species to survive for centuries without going extinct, making it highly unlikely for massive creatures to hide indefinitely in small lakes or forests. Good thing Canada has massive lakes and massive forests just saying. Famous success stories. Occasionally cryptozoologists are proven right. Several animals once dismissed as myths or cryptids were later verified by science. The Oka Ocopy Okapi Okapi, once called the African Unicorn. This giraffe relative was officially documented in nineteen oh one. The mountain gorilla dismissed as a myth about wild hairy men, I think we know about another cryptit that's a hairy man, until it was formally identified in nineteen oh two. The let me go back to the pronunciation. The Seleucanth, the Celeucanth Oh, where's my notes? There we go. The Cleucanth, um a prehistoric fish thought to have gone extinct 66 million years ago until a living specimen was caught in 1938. And the last one on this small, very small list, is one I've heard of, therefore I'm sure many of you have heard of, and that is the platypus. Early British scientists thought the first first shipped specimens were a taxidermy hoax made by sewing a duck's bill onto a beaver's body. So that just shows you that even though they had an actual specimen, they didn't believe it. Not until they were able to prove it, I guess, over and over and over again. And now we all know a pelatypus is an actual animal. Pretty cool. Pretty freaking cool. So I'm just going to take a little sipper sipper. And when I said sipper sipper, do you know what came to my mind? Are any of you of like the Gen X era um millennial, maybe older millennial, that would have watched Friends? Because that little sipper sipper reminded me of um Monica and going out with Rachel's ex-boyfriend, Chip, I think it was, and she was she said something about, if I remember the line correctly, um a lipper from chipper? Sipper sipper, a lipper from anyway. I'm probably really, really, really dating myself there. Okay, Doki. So remember I said we have vast forests and a hell of a lot of lakes that are, you know, animals can hide in Canada. It is true, I believe that, and a lot of places in the United States as well, although considering the vast Canada is much larger as a mass, as an actual mass of land, um, and we have much less population. We have like a tenth, I think, of the population of the US. You have 340 million people, and we have 40 million people. So when you take that into consideration, we have a larger landmass with such few people. Um, it's easy to see that these animals can definitely hide out for thousands and thousands of years without ever being detected. It's the same as the ocean. The ocean is less explored than space, which to me is scary as fuck. Um, but I believe that 100% because there are depths of the ocean that are much deeper than the tallest mountains on land. So what could hide down there? What could survive? We don't know. We have no idea. Like that's that's part of the wonders of the world. It's part of what makes my attraction to crypt cryptozoology cryptids so so um such a pull towards it. I didn't know what I was gonna say there for a second. I have such a pull towards it and I'm so interested in it because we just don't know. Like when I started thinking about spirits and ghosts, that unless you get back to back to back to back solid evidence, which is really hard to get, by the way, people getting solid quote unquote evidence of ghosts, that's really hard. What you might get is a knock here or a little whisper there, or something very so insignificant and so small. Yet it proves the existence of something happening that we can't explain with our own knowledge and logic and today's societal norms and all these things, right? So if I can believe in spirits and ghosts and not have them stand in front of me, look me in the eye, and me take a DNA sample from them, then I certainly can believe in a cryptid that is possible to be a living animal, right? So, or a living being, a living species we don't know about yet. I'm not saying that all cryptids are necessarily animals. What if it's a different species altogether? What if it is a different type of human? I don't know. And I am no scientist, I'm just um what would I call myself? A believer in the unknown. A believer in the unknown. And so I I love this topic, and that's why I really wanted to do it justice for you guys. Okay, so Canada's vast forests, deep lakes, and rugged coastlines are home to dozens of famous regional legends. What I did, guys, is I I wanted to go actual, like province by province, territory by territory, and break it down to the most popular in those regions. So if you're from Canada or you visited Canada and you've been to any of these regions, you live in any of these regions, this might hit home for you. And if it does, I want you to comment and let me know your stories for each of the ones that hit home for you. According to the records archived by the Canadian Encyclopedia, the local folklore here is a provincial and territorial breakdown of Canada's most famous, known, or suspected cryptas. Sorry that don't know where that came from. So number one, we're gonna start on the west, work our way east, and then we're going to go up north. So starting on the west, the number one, everybody knows this guy. Um he's made it in so many videos, he's made it in so many pictures, there's casts of his feet everywhere. We're talking in British Columbia, the Sasquatch. Uh a large, hairy, ape-like wild man who roams the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest and central regions, uh and is central, sorry, to regional indigenous oral history. Ogopogo, I love that name. That one just gets me Sasquatch, little little uh sassy, I don't know what else to call him right now, but Ogopogo, I just love saying that. Canada's most famous lake monster is a serpent, multi humped beast said to inhabit Okanagan Lake. That's why he's called Ogopogo. And oh here we go. Cadbroosaurus. Cadbroosaurus, or also fondly known as Caddy C A D D Y Caddy. A long necked, horse headed marine serpent reported off the coast of Vancouver Island. So Scotland has its Loch Ness, and we have two. We have Ogopogo and Caddy. So there you go. So maybe Loch Ness isn't a myth after all. Just saying, just saying. In Alberta, so we're moving, we're coming east. We're coming east. If you're not familiar with Canadian geography, British Columbia's farthest west. Now we're moving east. Alberta's next. So in Alberta we have Fish Creek Clapper, a modern local legend from Calgary's Fish Creek Park involving a bizarre cloaked creature making distinct clapping noises. Could you imagine something cloaked clapping at you? That's like going into a haunted place and playing the clapping game. That's what that reminds me of. Next we have the Wendigo, a malevolent, cannibalistic spirit or physical beast born from human greed and desperation in winter, rooted in algonquin folklore. So the algonquins are typically in like the Ontario Quebec region, so I'm not sure why it's featured out in Alberta, but we're just gonna swing with it right now. Saskatchewan The Turtle Lake Monster a thirty foot long pig headed or dog like aquatic aquatic cryptid reported by locals and hunters since the late nineteenth century. Wow. That's the only one for Saskatchewan. Who can spell Saskatchewan for me? Anyone? No takers? Alright, we'll move on. Manitoba. The Manny Pogo. Okay, so I guess we got the Ogopogo, Oko Pogo, and now the Manny Pogo. So the Manipogo is a snake-like, multi-humped lake monster dwelling in Lake Manitoba with major spikes in spikes in sightings during the 1960s. Okay. The Night Crawler, a creature described as possessing long, spindly legs and glowing blood red eyes, seen moving through rural forests. Now that thing that would creep me the fuck out. That almost sounds like a skinwalker, shapeshifter kind of thing. That's kind of what it's given to me. Central Canada, Ontario. Oh here we go with another fucking word I can't pronounce. Mishipeshu Mishipeshu the Water Panther. An indigenous legend shared across the Great Lakes. This horned lynx like dragon, ooh, I want to see it already, said guard the copper supplies of Lake Superior. Well, go off. Okay, and oh why do they have to have like such I just saw the next one after this and I'm just laughing to myself. I'll you'll laugh with me in a second. Okay, so this one, let me let me try to like butcher the name of this one. Gacin Gacy and Dieta? Holy fuck, I can't say that word for the life of me. A massive fire-breathing water dragon believed by um Seneca? I think it's Seneca, uh, mythology to inhabit Lake Ontario. And remember the Ogopogo, the Manny Pogo? Now we have the Igopogo. That's why I'm laughing. Didn't realize we had so many pogos in Canada. Um a dog-headed boat flipping, aquatic beast rumored to inhabit Lake Simcoe. So Ontario? Is it all lake? Oh, it is all lake creatures in Ontario. Stay out of the lakes in Ontario. They be getting ya. Okay, in Quebec we have Lup Garu, a French Canadian variation of the classic werewolf. Uh often um maybe I pronounced that wrong. Lugaru, maybe Lugaru. Uh often tied to folklore about individuals breaking religious fasts. Memphir Memph? I think I'm just messing that word up. A classic reptilian whale like lake monster reported by hundreds of witnesses in lank in Lake Memphog Memphog Whew These words, children, these words. If I could could I give everything a nickname like Lake Memi Make it so much easier on my brain. Okay, third one for Quebec The Monster of Lac Saint Jean A multi thinned, dark skinned aquatic beast often blamed for overturning fishing boats. So maybe don't go fishing in Ontario or Quebec 'cause there's two lakes that have overturning monsters and please, if you're going fishing you kind of want to stay dry, right? Maybe that's just me. Maybe I'm alone in that. Let's move on to my favorite place, the Atlantic provinces. But I'm a little biased, maybe. Maybe, just a little biased. So we're gonna start with New Brunswick. New Brunswick has the Ugwug. Now that one's a fun one to say. The Ugwug. A giant thirty foot long hybrid creature described as a cross between a massive salmon and a harbor seal lurking in the St. John River. Well, that would be interesting to see. The Ugwug. Next time I'm near the St. John River I'll have to take a look. The oo Dung Arvun The Dung Arvun? Whopper. Well I know how to say Whopper. Uh the ghost or creature of a murdered lumberjack cook that he meets emits emits emits I don't know what that was. He emits. Terrifying but blood oh fuck. Let's start this one over with a sip of my Almani. It's getting low, I can tell. Okay. A ghost or creature of a murdered lumberjack cook that emits terrifying blood curdling screams in the forest of central New Brunswick. Well let's not go to central New Brunswick and hear blood curdling screams. So I'm skipping Nova Scotia until the end, um and I will come back to Nova Scotia. That's where I am. Prince Edward Island, the smallest province in Canada. The little people of PEI elusive fairy like small humanoids rumored to live deep within the island's isolated forests. People, Prince Edward Island is not that big. This is like the fairies living in like Wales or in Scotland. Um although Prince Edward Island is even smaller than those islands. Okay. The slough. Okay, it's either called sloth, with G H being an F sound, or slug, like um in the Gaelic term. Anyway, eerie entities described as a cha chaotic flock of sinister blackbirds rumored to abduct people traveling alone at night. Well, all be if a big friggin' flock of blackbirds was coming at me while I was walking alone at night, I would dare say they would have some trouble. I'd just lay down and play dead and you know it it would take a lot of blackbirds to carry me off, let me just say that. Newfoundland and Labrador. Newfoundland and Labrador. Oh great, great, great province. I've only been there once, but I absolutely adored it, and I can win cannot wait to go back and visit again, especially the island of Newfoundland. Okay, the Travers Traverspine? Traverspine Gorilla. Ooh, there's a gorilla. I'm so intrigued. A large ooh, he's aggressive? A large, aggressive ape like creature reported to have stalked a remote settlement in Brat in Labrador in the early 1900s. Well, I'm not going to Labrador, so that's cool. The Cresse a massive eel like serpent said to inhabit the depths of Crescent Lake in Newfoundland. The Nullawit I think that's how you pronounce it, Nullawit. A tall, tattered skeletal entity clad in animal skin that emerged from the sea ice during winter nights in northern Inuit communities. Lord Tundrin. That's oh that sounded awful too. Sorry to anyone out there with earphones or earplugs or earbuds or whatever the fuck you call them. Oh, that just went right through my skin, right through my bones. Ugh, the sound of my straw in the can. Oh my god. It just literally gave me the goosebumps all over my body. Anyway, let's move on. The territories. Like I said, I'm coming back to Nova Scotia. I haven't I haven't ignored it. On per I did ignore it, but on purpose, okay? Territories. I love the territories. I've only been to one though. The Yukon, the monster of Partridge Creek. An unbelievable 1908 report of a living 50 foot long car carnivorous dinosaur resembling the Sar Ceratorus oh my fuck. Ceratosurus. Ceratosaurus. Oh my fuck. I'm sorry to any paleontologists out there or people who can actually pronounce these fucking words. That ain't me. And I'm uh I'm gonna be okay with that and I'm gonna just own it, okay? Stalking the frozen m mud flats The Northwest Territories The Wahila Wahila a giant prehistoric wolf creature far larger than a grey wolf, blamed for mysterious decapitations in the Nahani Valley. I have heard of that actually. After reading that I remember hearing about that. The Nakani, a distinct, aggressively hostile race of wild hidden men or subinits feared in northern forests. Nunavits or Nunavut The Kalu, I think. Oh any Inuit out there listening I sorry um I think I pronounced that right Aklut Aklut Um a terrifying mythic mythological hybrid from Inuit oral history that takes the form of an orca in the water and morphs into a giant wolf to hunt on land. The Mahaha a manic blue skinned humanoid with long razor sharp nails that roams the Arctic wastes and is said to tickle his victims to death. Is that why he's called the Mahaha? Mahaha That's funny. It's not funny if he tickles you to death, but and that would be kind of creepy, this blue skinned humanoid with long razor sharp fingernails coming at you in the cold Arctic. Okay, let's go back to Nova Scotia. Let's go back to Nova Scotia. Okay, Nova Scotia. There are two listed for Nova Scotia. The first is the Eastern Panther. Officials officially thought extinct in the province, cryptozoologists frequently track sightings of these elusive large black cougars. And this is where I had given you the spoiler. I have seen a black panther in on my island of Cape Breton. And when I was a child, I seen this. Um my parents, anyone I told, thought I was little cuckoo for cocoa puffs, you know what I mean? And um, but then scientists actually found fur. They actually found fur. Um, so that's why the crypto cryptozoologists are tracking sites of it, and it has been reported as being true. Uh so that's one of those cryptids that has been reported as being true in Nova Scotia. Uh the Phantom Black Dogs, supernatural hellhounds, or phantom canines rumored to stalk the lonely coastal trails of the Maritimes. I believe that. I just have to say I haven't seen one. I'll I'll be honest. I'm not gonna own and say I've seen that if I haven't. I have not seen that, but that is creepy as fuck. Okay, so I want to go in and actually give you guys a little bit of eyewitness accounts. Okay, and I hope you're geared up for this because we're gonna go through a few of these that I've just talked about and hear from some eyewitnesses. Yay! I love this part. Okay, so the Traverspin, Traverspine Gorilla, Labrador 1913. This is one of Canada's most compelling historical accounts because it involved an entire settlement being harassed for two winters. The sighting? In the winter of 1913, a young girl from um a young girl from the Michelin family near the Traverspine River saw a large hair-covered creature stalking her family's dogs. She ran inside to get her mother. The confrontation Mrs. Michelin grabbed a shotgun and went outside. She locked eyes with the seven foot tall ape-like creature with a distinct white mane around its head. She fired at the creature as it ducked into the brush, hearing a physical thud, but it escaped. Local lumberjacks later tracked the creature, documenting massive five hundred pound footprint depressions that featured only two prominent toes. That sounds like a big fig dude, big dude, five hundred pounds, seven hundred or seven feet tall, five hundred Wow. Oh wow. Okay. The definite Ogopogo sighting, British Columbia, 2019. This is a uh recent one, guys. Lake monster sightings are often dismissed as simple boat wakes, but a modern report from the Okanagan Lake challenged that narrative. The sighting, June 2019. Jim LaRocque, a local business owner, was out on the lake while his son was on a paddle board nearby. The account. They heard a loud swooshing sound and saw a massive serpent break the glassy water. LaRock captured cell phone video of a 36-meter long 120 feet, for those of you that are not in Canada and need the foot comparison. Serpent shape. That's a fucking long snake, dude. He described it as looking like an upside down dragon boat with at least seven distinct fins or humps paddling completely in sync. Environmental scientists studied the claim, but the sheer size and coordination movement left locals stunned. The 10-minute boat chase of Memphir. Okay, hold on. I'm gonna take a drink, but we're gonna remove the straw. We don't want that scraping again. Okay, what the hell? Nothing left in here. Did I drink all my drink? You think it was a beer? I think I did. It's empty. Damn it. Damn it. Somebody bartender, get me another one. Guys, there's nobody here. It's just you and I. And my dogs. Maybe a ghost or two. But nobody's getting me another one. And 9 30 at night, nobody wants to. Okay, let's go over this one. Modern modern era cabeth. Lake Memi, because I ain't saying that word again. Has logged hundreds of sightings dating back to the dating back to an 1847 article in the Stans Stanstead journal. Or Stan Steed Journal. Stanstead Journal. I don't know. It was in a fucking journal. Okay. It was in a paper. Why do you make me say these words? Stop. Stop. Anyway. However, one modern formally log one modern formally logged account stands out for its terrifying detail. Ooh, let's get into it. The sighting. A local boating couple was out on the lake after dark when they illuminated a creature with their spotlight. The account. They reported a snake-like neck holding bird or turtle shaped head. Okay. Oh okay. It wasn't holding a bird bird or turtle. It had a bird or turtle-shaped head. Gotcha. Six to eight feet above water. When the creature turned around turned 120 degrees specific to face them, they saw two baseball sized yellow green eyes, yellow dash green, so a mixture, I guess. Spaced nearly three feet apart. That's a fucking big hit, dude. Um panic stricken, the couple turned their boat around and fled at 18 miles per hour. Okay, I'm just not that I don't believe this. 1847. They know that the creature turned 120 degrees. Not 180, not a they didn't do a 180, like a 360 is a full turn, 180 is a half turn, right? So if I'm facing front, I turn 180, I face behind me. No, it turned 120 degrees. It's like it turned like almost all halfway around. That's number one. Number two, uh the it's 1847. I'm being stupid right now, but did they have motor boats back then? They didn't have cars yet. So I'm highly doubting they had motorboats, so they rode. They actually paddled and rode at 18 miles an hour? Is that possible? Let me pause and do a research. Okay, I I'm back. That was a not even a millisecond for you guys. So I just asked Google, is it possible to row a rowboat? Because I'm assuming that's what they were out on the lake on if they're out having a re romantic evening after dark, uh, at 18 miles per hour, because it doesn't say what kind of boat it is. And if Google says unassistant human-powered rowboat, it's not possible. It's nearly impossible because of the design of the boat. Exceptions would be current or wind, hydrofoils. Well, if it was a hydrofoil boat, pedal powered maybe. Yeah. So highly unlikely that they sped away in their 1847 rowboat or unassisted by mechanical aid boat at 18 miles an hour. The creature kept pace, trailing exactly 200 yard yards behind them for 10 straight minutes before submerging. Okay, I I'm just plain and simple. I'm sorry. I love eyewitness accounts, I love folklore, I love all these like accounts, and I'm uh I'm like eating it all up, okay? But this one I'm calling bullshit. I'm just gonna say it straight up. I think that's fucking bullshit, okay? Um, I'd have to see another uh read another eyewitness account, hear more stories about it. I do I think the creature's bullshit? No. Do I think the account of what happened is bullshit? Uh yeah. I think that's how could they know? It like, how did they measure that? Anyway. The white Sasquatch of Gibsons, British Columbia 1947. British Columbia is the global capital for Sasquatch reports, archived heavily by researchers and First Nations historians. The sighting. While most Sasquatch reports describe dark brown or black hair, a striking eyewitness report was logged in 1947 by Gibson's Landing, British Columbia. The account, a local truck driver named J. Landry was driving a rural coastal route when a massive bipedal creature, so I'm assuming that means two-legged upright, uh, stepped into the road. Unlike traditional descriptions, this specimen was completely covered in stark white fur. It paused, looked at the vehicle, then bounded effortlessly into the dense brush of the Sunshine Coast. Okay, so that reminds me or makes me automatically think of a Yeti, which a Yeti is very similar to a Sasquatch, yet a Yeti is in the um Asian mountains or Russia or something like that. The um where is it? Uh Yeti versus Sasquatch. Sasquatch versus or like the um the abonal snowman, yeah. So all white. It could have been an albino sasquatch. I mean, there's albino in all species, right? Um, where the lack of pigment uh affects your hair and your skin and all that stuff. So is that possible? Yeah, why not? If the animal exists, then the possibility of having an albino version or um a specimen is highly possible. Um, so the difference, the typical difference between the yeti in the Asian Himalayas and the Sasquatch is the Yeti is known as the abominable snowman, whereas the Sasquatch is known as Bigfoot, the Sasquatch is typically described as towering human like apes, where yet are often characterized more as an animalistic or bear like. Okay, good to know. Moving on. Uh the Igopogo or Sturgeon Theory, Ontario nineteen sixty three. Lake Simcoe's dog headed monster, the Igopogo, has made newspaper headlines for decades. Ooh, made the news. The sighting in July nineteen sixty three, the Barry the Barry Examiner, Barry is a city or a town in Ontario, published accounts of multiple group sightings. of a multi-humped beast flipping near flipping near boats. I thought it was like flipping boats nearby, but no, flipping in the water near the boats. The reality check. While eyewitnesses swore they saw a mammal mammalayan dog headed beast, local archives suggest a biological explanation. Lake Simcoe is home to the Lake Sturgeon, Canada's largest freshwater fish, which can grow over two meters long and weigh 400 pounds. That is a frickin' tuna dude or a um a halibut like they're massive. The feet and this fish features a rigid prehistoric armor plated back and mimics a s a scaly sea serpent when breaking the surface. Okay, so that could explain it. That could explain it. Now let's let's come home let's come to Nova Scotia and let's revisit the sightings in Nova Scotia. So Nova Scotia's dense Acadian forests and rugged Atlantic coastline have generated creatures uh generate centuries of eerie eyewitness encounters the Eastern Panther mainland and Cape Breton Island while wildlife officials consider the eastern cougar extinct in Nova Scotia locals frequently report sightings and I'm just gonna state for the record here back oh god this is 2026 I'm gonna say 2023 2023 yeah 2022 2023 um the Wildlife Office so the Department of Wildlife had reported on our news here in Nova Scotia to be on the lookout for to watch out because the mountain lions the cougars which it's saying are technically extinct quote unquote were uh coming down out of the mountains in Cape Breton we do have mountains here coming down out of the mountains and uh for their seven year cycle so we would have more encounters and sightings and that kind of thing so the fact that this uh report is saying that they believe them to be extinct I think that is not exactly true maybe the Black Panther they think to be extinct but definitely not the actual mountain lion or cougar. Trust me I live here and that is reported here. Um the sightings for decades residents across the Annapolis Valley and Cape Breton Highlands have reported large long tailed cats in recent years sightings of sleek jet black panthers have spiked I know this the documented cases okay so I was a child remember I said I saw one when I was a child and I would have been in this time period so the documented case is in the 1970s and 80s I was born in the mid-70s I would have been a child seeing this in the 80s okay so it puts me right in there maybe this is my account I don't know park staff and experienced trappers reported finding large unidentified unidentifiable sorry feline tracks biologists suggest these are either large either sorry biologists suggest these are either cougars moving east from other provinces escaped illegal pets or severe misidentifications of large bobcats I don't know I saw a jet black cougar at least a big cat I I was a kid that's all I saw was a big black cat definitely wasn't old house cat that's for sure and we don't have like a lot of those large breed domestic cats here so I'm just going on the theory it was a panther and it was beautiful okay um sorry that yawn just took over me and I don't know why the Shag Harbor Sea Serpent 1967 Shag Harbor is oh so known for aliens now that's something I'll have to cover in the future while Shag Harbor is international there we go. I didn't even read this sentence guys I swear to fuck. While Shag Harbor is internationally famous for its nineteen sixty seven UFO incident it is also the site of a classic marine cryptid sighting in the same year. Big year for Shag Harbor The sighting months before the famous crash and that's giving you a hint hint hint crash local fishermen out on the water reported a massive undulating sea serpent the account the witnesses described a dark rubbery creature measuring roughly sixty to eighty feet long it swarm it swam it did not swarm the boat it swam with vertical humps breaking the water moving at a speed that easily outpaced their fishing boats well that sounds very creepy I'd love to visit Shag Harbour and do a story there. I think that would be really fun what do you guys think do you think that would be fun? Do like a on the site kind of like UFO story? Hmm let me know since I am in the province and it's right there it's our like Area 51 kind of thing without the you know secret uh government people I don't even know what you call them um people that don't let you do anything. Anyway the Phantom Hound of Bullandry Island Cape Breton rooted in Celtic and Mi'kma folklore tales of supernatural black dogs are common across the Maritimes The Sighting Locals traveling rural roads at night have occasionally reported a massive silent dog running alongside their vehicle That would be fucking creepy as shit The account eyewitnesses describe a canine the size of a small horse with glowing red eyes. The creature reportedly leaves no tracks and vanishes into thin air when approached well at least it fucking vanishes would you could you imagine if it attacked when you approached it anyway I've never seen that guys and I was on Bullindry Island um a few times this week so because my the island of Cape Breton where I live is an island of islands all interconnected by ferries and bridges and Bullindry island is actually one of the islands there's five of them total that connect and Bullindry is right in the center. So I was on it a few times this week now I did want to dive more into because here in Canada as well as in the United States we have a lot of these stories that came from the oral histories of the First Nations or the indigenous peoples right so I wanted to really dive into that now where am I at for time oh look I am way over oh my goodness I am coming into an hour and I haven't even touched on this yet so maybe I'll touch on it quickly. I I don't want to do a two part or I don't want to leave you hanging so let's just let's let's just keep going and we'll try to get it in quickly. Okay the First Nations Oral Histories of Canadian Cryptids long before European settlers arrived indigenous nations across Canada documented complex ecosystems of physical and spiritual entities in indigenous frameworks these beings are rarely viewed as quote unquote monsters or quote unquote pseudoscience instead they are deeply respected they are deeply respected parts of oral history, ecological management and spiritual caution the Mi'kmaq legacy and oh my goodness if I mispronounce this or butcher it I am so sorry but the Kolu and oh my goodness I really want to get this right Jipajikum or it could be Ica Ichum I don't know I don't know I think I'm mispronouncing that actually I'm probably mispronouncing that so in Nova Scotia and the Maritimes Mi'kma oral traditions features several powerful entities that align with modern cryptid descriptions the Kolo I think I pronounced that correctly a massive predatory bird of prey large enough to carry off a person this matches the Thunderbird legends found across North America which cryptozo cryptozoologists link to surviving populations of prehistoric teratorns prehistoric teratorns the Gippicum I oh my goodness I wish I wasn't pronouncing that incorrectly but I know I am so I apologize the massive horned water serpent said to dwell in the deep lakes and muddy rivers Migma stories warn children to stay away from deep waters serving as both a practical safety lesson and a spiritual acknowledgement of underwater powers The Sasquatch The coastal sales saskes British Columbia The word sasquatch is an anglicized version of sasket I probably mispronouncing that one too a word from the uh oh my goodness halcomellum language This is where the words and my pronunciation are hard and for reasonable reasons because it's it's hard how's that for logic oh lord okay howcomalum Halco okay I'm just gonna stop trying uh language of the coastal Salash people the tradition for thousands of years First Nations across British Columbia have carved masks depicting the wild hairy man of the woods The meaning in these traditions the Saskats is not a primitive animal but a s a sentient spiritual powerful caretaker tribe of the forest they possess the ability to move invisibly and only show themselves to humans as a warning when they when the environment is being disrespected. Ooh and more and more and more and more and more sightings of sasquatches lately people that could be that could be if we're disrespecting the environment no wonder they're showing themselves more and more The Wendigo the Algonquin cautionary tales of Alberta uh of Alberta of Ontario and Alberta I saw the Wendigo in Nova Scotia so I think they're they're they're around the Wendigo is a prominent figure maybe it wasn't a Wendigo. Who am I to say? I saw fucking scary shit anyway the Wendigo is a prominent figure in Cree, Ojibaway and Algonquin Oral Histories The tradition in its describe oh it is described as a skeletal, emanciated giant with ash grey skin, deeply sunken eyes and a heart made of ice definitely not what I saw Yep seriously definitely not what I saw. Now I'm questioning what I saw. Okay the meaning rather than a simple forest monster the Wendigo represents a cor corrupting nature the corrupting nature of greed, selfishness and cannibalism. It serves as a stark cultural warning about the absolute necessity of community sharing and restraint during brutal Canadian winters The Mishipish the Ojibwe White Water Panther in the Great Lakes The Mishipish a powerful underwater deity depicting the ancient rock art most famously at the Agawa Rock pictographs in Lake Superior Provincial Park. The tradition it features the body of a giant wild cat, horns like a deer and scales like a dinosaur. The meaning controls the unpredictable waters of the Great Lakes and guards the regional copper. Ojibaway travelers would make offerings of tobacco before crossing the lakes to appease the creature and ensure safe passage through the sudden deadly storms. That was so fucking interesting guys oh my god and I know that's just a touch on Canadian crytids and cryptids as a whole but that's just like a small fraction of what information is out there. So this may become a series I may touch on crytids again I think I'll title this Canadian cryptids with like a Canadian feature that way if you're looking for like if you're following along the series you can see like cryptids USA cryptids Europe crytids so on so I think this will become a series so anyway I am well over my hour uh by the time I adjust for any long pauses and all that bullshit uh I think I'll be under my hour which I like to keep it just under an hour of you know attention spans mine included um so yeah I'm gonna leave it there and again I am interviewing some lovely ladies I found on TikTok because I just recently reactivated my TikTok uh so if you're not following me there I you can follow SWD Podcast on TikTok on Instagram and on Facebook as well as Sawin Life888 on YouTube. Um and some of these videos will be coming out on YouTube. I do have uh somebody working with and doing content for me because uh I fucking suck at it I'm just gonna say you guys have heard me say it over and over and over technology me don't mix so I do the bare minimum and the bare minimum wasn't working so I have a girl that is helping me and um she's making me talk to a camera and everything so you might actually see my face and everything. I don't know um I'm not enjoying that although I do like to talk. So that being said if you're not following the podcast wherever you're listening please give me a follow and please like this podcast episode if you like it. That really does help and share it with those that you think might enjoy it. I don't enjoy listening to my voice but you never know somebody out there might enjoy it. Anyway guys until next week which I don't know what is on my list what I finally covered cryptids. I hope you're happy I hope you guys are like thrilled to fucking death but next week oh next week we have a Reddit story so I think I will do that. And then we have uh no that's this week this week is cryptids which was supposed to be Reddit then I might do another Reddit story or a reading uh for the fifth I that you guys haven't get weighed in on that how do you feel about that maybe you want to hear to see how it goes maybe I don't know anyway um it's pretty much up in the air because July is pretty much up in the air and now with this new interview um these uh ladies so if um you're interested they're ghost hunters so I'll be talking a lot about that the tools of the trade their experiences that kind of thing some ghost stories and these are local experienced ghost stories so that might be fun so until next week guys