The Hairy Man of Port Chatham

[Guyver]

Long before the term "Bigfoot" was invented, Native American and Pioneer Americans had names for what seems to be the same creature.  Many Native Americans used the term "hairy man" and Pioneer Americans used the term "Wild man" to describe what we have come to refer to as bigfoot or sasquatch.  In his book, "Bigfoot, The True Story of Apes in America," author Loren Coleman records some of this historical information, going all the way back to early explorers in the Americas and their accounts of either encountering the creature, or recording the legends of it. 

According to a "documentary" produced by the Travel Channel called, "The Alaska Triangle" (Season 1 Episode 4) there was a supposed interaction between Americans and Native Americans who were working together at a location called Port Chatham Alaska whereby the "settlers" of this location were attacked/harassed by "sasquatch" type creatures the natives referred to as "hairymen."  Deaths, dismemberments, and disappearances are said to have occurred to such an extent that the settlers/workers of Port Chatham actually fled the location, leaving it an abandoned settlement.  

In any event, I have been on a quest to attempt to confirm, validate, or dismiss these accounts based on what I have been able to find on the internet.  So far, my search has not seemed to be fruitful.  I have one specific piece of evidence to discuss in the following post.  Is anyone out there familiar with this account, or have any additional information to add?

[Guyver]

So, there was a successful fishing/canning operation going on at Port Chatham for sometime.  This can be easily verified.  The piece of evidence that I was most intrigued by while watching the show, was a record/log book supposedly left behind by the canary manager.  In it, there were sketches of the beast that people claimed to see and they looked just like what we call sasquatch or bigfoot.  Since these events occurred during the beginning of the 20th century - there was no such thing as bigfoot or sasquatch as those names hadn't been used at the time.  This evidence was presented during by the show, but I can find no record of it.  Perhaps it's because my search skills are not that good?  Or maybe it's because the journal was an embellishment invented for entertainment on the show?  IDK which.  

I want to know if this show was based on fact or fiction.  Thoughts?

PS.  The first and most obvious point I would expect to hear is that the location of Port Chatham is the base of the Kenai peninsula which happens to be infamous for large grizzly bears.  This is near where famed and now deceased personality Timothy Treadwell was killed and eaten by grizzly bears.  So, I expect to hear from skeptics that the entire ordeal was simply a case of mistaken identity and the actual "monster" of Port Chatham was simply a large brown bear who had developed a taste for human beings as this is known to occur frequently.  The problem I have with this explanation is that Native Americans have no problem distinguishing brown bears from other animals.  Anyway, I find it an interesting story.  

[Eldorado]

Here's the trailer (90secs)

 

[Raptor Witness]

Port Chatham has some intriguing historic events surrounding it, to be sure, but what mysteriously killed many of the residents over the years wasn't what convinced me that these creatures, or beings are real. It was the indigenous people's accounts, coupled with pioneer reports of "wild men," in an obvious attempt to explain what they were seeing, in some rational way. The Sierra Sounds recorded in the 1970's are also compelling evidence, as was the Patterson–Gimlin film. 

If I had to guess about what was going on in Port Chatham, how could I argue with the belief of many of these residents?  The rash of killings over the years don't seem to match well with grizzly bear attacks. There's a different pattern to what was going on, and these residents knew it.

What exactly these creatures or beings are, I'm not sure, but I suspect that they are in a special category, which science can't explain yet; possibly part animal, and part something new to science, such as alien or of the spiritual realm. Descendants of Cain, the Nephilim, etc.   

Are they to be feared?  That depends upon your spiritual belief. I believe that they are subject to the authority of Jesus Christ, who is Lord of the Earth, but you must sincerely believe this to claim the protection, and announce your belief to the subject in question. Human beings have the Paraclete, as a powerful protector ..... so claim it.  Don't wait until you're falling from a ten story building by accident, to say, "God help me!" Have a relationship ahead of time. If you don't like organized religion, fine, you can still be thankful. Jesus said it was rare for men to be thankful, which is a big hint.

 

[Abramelin]

Cryptozoology and religious drivel combined. That must be a first...

[Guyver]

27 minutes ago, Raptor Witness said:

Port Chatham has some intriguing historic events surrounding it, to be sure, but what mysteriously killed many of the residents over the years wasn't what convinced me that these creatures, or beings are real. It was the indigenous people's accounts, coupled with pioneer reports of "wild men," in an obvious attempt to explain what they were seeing, in some rational way. The Sierra Sounds recorded in the 1970's are also compelling evidence, as was the Patterson–Gimlin film. 

If I had to guess about what was going on in Port Chatham, how could I argue with the belief of many of these residents?  The rash of killings over the years don't seem to match well with grizzly bear attacks. There's a different pattern to what was going on, and these residents knew it.

 

Agreed.  There was something unusual enough going on to make both Native Americans, and Industrial Complex Americans leave a significantly profitable enterprise.  What could be the cause?  Well, there are many possibilities.  For one, it could be sasquatch.  The problem is that nearly all claimed encounters or sightings of sasquatch in the last hundred to two hundred years have been without death or physical attack except a small few.  So, it is uncharacteristic of sasquatches to kill and eat people as this story claims.

Then there is the fact that the area is a known hotspot for large brown bears that do kill and eat people.

Then, there is the possibility of some type of religious or spiritual joo-joo fear gone awry that freaked people out.  This has been documented in South America.  At a location the natives considered cursed a scientific team suffered all kinds of harmful bacteria, like flesh eating bacteria, or it may have actually been bacteria fasciitis, I don’t recall.  In any event, people have been known to flee locations if they consider them haunted.

And lastly, there is the possibility of a serial killer, as I learned during my research of this event.  Someone raised the notion that there could have been a serial killer among the population that was causing the problems.

Without the journal highlighted in the film, for examination, and definitive proof that it is authentic, I don’t believe this story.  FWIW.

[the13bats]

I doubt in my current condition i can express this but here goes,

Imagine your living is writting a book with a name like colemans book has yet your book ends with no proof of any clain or speculation.

What i learned and people like piney collaborate is native Americans actually do not have history, folk lore whatever you want to call it that does describe the construct of "bigfoot" but countless writters and bigfoot aficionados do cherry pick, and use artist license to try to morph some native American lore tails and stories into proof bigfoot is a living creature known to them, it wasnt.

When i tried to study old stories i too came up dry on many as far as details when then i learned back in the eariler days "news papers" didnt really care at all if a story was facts just so long it sold papers and papers were known to post fiction as fact, sad but they did, so stories like of jacko or the sky monster fizzle out,

Ive also considered that some reports of Bigfoot type creature could be a human living off the grid, perhaps insane perhaps killing people even being a cannibal, but my idea is shot down that a huge unproven Bigfoot is more likely to blame,

Im all for Bigfoot being a real creature but each day that passes and nothing is proven goes further to prove to me bigfoot only exists in the minds of believers.

 

 

 

[Raptor Witness]

6 hours ago, Guyver said:

Without the journal highlighted in the film, for examination, and definitive proof that it is authentic, I don’t believe this story.  FWIW.

I’ve studied this town’s story over the years, but I don’t recall reading about this journal as part of the history. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but perhaps it was a stretch made by a single source.

Much of the indigenous history is of a negative variety, in North America, and some of these these encounters could have been dogmen, which have a more negative history.

A serial killer seems to be a bit of a stretch, given the expansive time period, but the bear theory is a more viable belief, to me.

Tim Treadwell got away with a lot before he got careless with his life, and I think he essentially committed suicide. 

[Tom1200]

19 hours ago, Guyver said:

So, there was a successful fishing/canning operation going on at Port Chatham for sometime.  This can be easily verified.  The piece of evidence that I was most intrigued by while watching the show, was a record/log book supposedly left behind by the canary manager.  In it, there were sketches of the beast that people claimed to see and they looked just like what we call sasquatch or bigfoot. 

Never mind RabidWitness's religiolocial meanderings, this is the bit that needs explaining.  Would a successful fishing/canning operation hire a canary as its manager?  That makes no economic sense - canaries are notoriously prejudiced against overweight people, yet we know from evidence that podgers make the best canners in the world.  (In fact canaries are banned by law from any employment in the State of Mississippi for that very reason.)

No - that is clearly not the case.  What we have here is a manager of canaries.  And - let's be clear about this - nobody would employ canaries in a canning factory!  (They spend the whole day playing practical jokes on each other - it ruins productivity.)  Which leaves only one sensible, practical, obvious explanation for needing a canary manager:

• Canaries are used in mines to detect noxious gases.    But there are no mines at Port Chatham.
• But there are lots and lots of underground caves (as opposed to the open-air caves found elsewhere).
• Bigfoots live in caves.
• If humans explored Bigfoot caves (using canaries) they would have brought back evidence, e.g. pelts, corpses, pottery, etc.
• No such evidence exists because it wasn't humans using the canaries!  In fact is was the Bigfoots themselves!
• Bigfoots must have killed all the human settlers at Port Chatham.  And then to conceal their crimes they themselves carried on the human activities - fishing, canning, getting drunk and going to church on Sundays.  But eventually they grew tired of this and retreated back underground.  With their canaries.  So then it looked like the humans had mysteriously vanished overnight... (cue spooky music...)

Christ, but I'm bored this afternoon.

[Guyver]

Cannery Tom, not canary.  Sheeeeze....make a typo around here - get the hammer.

Edited November 28, 2020 by Guyver

[Raptor Witness]

3 hours ago, Guyver said:

Cannery Tom, not canary.  Sheeeeze....make a typo around here - get the hammer.

@Tom1200 gets credit for creativity.

It’s the best post I’ve seen in at least a week, here.

[the13bats]

9 hours ago, Guyver said:

Cannery Tom, not canary.  Sheeeeze....make a typo around here - get the hammer.

Not from me, i laugh too much at my own typos.

[the13bats]

13 hours ago, Raptor Witness said:

A serial killer seems to be a bit of a stretch,

Yes, far more likely it was a bigfoot

[Guyver]

So, this thread is about one aspect of the series on the Alaskan Triangle.  It’s an interesting topic because of so many different aspects.  People do go missing at a high rate, lot of native lore and American history and development, etc.  and so forth.  The problem that I have is that these shows are presented as factual documentaries, then when one begins to fact check, the facts are incorrect or can’t be corroborated.  So, it makes me think that it’s just entertainment/fiction rather than factual investigation.

[the13bats]

10 hours ago, Guyver said:

So, this thread is about one aspect of the series on the Alaskan Triangle.  It’s an interesting topic because of so many different aspects.  People do go missing at a high rate, lot of native lore and American history and development, etc.  and so forth.  The problem that I have is that these shows are presented as factual documentaries, then when one begins to fact check, the facts are incorrect or can’t be corroborated.  So, it makes me think that it’s just entertainment/fiction rather than factual investigation.

 

This is what happened to me across the board when i first started going outside the box with my research and homework on topics of interest to me, sitso much went right into the trash can

amazing how if one just starts with orginal police reports how many cases fail completely appart and we realize the story we thought was factual was embellishment and out right lies and BS

roswell crash is a great example, or how many top names in ufo studies some who believe aliens believe earth call betty hill a loon, if one studies her outside ufo books and documentaries they quickly see why.

Documentaries are made for entertainment not to present facts if they do present facts its just by chance not propose.

[HollyDolly]

I saw the same show. I really haven't heard of BigFoot going and killing and eating people. Not saying it couldn't be possible in this case. If the creature was living there, and the workers there were  doing a lot of large scale fishing, maybe this creature thought that they were stealing all it's food.So when  people went wandering around in the woods, and it encountered them, it would kill or mangale them. Natives had enough brains to stay out of its way.They certainly would  know a bear regardless of species  from a Bigfoot .Various native american tribes have stories of skin walkers, wendingos etc.Creatures and spirits they take very seriously.

Look at Europe. They had stories of werewolves, vampires,etc.  Never heard  any vampire stories from momma who was hungarian. My dad who was german however, sometimes would tell family ghost stories, and even one story of a werewolf encounter by a great uncle of his mother, back in Latvia.Her family were Baltic germans, and grandpa's were from Bavaria. Also, maybe all the people left because they overfished the area, so put themselves out of business.That happens too you know.There were several towns in Texas, like Wizard Wells and Wooten Wells that  had mineral springs where people would take the baths, socialize, etc.  Over time, this activity wasn't the in thing to do,  so gradually visitors drifted away, and they became ghost towns.If  they did indeed find such a journal, then they should turn it over to the State Archives in Juneau for safe keeping. sometimes it's had to  know the truth with these stories. For example, everyone from the movie Patton  has  heard the story of the general slapping a soldier there in Italy. Some people might think it was added to the movie for effect, which is not correct. My late father was in Italy when this happend, and he heard about it like a lot of other men, through the grapevine. In the case of this town, if you can track down former workers and their families who lived in the town, you might get more of the truth in this matter. Not that  memories don't fade, or people don't embelish things, they do.But it might be closer to the truth than what was shown on the show.

[the13bats]

Bigfoot eats people, ive heard a self appointed BF or two get wide eyed dramatic and say this,

For many years people and entertainment TV has hunted BF and zip, for msny years people have hunted lions, tigers and bears all of ehich have killed people in fact theres video of them killing people,

We have no real provenance tangible proof of BF to start with and even less if it existed it eats people, if it did it wiuld have been discovered.

[DodgyDaoist]

On 11/27/2020 at 8:49 PM, Guyver said:

So, there was a successful fishing/canning operation going on at Port Chatham for sometime.  This can be easily verified.  The piece of evidence that I was most intrigued by while watching the show, was a record/log book supposedly left behind by the canary manager.  In it, there were sketches of the beast that people claimed to see and they looked just like what we call sasquatch or bigfoot.  Since these events occurred during the beginning of the 20th century - there was no such thing as bigfoot or sasquatch as those names hadn't been used at the time.  This evidence was presented during by the show, but I can find no record of it.  Perhaps it's because my search skills are not that good?  Or maybe it's because the journal was an embellishment invented for entertainment on the show?  IDK which.  

I want to know if this show was based on fact or fiction.  Thoughts?

PS.  The first and most obvious point I would expect to hear is that the location of Port Chatham is the base of the Kenai peninsula which happens to be infamous for large grizzly bears.  This is near where famed and now deceased personality Timothy Treadwell was killed and eaten by grizzly bears.  So, I expect to hear from skeptics that the entire ordeal was simply a case of mistaken identity and the actual "monster" of Port Chatham was simply a large brown bear who had developed a taste for human beings as this is known to occur frequently.  The problem I have with this explanation is that Native Americans have no problem distinguishing brown bears from other animals.  Anyway, I find it an interesting story.  

Intriguing mystery.

The Cannery seems to have change hand a few times though :

Quote

Chatham Straits Packing Co.; Sitkoh Bay; sold to Pacific Packing & Navigation Co. 1901; sold to George T. Myers 1904; sold to New England Fish Co. 1929

https://alaskahistoricalsociety.org/page/3/?s=canned+nn+cannery

https://alaskahistoricalsociety.org/?s=Chatham+Straits+Packing+Company

The Alaska Historical Society would appear to be a good starting place for further info, as it seems they have a wealth of resources, so maybe the Record /log books of managers can be sourced.

The following links predate the show, and also offer up the name the locals use for these alleged critters. The Alaka magazine article makes mention of a piece run by an Anchorage newspaper about a schoolteachers story and events aound the WW2 era, so if the article could be found in old newspaer record it may offer up some further info.

https://redoubtreporter.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/haunting-memories-—-‘nantiinaq’-sightings-spirits-led-to-desertion-of-native-village/

https://alaskamagazine.com/authentic-alaska/somethings-afoot-in-port-chatham-century-old-rumors-persist-of-a-terror-in-the-mountains/

https://www.kinyradio.com/news/news-of-the-north/mysteries-of-portlock-alaska-and-the-abandonment-of-the-small-town-in-the-1900s/

Always enjoy a mystery

[Trelane]

I have wanted to believe for so long but still haven't experienced or observed anything that would make me believe in the creature. I will try again this weekend when I head out into the Olympic National Forest again.

[Guyver]

6 hours ago, Trelane said:

I have wanted to believe for so long but still haven't experienced or observed anything that would make me believe in the creature. I will try again this weekend when I head out into the Olympic National Forest again.

It’s a good spot to go.  Best of luck to you.

[Jon the frog]

On 12/2/2020 at 4:08 PM, the13bats said:

Bigfoot eats people, ive heard a self appointed BF or two get wide eyed dramatic and say this,

For many years people and entertainment TV has hunted BF and zip, for msny years people have hunted lions, tigers and bears all of ehich have killed people in fact theres video of them killing people,

We have no real provenance tangible proof of BF to start with and even less if it existed it eats people, if it did it wiuld have been discovered.

But they all turned vegan, they are not predators anymore. It's quite harder to film them ! PLease don't take me seriously... or i will say they returned in their dimension by one of ther ethereal portal of doom...

[Mr.United_Nations]

What about the dead hunters? Anyone watching bedtime stories?

[Trelane]

Well, I did a fair amount of hiking and still no monster.

[Resume]

On 12/15/2020 at 9:15 AM, Mr.United_Nations said:

What about the dead hunters? Anyone watching bedtime stories?

What about them?

[Trelane]

Spent 3 days hiking just west of Mt. Stone in the Olympic National Forest. No signs of anything bigfoot-like.