Creature record / 1811
7 January 1811. The frozen Athabasca River. David Thompson, surveyor and mapmaker for the North West Company, was leading his party toward the mountain pass. Then they found it. A track in the snow on the ice. Thompson measured it. Fourteen inches long. Eight inches wide. Four large toes, each with a short claw. The ball of the foot had sunk three inches deeper than the toes. The men of his party took it for a young mammoth. Thompson's journal said bear. Years later, he was less sure. Nobody followed the trail. Two centuries on, it is often called the first sasquatch footprint ever found by a European.
Winter, 1811. David Thompson was crossing the Rocky Mountains. He was a surveyor, trader and mapmaker for the North West Company, and his Iroquois guide, Thomas, was showing him the route. On 4 January his party of twelve trudged along the frozen Athabasca River, hauling pemmican, grease, flour and half-dried meat. Behind them, at Henry House near present-day Jasper, William Henry kept the supplies and horses.