“The Screaming Devil on the Falls”

This report came to me through the old Central Alberta Sasquatch Research website, back in 1999. The witness [who wishes to remain anonymous] observed a Sasquatch near the top of the falls. She was traumatized by this experience & identified the creature as “The Screaming Devil on the Falls”.

The witness stated that during the early morning hours [3:00 – 4:00 am] of July, 9^th/ 1998, a sound like nothing she had ever heard before began to emanate from the top of the waterfall, at Crystal Falls, AB.

The sound was described as a roaring scream that carried so much volume that she felt it vibrating through her body. She said that it reminded her of the sounds the movie monsters would make, in some of the horror movies that exist; a terrifying & wretched sound.

The witness shook her boyfriend to wakefulness & they both sat and listened as the cries continued to echo through the night. Finally, her boyfriend suggested that they go and see what was making these awful sounds; so armed with a high-powered rifle & a spotlight, the two set out towards the bottom of the falls. Within 10 minutes they arrived at the bottom of the falls, but all became silent when they arrived. They both had the feeling that they were being watched; the witness told her boyfriend that she wanted to leave the area and go back to the camp, but no sooner had she said this when an ear piercing shriek cut through the darkness. The witness took the spotlight and panned its beam over the top of the falls. What she saw gave her nightmares for weeks to come.

Standing on top of the falls was a large, hair-covered, bipedal creature that had its arms held straight above its head. When the spotlight beam illuminated the creature it roared & used one arm to cover its eyes; with its arm shading its eyes it let loose another screaming roar, and started to back away into the night. Soon the creature was out of sight, but all the witness could do was stand there, dumbfounded. The creature she had just observed looked like one of those movie monsters, but this one was real & that terrified her all the more.

The witness & her boyfriend stood in silence for an estimated 2 – 3 minutes. Then they heard a shriek off to their right hand side…; the creature was coming down the hill towards their location. The witness said that she felt like she was going to cry, but her boyfriend grabbed her & they stumbled through the darkness, back towards their camp. 5 minutes later, they could see the light of their campfire, so they put on a burst of speed & ran the rest of the way. They stacked wood onto the campfire, hoping that this would drive the creature away, but within a few moments they heard a low guttural growling coming from the wood, to the left of their camp. This was all her boyfriend could take; he shouldered his rifle & fired towards the area where the growling was coming from. This rifle shot elicited another shriek from the creature; then they could hear it moving off through the trees, heading back towards the direction of the falls. They heard nothing from the creature again that night.

For the remainder of the night, little sleep was had.

When asked, the witness estimated the creature’s height somewhere between 10 & 12 feet, she stated that it was “dark” in color. She could not say from sure if the creature was a male or a female, but for some reason she “just felt” that it was a male.

The witness admitted that this was the most frightened she had ever been in life. Her mind couldn’t rationalize the idea of what she was seeing. She didn’t call it a Sasquatch, a Bigfoot, or even a Wildman. She said that she thought it was a Devil. Not “The Devil”, but a creature of malevolence nonetheless, though she could not accurately tell me why she thought this. This idea remained with her for almost a year. Later on she realized that it was just a wild animal, albeit an extraordinary one, but still a wild animal; acting as a wild animal would when confronting a human being in an area that it may have considered its territory. After that she tried to get around the idea that she indeed had been one of the ‘lucky’ people who had the opportunity to see a Sasquatch. A creature that she had never thought really existed, but was just an old native legend; a mind echo of a creature that may have roamed the earth at one time. She told me that she wished she had never seen this creature, as it gave here nightmares for weeks to come. And that it ruined her favorite camping spot, and even though I told her that there was little to no chance that she would ever see this creature again, especially in the same area & under the same circumstances, she stated that the memory of the encounter would always be associated with the area & would taint any future vacation that she might have decided to take there. She was adamant that she would never again spend any of her time at or around Crystal Falls.

Even though we know the creature was a Sasquatch & not a “devil”. I chose to keep the name of the report “The Screaming Devil on the Falls”, because this is what she first though it was & it describes her state of mind during the encounter.

*Original interview taken on 04/16/99.

*Interview taken & report written out by Sean Viala. Translated from original interview notes.

*This copy written on 01/21/04.

WCSRO, 2006.