What lives on the Mountain?
/This story comes from my cousin Brandon who lives in Thunder Bay ON.
I remember this story because it really creeped me out so bad that I still get full body chills.
two statues of ojibwe women stand in front of mount mckay (anemki wejiw)
At the head of Lake Superior, there is a reservation called Fort William First Nation. In the middle of the reservation is Mt McKay or in Ojibwe Anemki Wejiw. There is a lower summit where pow-wows are held near the top of the mountain, and the last summit requires climbing gear but rewards you with a beautiful view.
Hopefully, this tale won’t discourage you from visiting, as it is a marvel to behold.
Long overgrown with trees and brush, the area was only recently cleared out. The story takes place when the area was still an overgrown lot with climbable, rusted-but-still-red ski lifts going up the mountain. Long out of use, somehow, they were still vibrant against the dark greens and browns of the bush.
In the day, these red poles poked out of the ground like Christmas ornaments on a pine tree. We would run over from the safety of the yard and blitz through the trees to climb them, unaware of tetanus and how ridiculously close we were to contracting it. I remember spending hours goofing off in this “jungle gym” and then running back when we got hungry.
Aerial photo of mount mckay ski resort in 1977
Mount mckay brush durng the day
Sometimes I would stay over at my aunts, sleeping on a couch that faced the side of the mountain we played on. Through the massive bay window filled with plants, at night you could see as far as the front yard, the road dimly lit by a streetlight further down the block, and the thick trees lining the other side of the road. Most of what you could see was pitch black shadows, and slightly less black shadows.
I always felt like someone or something watching me sleeping through the window. I would stay up late at night watching satellite TV (we only had cable at home) and periodically feeling like my skin was crawling, as if someone was intensely staring at me.
Brandon creeped me out so badly I stopped sleeping on the couch and opted for a mattress in the basement.
His story goes like this:
“We were playing on the mountain when me and my buddy heard a crashing way up the mountain. We both looked in the direction where we heard the ruckus, and we see some big thing smashing through trees. Like, smashing trees – no joke, there were broken trees all over the place and they had some guys from MNR come and pick it all up. Weird guys in lab coats and some strange vans.
Anyways. We’re looking up the mountain, and this thing is just going nuts – like just rippin’ the place up. We get scared cause its way up the mountain, and we can SEE this thing, it’s like a big hairy dude, or someone in a Gilly suit, and it should be too far to see details like the chunks of fur or hair or whatever is covering the guy.
So, we both just start taking off towards the house. Didn’t even have to say anything, just took right off. And we’re running, just frickin’ givin’ er down the side of the mountain, and we hear it change direction from wherever it was going, to towards us. And we both start screaming like crazy, because we’re freaking out, I can hear my heart beating in my ears, I can taste blood in every breath, I’m sweating like crazy and we can see the house through the trees.
We’re hooting and hollering like crazy, basically screaming, and the bear man, or whatever, kinda looked like a bear anyways, the bear man behind us is smashing through where the paintball park stands today.
We dip across the road, and as we make it up the driveway to the house, the floodlights come on, we book it up the steps and through the front door, not looking back once.
We’re coughing and dying, but we scramble to the front window to look and see if it followed us, and it’s standing on the other side of the road, STARING AT US. Like, just standing there. Ugh, I can still feel how it felt while it looked at us, thing was UGLY. It looked like a dude, but a BIG dude, his face was fricked up, looked like he got hit in the face all the time as a kid, and was just covered in hair. Like head-to-toe dreadlocks, but not on purpose, like those TLC shows where they should just call CPS instead. It looked like I could smell it, I feel like we could smell it man. Through the window and everything.
I’ll never forget its eyes, just piercing into me and buddy. It was pissed, but eventually it just turned around and walked back into the trees.”
The two boys swear by their story, that it's true, and that there is a bear man living on the mountain.
Other reserve members say there is an angry spirit living on the mountain, or the lost soul of a forgotten member of homo sapiens.
Regardless, something lives up on the mountain, and it is pissed.
Creature from the North - Megan Bannon
Bannon brings tales from their upbringing around Anemki Wejiw (Thunder Mountain). Hidden in the shadowy corners of the Canadian Shield, ancient and modern secrets wait to be told.
In an area of Canada where reality subverts itself - the lush greens of the bush, and the piercing white snow, blend together until there is no longer a horizon…
People hear things, smell things, see things…encounter things.
Thanks to being in proximity of this paranormal area during Bannon’s life, they have experienced and heard stories of encountering these peculiar entities. In this creepy corner of the internet, they will share some of those stories.
Paranoiacs beware, and proceed with caution…
Beyond the Veil…
