Batsquatch

The road from Buckley climbs into the foothills of Mount Rainier through timber country, and at half past nine on an April night in 1994 there was one set of headlights on it. They belonged to a pickup driven by Brian Canfield, eighteen years old, on his way home to the settlement of Camp One above Lake Kapowsin in Pierce County, Washington. Then the engine stopped. The lights went with it. The truck rolled to a halt in the dark, and something came down onto the road about thirty feet ahead.

What is known about Batsquatch begins and very nearly ends with what Canfield said next. He told his story to C. R. Roberts, a reporter at The News Tribune in Tacoma, who printed it that same month under a headline about a Mount Rainier youth and a close encounter in the foothills. Roberts came away convinced the young man was sincere. Every later telling, in books, on television and on beer labels, goes back to that one interview.

The thing in the road, Canfield said, stood about nine feet tall. It had blue-tinted fur, a face like a wolf, tufted ears and feet like a bird’s. Its teeth were white and plainly visible, though he was careful to say they were not fangs. The eyes were yellow, shaped like a piece of pie, with pupils like a half moon. And folded at its shoulders it had wings.

For several minutes nothing happened. The creature stood perfectly still and looked at him, in what he called a deep stare, as though it were looking right through him. He was frightened enough that his hair stood up. Yet he did not feel threatened, he said. He felt out of place, which is a strangely polite thing to feel in front of a nine-foot animal. Then its fingers twitched. The wings began to unfold, and they were as wide as the road. It turned its head, looked back at him once and started to beat them, and the truck rocked in the wind it made. It rose and went off in the direction of the mountain. A few minutes later the engine started on its own, and Canfield drove home as fast as the pickup would go.

He went back the same night with his mother and a neighbour. They found nothing: no tracks, no fur, no mark on the road.

The name came with the newspaper coverage. It is a plain joke, bat plus Sasquatch, and later writers cannot agree whether the witness or the reporter said it first. Either way it stuck, and it did the creature a great deal of good. A blue winged wolf-man seen once by one teenager might have been forgotten by summer. Batsquatch was not.

Nobody has said where it comes from. Canfield offered no theory. A popular claim holds that people saw a winged creature near Mount St. Helens around the eruption of May 1980, some fifty miles to the south, and that the blast set it loose. No report from 1980 has been produced to support this, and the claim appears only in retellings written after 1994. The same is true of most of what has since been added to the creature. In later versions it lands on the bonnet of the truck, its eyes turn red, it grows fangs, and its wings stretch to fifty feet. A local man is said to have photographed it from his light aircraft, and the photographs have never been shown. Hikers on Mount Shasta in California reported a bat-faced flyer in 2009 and borrowed the name. None of this is in the first account.

Held to that account, its abilities are few and clear. It flies, on wings large enough to lift a body half as tall again as a tall man. It is strong enough to shake a truck with its wingbeats. And for as long as it stood in the road, the truck would not run, a detail that puts it alongside Mothman and the other winged figures of American roadside legend, where failing engines are part of the pattern.

Its limits are those of its evidence. It hurt no one and took nothing. It left no trace on the ground. It was seen by one person, once, for a few minutes, and it has never been reliably reported again.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Batsquatch?

Batsquatch is a winged cryptid reported in the foothills of Mount Rainier in Washington State. It is described as about nine feet tall, with blue-tinted fur, a wolf-like face, yellow eyes and very large wings. The name joins the words bat and Sasquatch.

Who first saw Batsquatch?

Brian Canfield, an eighteen-year-old from Camp One in Pierce County, Washington, reported the first and best-known Batsquatch sighting in April 1994. He said his truck stalled at about 9:30 at night on the road home from Buckley and the creature landed in the road about thirty feet ahead. His account was published that month in The News Tribune of Tacoma by reporter C. R. Roberts.

What does Batsquatch look like?

According to Brian Canfield, Batsquatch stood about nine feet tall and had blue-tinted fur, a face like a wolf, tufted ears and bird-like feet. Its eyes were yellow with half-moon pupils, and its teeth were white but were not fangs. Its wings, when opened, were as wide as the road.

Is Batsquatch dangerous?

The original Batsquatch report describes no attack. The creature stood and stared at Brian Canfield for several minutes, then flew away, and he said he did not feel threatened. His truck would not start while the creature was present and started again a few minutes after it left.

Did Batsquatch come from Mount St. Helens?

A popular story says Batsquatch was first seen near Mount St. Helens around the 1980 eruption. No report from 1980 has been produced, and the claim appears only in retellings written after the 1994 sighting near Mount Rainier. Brian Canfield himself gave no explanation of where the creature came from.

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