Old Yellow Top
By Cole Herrold
In the annals of sasquatch research, there
are tons of cases involving evidence or behavior that seem to indicate a
biological species. These behaviors and features are so specific that they
match known scientific examples of other animals. One of perhaps the most
interesting features reported in some sasquatch reports is what seems to be
examples of piebald individuals. Piebald in organisms is simply having two
alternative patches of color fur, and it is something seen in a variety of
animals. So its extremely interesting and adds a unique patina of credibility in this series of sightings.
The first reports of this manimal, known
as Old Yellow Top, Yellow Top, or its original name PreCambrian Shield Man
appeared in the North Bay Nugget but were made famous through John
Green’s Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us after Rene Dahinden gave him the
clippings. The very first sighting of the creature occurred either in September
1906 (some reports state 1907), where it was seen by a group of men building
the headframe at the Violet Mine near Cobalt, yet further information on this
initial sighting went seemingly unreported or was lost over the course of time.
During this time, however, the creature continued to roam the area, being seen
by the countless miners who worked in the area. All of the accounts of the time,
which were more like whispers, described the creature in the same way as
approximately 7ft tall with dark brown/black body hair and a mane of pale
yellowish head hair.
On July 27, 1923, the second documented
sighting of the creature was reported in the Nugget. On this occasion, Mr.
J. A. MacAuley and Mr. Lorne Wilson claimed that they had seen the creature
while working on their mining claims which was located Northeast of the
Wetlaufer Mine. The two prospectors were taking test samples from the area when
they encountered what they initially thought was a bear picking at a blueberry
patch. Wilson wanting to scare off the animal, proceeded to go and throw a
stone at the creature and expected it to simply wander away, yet this was not
the case. “It kind of stood up and growled at us. Then it ran away. It sure was
like no bear that I have ever seen. Its head was kind of yellow ad the rest of
it was black like a bear, all covered with hair”.
On April 16, 1946, the creature was seen
once more roaming around the cobalt mining camp. The creature was seen by a
woman and her son who lived near Gillies Depot while they were walking the railroad
tracks on their way into Cobalt. The anonymous woman said that she spotted a
dark hair-covered creature with a "light head" lumbering off the railroad
tracks into the woods near Gillies Lake. She was unable to get a clear look at
the creature but did notice that it walked like a man. It's from this sighting
that it was believed that if this was the same creature as seen in 1906 that it
was over 40 years old.
On August 5, 1970, 27 miners on their way
to work the graveyard shift at Cobalt Lobe were riding a bus when the bus suddenly
went out of control and almost plunged down a nearby rock-cut. The bus driver
Aimee Latreille who had been driving this bus route for 4 months, said that he
was startled by a dark form that walked across the road in front of him. None
of the miners or the driver were hurt in the accident. Latreille would comment,
"at first I thought it was a big bear. But then it turned to face the
headlights, and I could see some light hair, almost down to its shoulders. It
couldn't have been a bear". Mr. Latreille said he did not know if he would
continue to drive the bus after the incident. "I have heard of this thing
before but never believed it. Now I am sure". One of the miners on the bus
got a brief glimpse of the creature, and Larry Cormack said that the creature
“looked like a bear to me at first, but it didn’t walk like one. It was kind of
half stooped over. Maybe it was a wounded bear, I don’t know”. Mr. Cormack
initially did not believe in the existence of the creature even though his
father had talked about it when he was younger. Throughout this time, there
were two other occasions where the creature was said to of come out of the
woods and scared bus passengers; when it does this, it waves a club in the air.
The creature (if the same one) was nearly 70 years old when it was last seen in
the area.
While these are all of the official
documented accounts that appeared in the newspaper, there was allegedly a photo
taken on July 18, 1923, of the creature. The photograph shows a dark
fur-colored being standing in a wooded forest. The creature has a yellow
fur-covered head which gives it a rather Muppet look. Not much is known about
this photo, and outside of it appearing on the Encyclopaedia of
Cryptozoology Wiki, I have not been able to find the original source from
which it originated. There are some concerning elements of the photo that do
seem to indicate that it is a hoax, but until further information can be found,
the photo remains inconclusive. This colored photograph, if authentic, would be
one of the earliest photographs of a sasquatch, second only to the 1894 photo
and captured right before a 1940s photo.
Some theories for the creature from the
time were that it was a Pre-Cambrian man who lived in a cave near the area.
Another theory, one of which was popularized by the author of the August 5,
1970, article of the North Bay Nugget, was that this entire encounter
was a hoax either by the driver or from some "reveller from the Open Cut
Saloon working off a big head." The problem obviously with this is that
while the 1970 encounter might have been a hoax yet, it is unlikely since
there's been a history of a similar specifically described creature in the area
for at least 70 years, as well as the fact that there were multiple witnesses
of the creature as it crossed the road.
This case is an example of what
Cryptozoologists Loren Coleman and Mark A. Hall would refer to as Marked
Hominids. These creatures are similar to the traditional sasquatch in overall appearance,
yet they have more human attributes than ape-like features. These types of creatures
tend to exist in the subpolar regions of the world. The main feature that
distinguishes them are different colored patches of fur, arms that do not reach
below the knees, flat buttocks, visible genitalia, and protruding stomachs with
splayed-toed feet which reach 10-14 inches long and 3-5 inches wide with a
narrow curving impression.
This is, to me, one of the most
interesting cases of a sasquatch-type hominid, for it's similar to what
biologists experience with natural animals. Occasionally in nature, a team of
biologists or ecologists will encounter a piebald animal or an animal that they
would nickname or have some special relationship with, and from this, they can
track and study the species more. The fact that almost 70 years Cobalt sighted
Old Yellow Top is akin to animals of that kind. It's a shame that there was not
more research done on the creature before its death since no reports of this
particular creature have been sighted in the area since then. If researchers
and scientists had the chance to do more research in the area and the chance to
follow the creature and monitor its behavior, perhaps some of the problems
researchers experience now in regard to the study of these creatures, but
unfortunately, its something that will remain in hindsight and the past.
Quick Facts:
Species/Potential Species: Primate/
Hominid
Location: Cobalt, Ontario, Canada
Sighted: 1906-1907, 1923, 1947, 1970
Works Cited:
The Bigfoot Book By Nick Redfern
Cryptozoology A-Z By Loren Coleman
Sasquatch the Apes Among Us By John Green
The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other
Mystery Primates by Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe
Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to
Cryptozoology - Volume 2 By George M. Eberhart
“Old Yellow Top” Encyclopaedia of
Cryptozoology. cryptidarchives.fandom.com/wiki/Old_Yellow_Top. Accessed July 2,
2022.
"Pre Cambrian Shield Man Seen by Two
Prospectors" North Bay Nugget, 27 July 1923
"'Old Yellow-Top' Reported Seen in
Coleman Township" North Bay Nugget, 16 April 1947
"Third Appearance by Pre Cambrian Shield
Man" North Bay Nugget, 5 August 1970
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