My friend Peter Samuelson passed away in January 2023 in a Maine hospice after a battle with lung cancer. To rock hounds near and far he was legendary, having prospected for crystals in the White Mountain most of his adult life. One of his finds is in the Smithsonian. A crystal named Samuelsonite is named for him.
On a different note, talk of a Sasquatch bubbles up around here once in a while and there has been some recent talk. I thought I would reprint this article I wrote in 2006 about an encounter that Samuelson claimed he had in the Ossipee Mountains with his girlfriend and his dog. You can decide for yourself if you believe it.
November 2006: Peter Samuelson has been prospecting in these mountains for more than 40 years. Back in the late 1960s, when I was being introduced to the area by working summers up at the AMC, he was already prospecting far and wide in the mountains, carrying heavy packs of supplies in, and heavy packs of stones out.
His many stories about the mountains — a few of which I have taken part in — have been part of my own mythology of the White Mountains. Recently, he approached me to remind me of his Sasquatch story in the Ossipees, and lightheartedly suggested I write a column about it.
At first I found the idea amusing. But, then I realized he had honestly told me the story of what he and his friend Holly saw that day in the mountains — there is no reason to think otherwise — and an interpretation of the events should be left up to the reader. Even Samuelson himself isn’t sure at all what actually happened.
It was mid-summer, 1979.
Samuelson, his dog named Kat, and his girlfriend Holly Swaffield, then of Wolfeboro, were out prospecting in the Ossipee Range.
“We drove in the Gilman Valley Road, parked at the gate and continued up the old road past the Tamworth/Ossipee town line,” he said. “Then we cut into the woods on the right and headed west up Bald Mountain.”
The ledgy Bald Mountain is taller than Mount Whittier and is located just south of it. From its open ledges, you can look south past Bayle Mountain to Connor Pond, located in the center of the range.
“We bushwhacked in 2 miles, up to the ledges on Bald,” Samuelson said. “The area contains a lot of Conway granite and we were looking for contact zones, edges where two types of rock meet. Along these zones, it is possible to dig for pockets of beryls or topaz crystals.”
As the trees opened up before them, and Connor Pond became visible far below to their left, they saw a strange sight about 100 yards ahead on the ledges.
“It was a small structure, yet made of big stones, stacked on each other,” he said. “The roof was flat and made of thatched hemlock bows. There was an opening, like a rustic doorway. We saw a giant man-like creature inside, about 7 feet high, and back to us. It was totally covered with tangled gray hair about 3 inches long.”
In the same instant that this all became visible to them, Kat began growling intensely and the creature started to make loud noises indicating it was upset.
“I can’t describe the noise,” said Samuelson. “Anyway, Holly freaked, and we all felt threatened. We hightailed it out of there immediately, in the direction we had come. Only later, part way down the mountain, did we pause and ask yourselves, ‘What did we see?'”
They had both carried cameras, but in the urgency to leave never thought to take a picture.
Over the next few days, they told various acquaintances of their experience. Asked how these people reacted, Samuelson said with a smile, “You know how.”
A few months later, Holly excitedly called him and said she had been to the Wolfeboro Library and found a fascinating story. During a midwinter thaw in the 1890s, a person in a cabin on the shore of Connor Pond, located in the center of the Ossipee Range, saw an alarming thing.
A dog had wandered out on the thawing pond. It fell through the ice and was floundering vainly for a long time to get out. Suddenly, a large hairy human-like creature came out of the woods from the direction of Bald Mountain, reached out long arms and rescued the dog, then immediately disappeared back in the woods from the direction it first appeared.
That old story added a little continuity to their own experience, no matter how unbelievable. Still, it took Samuelson a year to get his courage and curiosity up enough to return alone to the site of their mysterious and alarming encounter on Bald Mountain.
Holly wouldn’t go with him. As he walked out onto to the ledges, he was struck again, this time because there was absolutely no sign of the structure they had seen the year before. He picked over the area thoroughly, looking for the slightest dent in the ledges where the big stones might have rested, stones that would normally take two or three people to move. There was nothing.
Back to today, I thought I’d say “Farewell, Peter.” May you find many crystals and have wondrous encounters in heavenly mountains.
Welllll, every time someone sees one of these they either get the willys and run but the creature never catches them or they fail to take a picture. Then when there is a picture it is always grainy and can't tell what you are looking at. They still push the film with the guy in the gorilla suit and say it's "Evidence". No hunter has shot one and game camera's come up empty. Then there is quality thermal imaging that can see literally in the dark. Then there is the time in the 70s when A girl friend and I saw something crash into Lake Massabesic at night. We never did find out what it was and I even checked FAA crash records. Now that is a story.
I had not heard that my friend Peter S. had passed away. He would call the radio station often to keep my up to date. I met him in the 1980's and more recently he had given me pictures of him skiing in his youth at Cranmore and some other personal articles. I enjoyed him very much! If you can, could you offer me more info on his passing?
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Welllll, every time someone sees one of these they either get the willys and run but the creature never catches them or they fail to take a picture. Then when there is a picture it is always grainy and can't tell what you are looking at. They still push the film with the guy in the gorilla suit and say it's "Evidence". No hunter has shot one and game camera's come up empty. Then there is quality thermal imaging that can see literally in the dark. Then there is the time in the 70s when A girl friend and I saw something crash into Lake Massabesic at night. We never did find out what it was and I even checked FAA crash records. Now that is a story.
Ed,
I had not heard that my friend Peter S. had passed away. He would call the radio station often to keep my up to date. I met him in the 1980's and more recently he had given me pictures of him skiing in his youth at Cranmore and some other personal articles. I enjoyed him very much! If you can, could you offer me more info on his passing?
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Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.