Locals call him “old yellow mane”.
IMG_1821, originally uploaded by Mic2006.
Though Doug Shier tells me that all roads in the area lead back to Cobalt, I am warned by an older gent in the Silver Load Hotel’s restaurant to be careful out there if I am exploring the ore piles. It was a little cryptic; you might say kind of creepy. I thanked him for the advice, finished pouring my coffee and headed out. I wondered what he might be alluding to. Maybe he was talking about getting lost or falling down a shaft like the Chinese laundering family-hmmmm (They all disappeared one night leaving the food still cooking on the stove – never to be seen again – see one of my earlier posts on Cobalt).
Once out there it really began to play on my mind. I had followed an old tramline down a narrow valley between towering white pines. I was in a hidden valley that for some reason had escaped the miners axe. There was supposedly an abandoned mill a few kilometres up the path. My source told me that it was on the left hand side just before the tailings swamp.
From the impressive “Little silver Vein Mine” I had followed a short incline up to the tramline. I soon found myself pushing along a tree-lined tunnel of soft, feathery-limbed tamarack and cedar. It was a wonderfully “organic experience” that started off in a relatively wholesome way but eventually began to feel quite creepy.
The further I went the more subdued the forest became. Eventually there was only deathly silence. I found myself dwelling on the oddly disturbing feeling of being watched. I thought back to something that I had recently read of. It was the appearance of “Old Yellow Mane”. He is Ontario’s northern Sasquatch. Yellow Mane had first been seen in 1906 by miners at the nearby Violet Mine. He was seen again in 1923 by two prospectors who surprised him while he was picking blueberries. They supposedly threw rocks at the poor fellow and he ran away. As was reported in the North Bay Nugget, Yellow Mane was seen for a third time in 1946. A woman and her son saw him ambling along beside some rail tracks. I never found the mill or “Old Yellow Mane” but the walk was quite surreal.
How absurd, I have lived in Cobalt my whole life and to think that some people from southern destinations can fear monger is beyond me.
Stories of Old Yellow Mane are just stories that give people something to do.
We have far more serious things to fear in Cobalt and area which are deteriorating highways, higher gasoline prices, higher rates of cancer, heart disease and diabetes than the rest of the province and Canada for that matter, and problems with black bears.
Try writing about something tangible that Northerners can relate to.
Thanks , Sue Nielsen
Hi Sue, here’s something that might interest you.
1900- 1.6 Billion People
2012- 7.0 Billion People
112 years- 5.4 Billion People
Solution to problem- Stop Creating Children
The life you save just might be the one you don’t create.
uhm Hi… Mrs Neilson….. although what you said about more important things to think about in Cobalt is true….. this is just a story that people like to tell… you don’t know if this is true or not, because nobody has real proof… nobody can say that sasquach or “bigfoot” is real or not… all i’m saying is that people dont always have to worry about the bad things… and can try to concentrate on things that they can tell or think about for fun.
later…
~!@#Austin#@!~
$$$
whoa there sue.
i entered a search for ontario bigfoot sightings.. not cobalt infrastucture failures
give the man some respect.. this is the internet, not your local editorial page, he can talk about whatever he wants
i thought it was a good article
Hi Sue – Keep in mind that the whole world reads blogs not just Northerners. Your pressing issues are not everyones pressing issues, personally, I just blog because I feel creative and I would like other people who are interested in what I am interested to have something to read. My real life is full of “heavy” stuff – blogging is about enjoyment for me. Mick
Yea Sue, whoa, get your undies out of that knot, because for sure you find no enjoyment in thinking about the mysteries locked up in our Canadian Folklore. wow I guess we all aren’t from some crappy little Northern Ontario town, you should be happy your town is even named in this article, and not referred to as a small Northern Ontario town. Take some pride in where you are from, and likely the only reason tourists show up in Cobalt.
I believe that Bigfoot is real because I know what Bigfoot is. The film that Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin made in 1967 in Northern California at Bluff Creek of Bigfoot was real. Here is what they filmed on October/20/1967. Several thousand years ago there were thousands of slaves that ran off around the world and started their own countries. When these slaves ran off there was a large group of men and boys of all different ages and sizes that took off and ended up in Africa. Some of them were giants as tall as 9 ft. or even taller. The giant named Goliath that David killed with his slingshot was 9 ft. tall. So there were giants that lived back then. Some of these men and boys went exploring to Borneo and caught female Orangutans and took them to South America and had sex with them and created the Indians. The men and boys that stayed in Africa caught female Gorillas and had sex with them and created the Africans. When scientists found the bones in Africa they thought we evolved from a female Chimpanzee. But it wasn’t a natural evolution it was a man made evolution. That’s where all the Bigfoot and Orangutan creatures come from. They are half man and half Gorilla and half man and half Orangutan. They use to call the Indians the red man. The Orangutan has reddish hair. When those men bred out the hair the Indian’s skin remained red. The Gorilla has black hair and skin. When those men bred out the hair the African’s skin remained black. Some of the Indians and Africans are tall. And some of the Bigfoot and Orangutan creatures are tall. They are tall because some of the men that created them were tall. Some scientists believe that we evolved from a female Chimpanzee. Have you ever seen an 8 ft. tall Chimpanzee? I haven’t either. Bigfoot migrated up through Africa and came into the United States at the top of Africa when they were connected by land. The Orangutan creatures migrated up through Central America and came into the United States like the Indians did. The creature that Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin filmed in 1967 was half man and half Gorilla. It was a female Bigfoot that they named Patty. Patty was not a man in a costume, she is not our missing link and she is not a figment of our imagination. Patty was a creature that was created by men that had sex with female Gorillas and Orangutans a long time ago. Believe it or not, man created his own evolution. +JC
Wow, fantastic – they keep that kind of information from us for a reason. One day they’re gonna open up all these files at the pentagon and then watch out – pandemonium! Thanks for sharing Jesus.
Sue Neilsen take note – you are quite obviously wrong.
Interesting blog post. When I was in my early teens, my father (deceased since 1990) related a childhood recollection to me from the early 1930′s when he was a lad of about 5 years old living in or around Cobalt. I now only recall some of the details, but here’s what my father said…
His friend’s father worked on surface at one of the mines, and the young son’s job was to walk a few miles every day to the jobsite to bring his father a warm lunch that his wife had prepared. One summer day my father and another boy accompanied said lad to deliver the meal. They were crossing a small footbridge when they heard splashing noises in the creek. When they looked in the direction the splashing was coming from, they saw what my father described as a tall man covered in hair with long arms standing in the creek stooped over splashing water onto himself. When it noticed the kids, it became startled. My father said the man’s eyes (here’s where my memory falters) were either red or yellowish. That’s when they panicked and bolted home without delivering the lunch. My father told my grandmother what they had seen, and she (a devout Catholic) replied that they must’ve “seen the Devil”.
I regretably never pressed my father for any further details, or to find out if his friend “Sonny” got into trouble for not delivering the lunch. In truth, tt may have been nothing more than an old hairy miner bathing in the creek, but that tale came to mind when I read the accounts of “Old Yellow Mane/Top” in my later years.
Cobalt is an amazing place – it can also be kind of creepy. I hope to visit again this summer.