When ‘Back Roads Bill‘ Steer, the founder and General Manager of the Canadian Ecology Centre in Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park on the Mattawa River near North Bay, Ontario, wanted a mammoth figure of what would be the park’s icon, he knew exactly who would be right for the job – renowned wood carving artist, Gerald Guenkel of Southampton.
For years, Guenkel, retired professor and coordinator of the Forestry Program at Fleming College in Lindsay, has been carving figures from a variety of woods.
“There were two field camps of students each year that would come from the Fleming College program to the Centre,” said Steer, “and each year, after a visit to the Centre, Gerald would leave a carving, ranging from things like a bear to fish, eagles to a rabbit, everything to do with nature, as a souvenir. We now have more than a dozen of his figures protected at the Centre.”
Steer, a journalist, professor and environmentalist, has gone out with Sasquatch investigators for many years. “I can tell you, it’s better than television! The Sasquatch to me is about green spaces and where it ‘might’ live. This incredible carved figure will be called ‘Sasquatch Sam’, after Samuel de Champlain, and will be situated against a backdrop of white pines, as though coming out of the forest and being illusive.”
“When it came to our ‘Sasquatch Sam’, said Steer, “and after looking at several drawings and, knowing that Gerald is an artist, we knew that he had it right and everything seemed to fall into place. This is a work of art and the Centre will always be home for ‘Sasquatch Sam’, a North American icon.”
The request from ‘Back Roads Bill’ however, would prove to have unique challenges. For one thing, Sasquatch Sam was to be a giant figure standing at least eight feet in height with movement indicated. Guenkel knew that this would be something very special and, from drawings, he then set out to create a prototype clay figure.
He realized that the immense figure could not be carved from a single tree and so arrived at the solution of carving different parts of the Sasquatch that would be held together with dowels, to not only hold the parts of the Sasquatch body together but that would add strength to it.
Guenkel then sourced giant blocks of white pine from Pine Ridge (ON) and set about to carve them. “Each limb and body part is carved separately and everything is pegged with more than 70 eight-inch dowels to hold it all together, in combination with a very expensive, waterproof glue meant for the outdoors. My wife, Cathy, whose also an artist helped me with the weight distribution as his head had to line up with the knee so that he wouldn’t tip over.”
One of the most startling features of ‘Sasquatch Sam’ are his eyes that are recessed dark
shadows under a protruding forehead creating a veil of mystery and watchfulness of the being.
Once completed however, the challenge for the ‘team’ was to figure out how to move ‘Sam’ to his new home, a drive of more than five hours northward to the provincial park.
‘Back Roads Bill’ and Court Vincent arrived at Guenkel’s home in Southampton on September 12th with a trailer, along with Mike Walsh, the expert forklift driver from the local Home Hardware store, for what would be a delicate manoeuvre.
Walsh carefully lifted ‘Sam’ and with Guenkel holding him in place, they slowly lifted him on to the trailer.
To prepare him for is trip however, it was time to ensure that he was balanced with his weight directly over the wheel base of the trailer and to carefully strap him on. Using multiple straps, wooden supports and blankets to protect his ‘coat’, Sasquatch Sam was ready to begin his final trip.
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After a seven hour trip, Sasquatch Sam arrived at his new home.
“I’m almost sad to see him go,” said artist and Sam’s creator, Gerald Guenkel.
