By MIKE CONLEY
nconley@mcdowellnews.com
Thursday, June 19, 2008

Ever since he was a boy, William Roe enjoyed spending time outdoors and
observing wild animals in their native habitat. He even helped support his
family by hunting and trapping wild game. But the most incredible
experience he ever had with a creature occurred in October 1955 in British
Columbia, Canada. Two years later, he would give a sworn statement to a
Canadian official about his weird encounter.
In 1955, Roe had found a job working on a highway near the town of Tete
Jaune Cache. On his day off, he decided to climb up Mica Mountain to an
old deserted mine, just for something to do, according to a Web site.

"I came in sight of the mine about three o'clock in the afternoon after an
easy climb," he said in his 1957 sworn affidavit. "I had just come out of
a patch of low brush into a clearing when I saw what I thought was a
grizzly bear, in the bush on the other side. I had shot a grizzly near
that spot the year before. This one was only about 75 yards away, but I
didn't want to shoot it, for I had no way of getting it out. So I sat down
on a small rock and watched, my rifle in my hands."