August 10, 2009
Spirit of the Wendigo
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Britney Ridgers - Fort Kent, Alberta, Canada - June 18, 2009
My husband and I recently moved to a new town about 10 kilometers outside of
the town we lived in before. As we have moved around a lot, and lived in
many different houses and cities, we have had very many encounters with the
paranormal.(On my mother's side of the family we are all Romanian gypsies,
and most of the members in my family are mediums and have very special
gifts. I happen to have such a gift as being a medium.)
When I was a child I saw many things I could not explain, and most would
scare the hell out of me. I would see spirits on a regular basis, and I have
come to learn to live with this "gift" as most people call it. I did not see
it as a gift, until my great grandmother explained to me our history, and
many of my ancestors have the same gift, and other gifts as well. My most
recent encounter was when we moved to a small town called Fort Kent,
Alberta. It was our first night in our new home in the farm lands of Fort
Kent. Our home was built in 1918, so it is very old, but also extremely
gorgeous! I was getting my daughter ready for bed, and the upstairs window
was open for the day as we were moving stuff into our home. I heard what
sounded like wolves in the distance, but I was raised in the woods, and a
pack of wolves didn't sound like this. It sounded like a high-pitched
screeching, mixed with children laughing loudly. As I walked out of the
bathroom with my daughter, I looked into the woods of my backyard, just as I
glanced I saw a tall, white-furred mammal. It wasn't an animal, and it
wasn't a person, it was a mix in between a human and a dog. As scared as I
was, I ran downstairs with my daughter in my arms, and I told my husband
about it. He agreed that we should look up the history of the town in the
archives at the Fort Kent Library the following day.
The next day we didn't unpack like normal people would do, we packed up our
daughter and went to the village library to read up on the history of Fort
Kent. And as it is written in the archives of the Town Back in 1920, A young
doctor and his wife had moved to Fort Kent during the war From England. He
started up an in-home practice to help the people of Fort Kent, since The
Cold Lake Air Force and weapons base was only 20 minutes away. His practice
was successful until a swarm of rats came into the town carrying a plague of
small pox and infected half of the town with this plague. The Doctor treated
these people but couldn't do anymore as he knew they were going to die. The
Doctor's wife happened to get the plague as well, and when she died he
locked himself in his house, not accepting any patients, and he built a
shrine with his wife's lifeless body. As the Indians of the area have warned
people in this town about the spirit of the "Wendigo" which preys on weak
souls, possesses them, and when such a thing possesses you, you tend to
crave and eat the flesh of your own beings… humans. The doctor became
insane, and the townsfolk didn't know the doctor's wife had passed away. The
doctor slowly invited one person after another to his home, killed them, and
ate them. Once the town's people started to notice more and more people were
going missing, they were suspecting. So the doctor went on a rampage on the
town of Fort Kent. He killed and ate all but 11 people in 1921. He ate their
flesh, and left a pile of bones. In 1921 it was recorded that 150 people had
lived here, and no one had seen the doctor. It's told that he ran off into
the woods leaving everything in his home behind, and that he was possessed
by the Wendigo. The townsfolk of Fort Kent say that you can hear him
screeching with laughter at night in the woods.
I told my neighbor of what I saw in the woods in my back yard and he told me
that is the Spirit Wendigo you are seeing. My neighbor's great grandmother
and great grandfather lived here when the massacre had happened. They were
part of the 11 people who were spared in 1921. His parents were born and
raised out here, as well as he and his children. He tells his kids they have
to be inside the house by 6 PM. As my farmer neighbor has told his kids in
front of me, "You don't want the spirit of the Wendigo coming for you when
the dark comes, you best be gettin' in the house and washin' up for supper."
As he had advised to me, I should be getting indoors before the dark comes.
I have studied the spirit of the Wendigo as much as I could to find out,
what it looks like, and so forth, but as for it being a spirit.. I have been
told that what I had seen in the woods that first night in my home, was the
Spirit of the Wendigo. At night time when I am in bed, I still hear the
Wendigo's screeching laughter off into the woods.