Albert Ostman
{{Short description|Canadian gold prospector (c. 1893–1975)}}
Albert Ostman (April 21, 1893 – 1975){{cite book |last=Guittilla |first=Peter |title=The Bigfoot Files |publisher=Timeless Voyager Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-1892264152 |page=29}} was a Canadian prospector who reported that he was abducted by a Sasquatch and held captive for six days. He stated that the event took place near Toba Inlet, British Columbia in 1924. Albert was born in northern Sweden, in Arnäsvall, to Abraham and Albertina Östman (nee Strandberg). He emigrated from Sweden to Canada in 1913.
The story
In 1924, Albert Ostman, a lumberjack and woodsman, went to the area for a vacation. Ostman had heard stories about the "man beasts" who supposedly roamed these woods but refused to believe them.{{cite book|author=Juanita Rose Violini|title=Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible, and the Ignored|url=https://archive.org/details/almanacofinfamou0000viol|url-access=registration|accessdate=July 1, 2013|year= 2009|publisher=Weiser Books|isbn=978-1609250904|page=[https://archive.org/details/almanacofinfamou0000viol/page/131 131]}}
As Ostman lay asleep one evening, a Sasquatch purportedly picked him up and carried him off while he was in his sleeping bag.{{cite book|author1=Christopher Bader|author2=Frederick Carson Mencken|author3=Joseph Baker|title=Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture|url=https://archive.org/details/paranormalameric00bade|url-access=registration|accessdate=July 1, 2013|date=January 1, 2010|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0814786420|page=[https://archive.org/details/paranormalameric00bade/page/103 103]}} Ostman was carried in his sleeping bag across country for three hours by the Sasquatch.{{citation
| title =Mystery Man-Ape of the Cascades|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6UwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA17-IA3|page=17
| journal= Life Magazine |volume=64 |issue=13 |publisher=Time Inc.
| date = March 29, 1968}} The Sasquatch dropped Ostman down on a plateau. Standing around him was a family of four of the creatures.{{cite news|title=Tracking Bigfoot|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m2YEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA34|author=E. R. Stuart
|magazine= Boys' Life |page= 34 |publisher= The Boy Scouts of America
|date=October 1980}}
Albert was kept captive by the Sasquatch. The captors were two adults and two children which held Ostman captive for six days.{{Cite book|last=Green|first=John|title=Bigfoot: On the Track of the Sasquatch|publisher=Ballantine Books|year=1973|isbn=978-0345240811|location=New York, N.Y.|pages=25}} One of the creatures was reported as being eight feet tall.{{cite book|author=Michael Burgan|title=Bigfoot|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qMVm9CTNiUgC&pg=PA10|accessdate=July 1, 2013|year=2004|publisher=Capstone|isbn=978-0736827157|page=10}} Ostman did not use his gun on them as they had done him no harm.{{cite book|author=Lionel Fanthorpe|author2=Patricia Fanthorpe|name-list-style=amp|title=The Big Book of Mysteries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VI6cBYj7rDMC&pg=PA26|accessdate=July 1, 2013|year= 2010|publisher=Dundurn|isbn=978-1770704565|page=26}} He stayed with the Bigfoot family for a week.{{cite book|author=Therese Shea|title=Bigfoot|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5zgd9IOugfEC|accessdate=July 1, 2013|year=2005|publisher=Rosen Classroom|isbn=978-1404256750|page=14}} Ostman ate "sweet tasting grass" that they gave him.{{cite book | author = Marjorie Halpin |author2=Ames, Michael
| title = Manlike monsters on trial: early records and modern evidence |publisher= University of British Columbia |page= 225| year = 1980|isbn=1530340802}}
According to Ostman, the female Sasquatch washed and stacked leaves.{{cite book|author=Philip Spencer|title=The Wildman of Kentucky: The Mystery of Panther Rock|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D1769XTpXXsC&pg=PA2|year= 2008|publisher=Reality Press|isbn=978-1934588383|page=2}} Albert escaped by making the large male Sasquatch groggy by feeding him some snuff.{{cite book|author=Bil Gilbert|title=Natural Coincidence: The Trip from Kalamazoo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DCfLB80fGq8C|accessdate=July 1, 2013|year= 2004|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0472025466|page=57}} He did not tell his story for more than 24 years after it happened for fear of being thought of as crazy.{{cite book
| author =Walker, Kathryn
| title = Mysteries of Giant Humanlike Creatures |publisher= Crabtree Publishing
| year =2008 |isbn=978-0778741435|page=8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2THoFRSRYZEC&pg=PA8}} As more Sasquatch stories appeared in the press Albert decided to tell his story to a local newspaper, The Province, in 1957.{{cite news |last1=Lory |first1=Don |title=Kidnapped by a Sasquatch |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/44400288/kidnapped_by_a_sasquatch/ |page=5|work=The Province |date=4 May 1957|via=Newspapers.com}}
In 2007, the skeptic Joe Nickell characterized the story as "more likely the result of imagination than of recollection".{{cite journal |last= Nickell |first= Joe |authorlink= Joe Nickell |title= Mysterious entities of the Pacific Northwest, Part I |journal= Skeptical Inquirer |date=January–February 2007 |volume= 31 |issue= 1 |page= 21|url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/2007/01/mysterious-entities-of-the-pacific-northwest-part-i/}} Critics of Ostman note that he did not make the event public until 1957, thirty-three years after he said it took place.{{cite book|author=David J. Daegling|title=Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend |year= 2004|publisher= Rowman Altamira |isbn= 978-0759105393 |page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=G3z5VVbGfbgC&pg=PA67 67]}} Primatologist John Napier states that "Ostman's story fails to convince me primarily on the grounds of the limited food resources available."{{citation
| author = Debenat, Jean-Paul|author2= L. Murphy, Christopher
| title = Sasquatch/Bigfoot and the Mystery of the Wild Man: Cryptozoology & Mythology
| year = 2009 |isbn=978-0888396853|postscript=.}} Bigfoot researcher Peter Byrne cannot accept Ostman's story without more evidence.{{citation
| author =Rick Emmer
| title =Bigfoot: Fact Or Fiction? |publisher= InfoBase Publishing
| year =2010 |isbn=978-0791097786|postscript=.}}