I very carefully took down the large nine by twelve tent, removing all the ropes and pulling up all the stakes and placing the equipment in the back of the station wagon. Looking over my shoulder often , as gunshots echoed in the distance, I knew what was happening. Alberta forest rangers, formed into a posse and hunting down one of the largest predators in the forest.

As we traveled back along the highway to Sylvan Lake and then on to highway #2, south , home to Calgary, there was very little conversation, which was unusual especially with the two boys in the back and my wife Millie sitting on the passenger side. I guess we were all deep in thought, remembering the events of this terrible day, Saturday August 24th.

Friday August 23, 1974

The day started out as a sunny warm Alberta morning and it was Millie’s birthday, so we decided to head out camping somewhere into the foothills region.

I had just finished a long day shift stint, of eight days in the Alberta Government Telephones,Calgary delay centre and with a three day weekend coming up, I needed to relax and get ready for the midnight shift coming up next week.

My two daughters , Donna and Carolyn, decided to stay in the city this weekend, so we headed north and west on our camping trip with my wife Millie and two boys, Rob, age twelve and Steven age nine. The two boys always had a good time camping , no matter where we went and we certainly traveled all over Alberta, camping and enjoying the greatest recreational province in Canada.

The Ford station wagon was loaded down with the tent and all the provisions that we needed for a three day trip, and as we cruised up the Deerfoot Trail and eventually on to Highway two, north to Red Deer, we all anticipated a glorious time camping at Crimson Lake provincial park, north of Rocky Mountain House. Upon arriving, we realized that even though it was early afternoon, the campground was full and there wasn’t even a place to park, let alone pitch a tent.Showing my frustrations, I asked "What do we do now?" "Wait until a spot becomes available; or go back?"

Millie had remembered that on the way up, we had passed a small campground, so we travelled back toward the town of Rocky Mountain House and found a beautiful park, with fire places and a camp road that wound around a small lake. “Twin Lakes recreation area“, said the sign as we entered.

How lucky we were in finding this beautiful campground and we immediately picked a nice spot to pitch the tent, underneath some tall lodgepole pine trees, with a fireplace and picnic table.

The entire area was vacant and I couldn't see a trailer or tent in any of the other places. Maybe we were just too early and the campers would be rolling in shortly. There was just one trailer parked up the road about two hundred feet and it looked like it had been there all summerand seemed to be deserted.

We decided to have an early supper and enjoy the evening down by the lake. My son Steve had brought his bow and arrows and was shooting them overhead, into the tall pine trees that ringed the campground. The branches of the trees were so thick that one of his arrows got lodged in the bows about fifty feet up and try as we might we could not shake that arrow loose.

In the evening Millie and the two boys wandered down by the lake and I decided to check out the campsite and get the gear ready for the overnight stay. I had noticed a few bear rubs, with thick hair piled up at the bottom of the trees and the bark scraped away, about one hundred feet away. As I was scouting over the campsite an older fellow came walking along the camp road . He stopped to talk with me for a while and mentioned that he owned the trailer a few hundred feet up the camp road. A few nights ago a black bear had ravaged his trailer and tore up the inside, looking for food. He said the trailer was in quite a mess and needed some extensive repairs.

When Millie and the boys came back to the campground, I related the story of the bear ravaged trailer, to her and we both decided that the boys would sleep in the back of the station wagon, for the first night.

We placed the sleeping bags in the station wagon, in such a way as to make it quite comfortable for them. However, in the ensuing discussion, I could see a look of apprehension on both boys faces, when we mentioned that they would be sleeping in the station wagon. “Where will you and mom sleep”asked Steven. I replied “ we will stick it out in the tent and would be okay for the night.”

We sat around the fire, roasting marshmallows, until it was quite dark and then settled the boys into their sleeping bags.

Millie and I retired for the night. As I lay in my sleeping bag, slowly drifting off to sleep, I could hear the eerie night sounds of the forest and in between those sounds , the deafening silence.

6:15 a.m. Saturday Aug.24th

The distant honking sound of a car horn brought me out of a fitful sleep. Millie shook me and said “something's wrong outside!”, “I’ve listened to a car horn, for five minutes steady”. “I don’t think anything's wrong” I said. “maybe a horn is shorted out ,or something”. “I ’m going into the wagon”. she said, “you'd better get up now!”.

As she disappeared out of the tent, I slowly got up and made my way to the door and as I peered out, the shadows in the gray light of dawn made me rub my eyes. One shadow moved and as I glanced over to the station wagon, the two boys and Millie,inside the wagon, had a look of terror in their eyes.

In front of me and between me and the station wagon, was a large black bear, menacingly shaking its head back and forth. I tried yelling at the bear and waving my arms, but he did not move. I picked up a stone and threw it at the tree beside him, thinking that he would run. I didn’t want to hit him directly as I thought he would charge me. He still did not move and in fact started to slowly move toward me.

I felt a chill and panic gripped me, as I had no where to go. Maybe, I thought , I could slowly move toward the opposite side of the station wagon;but abandoned that idea when I realized I was still fifty feet from the Ford and would have to cross the bear's path.

Suddenly, out of the bush and between the pine trees , a small car bounced over the rough ground and the drivers side door flew open. At this point in time the bear who was menacing me, took off, running through the underbrush and disappeared within seconds.

The driver of the car stumbled out of the door, wearing what appeared to be a bright red T shirt, blood red was the color. His wife flung the passenger side door open and shouted “have you got a first aid kit, or something. “My husband is bleeding”.

I immediately took my fleece lined bomber jacket and covered him up, noticing the deep claw marks on his shoulder and back , the shoulder wound was so deep that I could see the bone and the shoulder joint. The back of his head showed a deep wound, where the scalp was torn off, with tooth marks around the neck area.

I put him in the front seat of the station wagon and his wife and Millie sat in the rear seat. Millie tried to stop the bleeding with pressure bandages, as best she could, but the blood was coming out profusely , soaking the fleece lined bomber jacket.

His wife asked me if I thought Brian would be okay. I didn’t know what to say, exactly but I muttered something about getting him to the hospital in a few minutes.

The two boys at this time were quite shaken up, but they stayed in their sleeping bags in the back of the wagon. I drove the nine miles to the town of Rocky Mountain House at 80 miles per hour, along a paved highway. Brian kept slipping in and out of consciousness during the drive , but I managed to keep him talking and relating what had happened that morning.

“We came in late last night” said Brian. “It was too dark to put up the tent, so my wife slept in the car and because there wasn’t enough room, I slept outside on the ground” he said, as he struggled to stay awake.

“The bear was standing over me, when I awoke this morning and I fumbled with the sleeping bag zipper, trying to get it undone”. “The bear picked me up by the back of the neck, sleeping bag and all and I could hear a crunching sound as he pulled me straight up and then released me”. “Then the bear swatted me tearing into the bag , into my shoulder and back” said Brian, as he slumped down in the seat a little and was silent.

I was traveling at a fair clip down the highway hoping to make it to Rocky Mountain House in time. Even though the distance was under nine miles, I thought that it was taking too long to get there.

“After the first attack was over the bear backed off a little and then came at me again” said Brian, now awake. “ I grabbed a plastic dishpan that was laying on the ground and beat at the bear’s face with it until he backed off again.” “ My wife was honking the car horn in order to scare off the bear and I managed to get out of the torn bag and into the car “ he said.

“Thats all I remember” said Brian.

“You don’t remember driving the car through the bush to our camp” I asked. “No” he said “But if I did it was because my wife can’t drive “ said Brian, as he drifted off again.

Finally reaching the town and not knowing where the hospital was, I decided to try the RCMP building front door, but could not seem to raise anybody. I remember thinking that there must be somebody on duty in case of an emergency, but there was no one in sight.

I started to panic and found a milk salesman , in his van and he gave me directions to the hospital.

When we reached the hospital emergency door, Millie ran in to get help. In a few minutes the door flew open and an entire medical team , complete with gurney appeared, helping Brian out of the vehicle and whisking him away with a great deal of efficiency.

Inside the emergency department, the staff offered us breakfast and we thankfully accepted their kind offer. The relief that we all felt, especially Brian’s wife when the medical team took over and Brian was going into surgery, was immense.

Now the next phase took over , worrying if Brian is going to make it, or be incapacitated in some way.

Brian’s wife had telephoned his father in Edmonton and they were on there way to Rocky Mountain House. “They should be here in an hour and a half” said Brian’s wife.

The time slowly moved along and we all sat in silence for long periods , waiting for Brian’s father to arrive from Edmonton.

Suddenly the main door to the hospital opened and Brian’s father , Mr. Holt, rushed in along with his wife. I don’t remember their first names, however we were properly introduced.

“How is Brian” asked Mr. Holt, “did he make it through the surgery”. “I don’t know anything yet” said Brian’s wife. “He has been in the operating room for over two hours and nobody has told us anything” she said.

Brian’s wife then told Mr. Holt the events of the bear attack, as she remembered. Mr. Holt then turned to Millie and I and thanked us for being there and caring so much about Brian’s welfare. I mentioned to him that we would be going back to the campground, to pick up our gear and would be happy to show him the way.

When we reached the Twin Lakes campground, Mr Holt asked me for the keys to Brian’s car. I guess in the confusion, he had surmised that I had the keys, when in fact Brian’s wife still had them back at the hospital. Mr. Holt said “that’s okay, at least I know where the campground is and I can get the car later”. “Thanks again” he said as he walked back to his car.
Millie and the boys started packing up our equipment and I began taking down the tent.

I think back to that summer of 1974 and the fall of that year ,when we telephoned Brian’s wife and talked to her , just to find out how Brian was. “Oh he’s okay now” she said. “He went through more surgery here in Edmonton and pulled through alright”, she said. “He’s back to normal now”. That was the last time we talked to anyone in the Holt family.

We never returned to Twin Lakes recreation area or the town of Rocky Mountain House again.

Epilogue:

The story that you have read is factual and true to the best of my memory. This incident brought to mind some thoughts that I had on that fateful day.

The first thing , that perturbed me was the fact that the RCMP detachment at Rocky Mountain House was not manned at 7:00 a.m. that Saturday morning. Although , being Saturday, that would have been normal. I guess. Thinking back on the incident, the hospital staff or doctor did notify the RCMP main dispatch centre, as when we returned to the campground by noon, the conservation officers were already there.

The second thing that bothered me, at the time and I don’t know why, was why did Brian have such long hair. That surely contributed to the bear attack, in that the long hair would have been another part of Brian that the bear could hang on to more easily.

That foolish assumption by me, was totally wrong in every way .‘Brian didn’t have long hair’; his scalp was so badly torn that it just looked like shoulder length hair.

The years went by quickly and my family eventually moved from Calgary and Alberta and returned to Thunder Bay . The time is now thirty years later, so the memory dims on the fine details ; but the events and sheer horror of that day will live in my mind forever.

Don McQueen

Please go to to Donna and Art's WEDDING 1982

OR