In 1974 my wife and I purchased a nice little farm north of Grand Forks, British Columbia. We enjoyed it and worked our tails off for 20 years, selling it in 1995. The original farmhouse was built in 1935 and is still the existing residence. Years before I was even born, it had quite an adventure with a grizzly.....

(From the Grand Forks Gazette, November 4, 1937)

HUGE BEAR GIVES PEOPLE THRILLS OF LIFETIME: KEEPS THE COOPER FAMILY IN HOUSE FOR DAYS

MR. & MRS. JOE ROSSI ALONE IN CELLAR WITH SUPER DARKNESS

Facts are sometimes stranger than fiction. The story of how Mr. & Mrs. Joe Rossi of Brown Creek searched their cellar for a bear and virtually walked all over a huge bruin without seeing it, constitutes a classic in this connection.

(Next several paragraphs of the news article describes how this bear had been making its presence known by raiding apple bins and, on one occasion, kept a family trapped in their house for a couple days. The final segment is as follows:)

Following this, one evening Mr. & Mrs. Rossi heard a noise in the cellar. They had heard of the bear and wondered if by any chance he had got into the basement. The two of them descended the steps with a light very carefully, they walked about the basement with the shadows from the lamp chasing them around. They were inches from the bear and did not see it. Then it peered over its shoulder and Mrs. Rossi got a glimpse of its eyes and went up the stairs like lightening. Joe followed and when she explained what she had seen, Joe doubted her veracity, but returned to the cellar to investigate, lamp in one hand and rifle in the other. He took a shot at Bruin & the concussion put out the only light in the house. Joe and Bruin were alone in the stark darkness of the basement and Joe admits the tension became terrific as he was none too sure of his abilities in a hand to hand encounter with the bear. He found the steps and scaled them lively. It was sometime before another light could be secured and quietness restored. On a further journey to the cellar, Bruin had left for other parts. Neighbors were summoned but bear had made good his get-away. Examination of the foundation of the house next day, indicated that Bruin had first removed several stones with a view to making an opening to get into the cellar for a feast of apples whose aroma he apparently detected at a distance and got through a comparatively small opening.

Now the neighbors are incensed at his depredations and decide to get his scalp. He was so large that he was taken for a cow by one group of hunters. Finally he fell dead to a shower of bullets from the rifle of Mr. Tesolin, who brought the animal to town where his size created much interest as to the width and weight. The bear was of the silver tip variety and weighed about 400 pounds. Editor's Note: The resident game warden at the time said that a bear that size - in good shape - should have weighed 1200 pounds.

(My own note: That seems stretching it a trifle - maybe take an average of the two figures.)

Virginio Tesolin with the grizzly that invaded Gigi Rossi's cellar.

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