The Conversation

“The event must have happened between the years 1963 and 1969. The location was Grand Lake, New Brunswick, Canada. I was raised in the town of Minto, a short 10 minutes drive from the lake. This area had long been strip mined for coal. In 1960, the mining company (N.B. Coal) started to reforest the area. Pine seedlings were planted over many acres around the lake. This was the most frequently used road to Princess Park (one of the most popular beaches used by the public), where trees were planted on both sides of the road. These trees were growing on crown land, in beautiful, perfectly straight lines.

“In about 3 years, maybe a few more, they had grown to be quite tall, and the butts of these trees were about 3 inches in diameter. In the middle of a summer afternoon, I was in a car on my way to the lake. Unfortunately, I don’t remember who I was with. When we came up to this stand of pine trees, the road was blocked with police and army vehicles. There were several police and army personnel walking around inside the pine trees on both sides of the road. We were motioned to not stop, but to move along slowly. While passing by, I noticed, on both sides of the road, 2 circles. The trees were all bent to the ground. The circles were about 10 feet away from the edge of the road, one on either side. They were fairly large, about 12 feet in diameter. The really odd thing was all the trees laid down flat to the ground, all towards the outside of the circles. The tops of these trees all pointed to the circumferences of the circles. Later that afternoon, army trucks were still directing traffic away from the site. Talk around town was that bears had pushed the trees down. Nothing else was ever given for an explanation. I knew that couldn’t be the answer. There were 2 perfectly formed circles, exactly the same size. They were each the same distance from the edge of the road. All the trees were pointing from the centers, towards the outsides of these circles.

“Months later, the trees were cut as close to the ground as they could. Fencing was put up to keep the curious out. We could see through the fence. There were no broken tree trunks. You could see the butts of the trees enough to see they were severely curved at ground level. Impossible to do without breaking the trees.

“I haven’t been back there in 13 years now, but for years later nothing grew there. This is not a story; this is the truth. Why would they call the army if it were only bears? Why would they fence it off?”