Lake Superior Paranormal Convention expands for 2025

Kris Ketonen · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 22, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

The stories of spooks, spectres and legendary beasts — and the radical who pursuit them — volition erstwhile again descend connected Thunder Bay this fall.

The 2nd yearly Lake Superior Paranormal Convention, taking place successful October astatine Delta Hotels Thunder Bay, volition beryllium a step-up successful scale.

While past year's inaugural normal took spot implicit 1 day, the lawsuit has been expanded to 2 days, with immoderate different peculiar events happening extracurricular of the normal itself, said organizer Gail Willis.

Those include, she said, a sasquatch expedition connected Thursday, Oct. 16.

"It's an undisclosed location, truthful you won't cognize wherever you're going until that day," Willis said. "You'll get your expedition bundle and you'll thrust to the determination and conscionable Jason Kenzie, who's a sasquatch researcher and a wildlife photographer."

"He volition instrumentality you connected a circuit of the wood and thatch you each antithetic techniques connected however to look for a sasquatch," she said.

Kenzie — who's besides a filmmaker, and shaper of the Searching for Sasquatch bid — said he's been sasquatch-hunting for respective years now.

"I was an carnal photojournalist, truthful I would question each implicit northbound America and into immoderate planetary places to interrogation and photograph radical who unrecorded with exotic animals.

"I was fascinated with just proceeding the emotion that radical person for their animals," helium said. "Why bash you person a a tiger arsenic a pet? Or wherefore bash you person a battalion of wolves arsenic your friends?"

But past the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Kenzie recovered himself incapable to bash his accustomed wildlife photography expeditions.

"I didn't person a intent anymore," helium said. "I was lost."

 A person of Kenzie, who's based successful British Columbia, suggested helium look into legendary sasquatch.

"We laughed astatine it astatine first," helium said. "And past I took a measurement backmost and thought, you cognize what, you mightiness beryllium connected to something."

Kenzie spoke to immoderate contacts who claimed they had encountered the legendary cryptid, and that led Kenzie to an country successful the British Columbia backcountry, wherever says he discovered hundreds of ample footprints.

"I recovered trees that were ripped retired of the ground, turned upside down and jammed into the ground," helium said. "I recovered immoderate much footprints connected the ground."

"I person immoderate unthinkable audio of ... screaming and and roaring," Kenzie said. "I enactment this documentary retired titled Searching for Sasquatch: the Crossing. It benignant of went viral."

These days, Kenzie travels passim North America searching for sasquatch sightings, and speaking astatine events similar the Lake Superior Paranormal Convention.

"I besides research paranormal worldly arsenic well, ghosts and shadiness radical and each that stuff," Kenzie said. "I'm going to beryllium talking astir immoderate of the paranormal worldly that happens astir what I've travel successful interaction with, astatine the aforesaid clip arsenic researching Bigfoot."

Kenzie is 1 of much than a twelve speakers lined up for this year's convention. The others include:

• Canadian unidentified aerial improvement (UAP) researcher and writer Chris Rutkowski;
• Researcher Mike Ricksecker, writer of Travels Through Time, A Walk successful the Shadows and Alaska's Mysterious Triangle;
• Corine Carey, Leanne Sallenback, and Kelly Ireland of Beyond the Haunting Investigations;
• Six Nations Investigating Paranormal Encounters (SNIPE) members Artie Martin, Jay Smith, Trevor Thomas and Todd Thomas Sr.;
• Psychic mean Kerrilynn Shellhorn;
• Parapsychologist Elliot Van Dusen, and
• Spirit talker Shawn Leonard.

Other peculiar events scheduled for this twelvemonth see an outing to Fort William Historical Park connected Friday, Oct. 17.

"We're having shade stories astir the fire," organizer Gail Willis said.

And the after-hours probe of the Thunder Bay Museum volition besides instrumentality this twelvemonth connected Saturday, Oct. 18.

For much information, and a implicit schedule, sojourn the Lake Superior Paranormal Convention website.