The Whisper on the Night Wind: The True History of a Wilderness Legend

The Whisper on the Night Wind by Adam Shoalts takes the reader on an amazing journey to the wilds of Labrador as he and his companion, Zach, investigate a series of encounters that occurred over a century ago. The small settlement of Taverspine, which today has mostly disappeared, experienced visitations from a creature that no one could identify. There were nameless sounds, unknown tracks, and sightings of a strange creature. Children reported being stalked and sled dogs disappeared. The people who lived in Taverspine were experienced trappers, they were sure that the creature wasn’t a bear and in fact, they eventually felt that that had been the victims of a windigo or a demon.

Shoalts is a skilled woodsman and naturalist with a lot show more of experience travelling in the Canadian wilderness. He and a friend decided to go to this area of Labrador and see if they could find answers. What follows is a wonderful book that describes the woodlands, rivers and mountains of a land that has not had a lot of attention from man. There is a haunted darkness to these isolated forests and the two travellers had to be careful not to spook themselves. They did come up with a working solution that could explain the Taverspine monster, but were unable to prove it and after they were home and checked their night vision camera they were left with more questions than answers.

The Whisper on the Night Wind was an excellent read that combined folklore, history, natural science, and adventure into one fascinating story. show less

The Whisper on the Night Wind concerns the legend of a mysterious creature in Labrador. Many places have mystery creatures such as Sasquatch or Loch Ness and Labrador has its own. Shoalts uses it as a narrative thread to explore Labrador, and does arrive at a plausible explanation. It's also a travelogue and outdoor journey, first it takes 20+ hours to get there along a dirt road from Quebec. The largest settlement is North West River / Goose Bay and just east of there, south of Melville Bay, are the Mealy Mountains. Within the past 5 years they were made into a new National Park. The park has no roads or official trails and is exceptionally hard going with dense black spruce forests and barren rock mountains. It's been called the show more largest protected area in eastern North America. Labrador was one of the last areas to be settled by humans, being so far away from the Bering Strait, locked up by glaciers, and generally bypassed by Europeans for better climes south. To this day there are very few people. The Mealy Mountains are adjacent to the largest human settlement in the entire territory but hardly anyone goes there. The mystery of the creature keeps the narrative taught and pages turning while you learn about this fascinating place. show less