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The wildlife was abundant. Moose and woodland caribou roamed the taiga, and beavers and river otters worked the slow-flowing streams. Predators included wolves and lynx, but the most likely and dangerous encounter for a lone man in this environment was the American black bear.
Though black bears are generally considered more timid than their grizzly counterparts, they are capable of sudden, violent aggression, particularly when food is scarce or when a bear is surprised in close quarters. While fatal black bear attacks are rare, they are far from unheard of, especially in isolated areas where bears have limited exposure to people and no reason to fear them.
Sidney Smith weighed in at a wiry 135 pounds. He was from the other side of Canada, near the city of Vancouver. The government hired men like him for their toughness, independence, and problem-solving skills. He had everything he needed to do the job: tools, gear, a place to stay with his own cook, and a hunting knife sheathed at his belt. That knife was standard, used for cutting rope, slicing wire, and opening crates. But today, it would be all he had.
Smith was transported by helicopter into the site on Thursday, September 17th. He had arrived just in time for dinner and only had the station cook as company. Smith waited for dinner for some time and decided he would go for a walk before eating. He was only a few hundred yards from the station, near a survival hut, when the bear appeared.
Not twenty feet away, stepping from the brush as silently as fog. A black bear, and not a small one, at about 250 pounds. Maybe it was hungry. Maybe it had been following him for a while. Or maybe it was simply startled. No one can say.
What we do know is this: the bear charged.
Sidney reached for his knife. The gun, if he had one, wasn’t there. Bear spray? Not invented yet. The knife was all he had.
After dinner was ready, Smith had not returned from his walk, and the cook grew concerned. He reached out to Douglas Beaver, the superintendent of the company. Beaver brought three men with him by helicopter the morning of Friday, September 18th. They were not certain if Smith had become lost, and likely thought they would find him in a matter of a few hours. Given they had no idea what had happened to Smith, they set out for the radar site unarmed.
As the helicopter carrying the superintendent began to land, a black bear emerged from the bushes near the radar station. The men disembarked the helicopter and were immediately pursued by the black bear. It chased them into the building and peered through the window, smearing blood on the glass.
Now held captive in the radar station, the realization of what happened to Smith set in, as well, the danger they were now in. They radioed for help, and a man was soon on his way from Schefferville with a rifle.
The armed man dispatched the angry bear with a single shot from his rifle. With the threat of the bear now removed, the search for Smith resumed. Near the survival hut, they located a blood trail in the 2 inches of snow. Following the blood trail, they discovered Smith’s knife, covered in blood and lying along the trail. A short distance away, Smith’s lifeless body was discovered, ending all hope of his survival.
Based on the physical evidence recovered at the scene and details from a subsequent investigation, it appears the bear either stalked or surprised him. There were signs that Smith attempted to defend himself, as cuts were later found on the bear’s face and head, suggesting he wounded the animal in the process.
The searchers did not report the presence of a cached animal carcass and did not report the presence of cubs in the area. Speaking of cubs, our Cub Tier membership on Patreon, linked below, will give you ad-free early access to notes, pictures, and episodes. The $3 per month will go a long way in helping me continue to produce educational and entertaining content like this.
The attack on Sidney Smith is one of the earliest documented black bear fatalities linked to modern industrial work in Canada. Unlike hikers or campers, Smith was not recreating; he was on the job, maintaining infrastructure vital to Cold War national defense. What makes the case stand out is its context: an experienced, capable man doing his job, in a modern world that had pushed just a little too far into ancient wilderness.
Quebec supported an estimated black bear population in the 60’s of over 75,000 bears over its 595,391 square miles. This is a bear density of one black bear for every 8 miles, which is a moderate to high density. Smith’s attack was believed to be a predatory attack which have a higher rate of occurrence in remote regions.
