Old News: "GIANT WILD MAN SEEN IN CANADA" The First News Story About Sasquatch

There may be older news stories out there, but this is the earliest I could find that actually used the term "Sasquatch".

The Evening Times (Sayre, Pennsylvania) 02 March 1934

GIANT WILD MAN SEEN IN CANADA

         "A Giant wild man who has been terrorizing residents of Harrison Mills, near Vancouver, has caused revival of legends of a vanished race "of hairy mountain men" according to dispatches here today. The wild man, described as "huge, hairy and nearly nude," has been seen three times in as many months according to the reports. The last person he frightened was Frank Dean of Harrison Mills. Dean was aroused during the night by barking of his dog. He stepped out the door of his cabin and saw, in clear starlight, a huge hairy man who advanced at him growling. Dean leaped back inside his cabin and barred his door. Tracks in the snow next day showed the wild man had prowled around the cabin and later gone into the bush. A hunter also said he saw the wild man and was so frightened that he dropped his bag of game as he fled before the giant's attack. Indians of the Chelais reserve asked about the creature, said that many years ago a whole tribe of the wild men lived in the region. They were called "Sasquatch" or "hairy mountain men." They lived in caves and hunted with clubs and stones."

I am in no way a big-foot hunter, and I think it is interesting to note that in this early use of the term "Sasquatch" the thing being described is a man. They do not seem to be intimating at all that there is some kind of missing link living in the mountains, but rather the last vestige of a cave people. The article also mentions that the wild man was partially clothed. This again suggests human characteristics, which would differ from the common depiction of Sasquatch today.