A Brief Look at the "Four Horsemen of Sasquatchery"

Gordon "Grover" Krantz (November 5, 1931 – February 14, 2002) was a professor of physical anthropology at Washington State University, and a renowned Bigfoot researcher. Krantz was also one of the few academics to advocate the killing of a Bigfoot for scientific study, if one could be located.

Krantz was born in Salt Lake City. He was raised in Rockford, Illinois until the age of 10, when his family relocated back to Utah. In 1955 Krantz earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Utah, and in 1958 he would earn a Master’s degree from the University of California. Finally, Krantz earned a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1971. He taught at Washington State University from 1968 until his retirement in 1998.

Krantz’s specialty as a researcher and teacher included all aspects of human evolution, but he was best known outside of academia as the first serious academic to devote his professional energies to the scientific study of bigfoot. His studies of bigfoot (which he called "sasquatch," after the native term) led him to theorize that this was an actual creature; specifically, a surviving population of gigantopithecines. He was a defender of the authenticity of the Patterson-Gimlin film and a variety of casts collected by Paul Freeman and Ivan Marx.

Krantz was also drawn into the Kennewick Man controversy, arguing both in academia and in court that direct lineage to extant human populations could not be demonstrated.

Krantz died in 2002  in his Port Angeles, Washington home
 

René Dahinden (1930 - April 18, 2001) was a well-known Bigfoot (Sasquatch) researcher and member of some of the first all out, Bigfoot expeditions.

Dahinden was born in Switzerland but moved to Canada in 1953, where he would live for the rest of his life. He became interested in the Bigfoot phenomenon shortly after arriving in Canada, first hearing of the Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas, but soon learning of the Sasquatch of British Columbia. During the next few decades he conducted many field investigations and interviews throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Dahinden was a major advocate for the controversial Patterson-Gimlin film, which was taken in 1967 and supposedly provides photographic evidence of Bigfoot. He also wrote a book, with Don Hunter entitled, Sasquatch, which was published in 1973.

David Suchet's French Canadian Bigfoot-hunting character in the 1987 film Harry and the Hendersons is based on Dahinden. For a year, Dahinden acted as spokesman for Kokanee Beer, and appeared in commercials in Canada.

Dahinden died, on April 18, 2001, in British Columbia

John Green (born February 12, 1927) is a retired Canadian journalist and a leading researcher into the Bigfoot phenomenon. He is a graduate of both the University of British Columbia and Columbia University and has a database of more than 3000 sighting and track reports, leading some to affectionately refer to him as "Mr. Sasquatch".

Green first began investigating Sasquatch sightings and track finds in 1957 after meeting René Dahinden and the two researchers collaborated in interviewing witnesses and sharing information of alleged sightings. A year later Green was shown a series of 15" tracks crossing a sandbar beside Bluff Creek in California so deeply impressed as to indicate a weight many times that of any potential hoaxer. He has been trying ever since to establish what it is that makes the tracks. Green is also the only surviving person to have investigated the original Sasquatch tracks reported in Bluff Creek, California in the summer of 1958.

As a renowned authority in the field, Green has appeared as a keynote speaker at all three of the major scientific Sasquatch symposia held so far. Green has authored several Sasquatch books, including On the Track of the Sasquatch, Encounters with Bigfoot, and most notably Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us. The last-named, still widely regarded by many as the single best book yet written on the subject, has recently been re-issued, along with an updated combination of the two earlier books, entitled The Best of Sasquatch Bigfoot .

The character played by Don Ameche in the 1987 motion picture Harry and the Hendersons is loosely modeled after Green.

Green currently resides in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia.

Peter Byrne (born August 22, 1925) known as a world adventurer, big game hunter, (later recanted on big game hunting) conservationist and professional Bigfoot hunter.

Peter Byrne was born in Dublin, Ireland, on August 22, 1925, to an Irish father and an English mother. He graduated school, and joined the Royal British Air Force during World War II. After his service, he came to work on a tea plantation in northern India in the late 1940's; he opened Nepal's first tiger hunting concession and soon found himself face to face with stories about the "abominable snowman" or yeti. Funded by a Texas oilman,  Tom Slick, he began a three year mission to hunt and track down the Yeti.

 Hearing of the discovery of big footprints in northern California, Slick asked Byrne to head up a "Pacific Northwest Bigfoot Expedition" in 1960, which for a short time included Rene Dahinden, John Green and Bob Titmus. Dahinden left after a month-and-a-half, but Green and Titmus stayed a little longer until Slick was killed in a plane crash in 1962.

 Byrne could not continue his efforts until the early-1970's, when the Boston Academy of Applied Sciences began bankrolling Byrne, who was able to establish a Bigfoot Information Center near The Dalles, Oregon. This effort continued for 9 years, from 1970-1979. During that time, Byrne appeared on "In Search Of..." and also his own short documentary, titled "Manbeast: Myth or Monster" in 1978. He also wrote a book, "The Search For Bigfoot: Monster, Myth or Man" in 1975.

Byrne seemingly dropped out of sight after that project was finished until 1992,  to form the Bigfoot Research Project, based near Parkdale, Oregon, in the Hood River region.  Byrne's efforts, which continued until around 1997.

After this project, Byrne was commissioned to investigate sightings of a Bigfoot-type creature in Southern Florida, the famous "Skunk Ape". This effort was documented in a production called "Shaawanoki".

Today, Byrne is semi-retired in the Bigfoot field and continues his tourist/adventure work around the world.

(click on logo to return to home page)