While I thought (after viewing some old video footage) that at times Dr. Krantz may have come across as “a little desperate” to prove to his peers and also to fellow bigfoot researchers that an unknown species of hairy, bipedal animals of gigantic proportion do indeed inhabitat the temperate forests of the Pacific Coasts, he was correct.

After decades of reading books on the topic written by bigfoot researchers, wildlife biologist and one or two academics, I became increasingly frustrated by the fact that not one of the authors/field researchers had ever seen the creature…

My frustration was due to the fact that I have seen one of the giants of the Pacific NW in years past, from a distance of about 20 feet away. I do not simply “believe” that the creature exists… I KNOW that it does.

And so, with all due respect to my fellow (WSU) “Cougar”… I plan to include a chapter dedicated to Dr. Krantz, so that his family may come to realize that Grover was right… these creatures do exist.

I also was a teacher for the majority of my adult life (K-12), but also worked as a Salmon Habitat Restoration field biologist for years. I am writing the book with the hopes that other “professionals” will come forward if they have had similar encounters, tell their story and not worry about “career suicide”… Grover stepped forward, I am joining him… I urge others to follow…

Kudos to Dr. Krantz… on his dedication to educating others in both life and death.

In the Fall of 1971, he led a expedition to try to find “Cripple Foot” a Bigfoot hit by a car the previous winter in northern Washington, known previously from casts of its feet. It was tracked for awhile, but a snow storm stopped the pursuit. Our expedition hoped to recover its remains, to no avail. On the way back to camp, Grover slammed on the brakes. I asked why, and he said a big animal had darted across the road. He had broken his glasses and could not identify the animal. It was twilight but I followed the trail for 1000 feet or so in an open pine forest. I examined the tracks in a skiff of snow on damp forest floor and concluded that it was not any hoofed animal. Whatever made the tracks had flat feet and left a mark in the snow more than a foot long. Bear? Human? Sasquatch? Grover never said what he thought it was, but he wouldn’t have stopped for a bear. Sadly, that was his best chance to see a sasquatch and he had broken his glasses.

Grover approached the whole Bigfoot thing as a scientist trying to understand a set of data. He lost a lot of academic prestige by tackling this issue. When I knew him he had not concluded that Bigfoot was a real species, but he presented a logical case that it was easier to believe an unknown species lived in the Pacific Northwest, than to believe that the data resulted from hoaxes spanning nearly two centuries. Someone bright enough to make a “monkey suit” would have been smart enough not to wear it during hunting season in the same region where a cow was shot despite having been painted in bright orange letters “COW”.

Those of us who knew him were fortunate. He is missed. I look forward to seeing him one day in the Smithsonian.