Will It Take A Bigfoot Body To Convince Science They Actually Exist?

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Bigfoot Chicks, Melissa Adair. As researchers, the Bigfoot Chicks are committed to seeking the truth regarding the Bigfoot mystery. You can visit their blog at bigfootchicks.blogspot.com.

Will it take a body to convince scientists and the world of the existence of Bigfoot? This question has been asked from the beginning and is a source of heated debate within the Bigfoot community. In this article from 1977, famed anthropologist, Dr. Grover Krantz shares his opinions on the subject and discusses what he has learned from studying sighting reports and reveals the defining moment that made him a Bigfoot believer.

NEWS JOURNAL

North Central Ohio's Foremost Newspaper
Saturday, April 9, 1977

Proof Needed
Speaker Would Shoot 'Bigfoot'
By Melodie Ann Gross

"I think a Sasquatch has to be shot and killed to convince scienctists that they exist," Dr. Grover Krantz told an audience of about 400 at the Mansfield Campus last night.

Speaking on the topic of "Bigfoot" the associate professor of anthropology from Washington State University said a piece of the animal is the only thing which will finally be accepted by the scientific community.

Krantz hastened to add that he wants only one of the animals killed for study. Then he would like a law passed to protect them. He believes there may be as many as 200 of the creatures living in the Pacific Northwest.

The anthropologist brought with him a set of five plaster casts made from what he believes were Bigfoot's footprints. He sold the complete set to Mansfield OSU for $150, according to Dr. Richard Wink, M-OSU associate director.

The set of casts is one of three complete sets in existence, Krantz said. M-OSU is now the only university to have a complete set, Dr. Sherri Deaver told The News Journal. One set belongs to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C., and Krantz owns the third set.

Dr. James B. Heck, M-OSU director, said the casts were paid for from anthropology department funds. Deaver said she will use the casts in teaching and hopes to have a permanent display of them in the campus library.

Krantz said he prefers the Indian name of Sasquatch for the Bigfoot creatures. In a presentation to Mansfield Campus students earlier in the afternoon, he said the name Bigfoot merely describes one part of the creature's anatomy. He said Big Elbow of Big Ear could be just as appropriate.

"Sasquatch is a legendary animal or thing that many people have described seeing and is almost universally denied by the scientific community," said Krantz.

"The animals are described by quite a number of observers...(with) very few deviations. Basically, a Sasquatch is an animal that stands on two legs with the body more or less vertically, two arms, shoulders with some breadth, the head sitting in the center of the shoulders, and this is pretty much a description of a human being," he said.

"The legs are roughly of human proportions. The arms are not used in locomotion: They just swing to the sides," He added.

"But the interesting part starts when you consider the size. The are usually described as being about eight feet tall, he said. Krantz estimated they weigh about 800 pounds and are "extremely heavyset."

While Krantz said he has made casts of the actual footprints on two occasions (one involving at least 1,000 tracks) he said he spends most of his time studying reports of Bigfoot sightings.

He has 800 reports and has interviewed about 24 persons who claim to have seen the creature. Krantz said he does not believe about half of those people he interviewed. He has viewed five films of the animal and believes only one of the films was real. In the case of the films he believes were faked, Krantz said he has a pretty good idea of "who was in the monkey suit".

But showing the plaster casts to the audience, Krantz explained it was one set in particular which made him a believer. The left footprint showed signs of a deformity: the creature was slightly crippled.

Detailing bone structure, the anthropologist said he felt it would take a real expert to fake a crippled foot.

Krantz, who has written numerous articles on the subject and who said he gets no support from his own university in his Sasquatch studies, admitted many footprints are pure hoaxes. But he said he knows two things to look for in footprints or casts which will tell him immediately whether or not they are fake.

Yet he has never written about those two telltale factors not has he told anyone else what they are.

But Krantz said footprints or photographs will always be considered fake. The only thing which will be accepted by scientists is a piece of bone or something from the animal.