In the first article, I introduced Sasquatch enthusiasts John W. Burns, John W. Green and Rene Dahinden.
In this second article I will present an additional four distinguished Sasquatch researchers.
Peter C. Byrne (1925-2023) was born in Dublin, Ireland and later in life served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, then moved to the USA in 1950.
He became one of the most prominent and dedicated researchers of Sasquatch and other mysterious entities, beginning in the 1950s and continued non-stop until his death in 2023, at the age of 98.
Byrne identified himself as a “cryptozoologist explorer” or in other words, a man of means. He travelled the world, forever searching, not only for Sasquatch, but also for other mysterious and uncatalogued entities.
He was involved in 10 films and also a TV series about mysterious entities and was the author of four books dedicated to Sasquatch;
- The Search for Bigfoot: Monster, Myth or Man (1976);
- The Monster Trilogy (2013)
- Hunt for YETI (2015)
- The Hunt for Bigfoot (2016)
Along with John Green, Rene Dahinden and Dr. Grover Krantz, Byrne was a member of the “Four Horsemen of Saquatchery.”
Dr. Grover Krantz (1931-2002) was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. Krantz was an Anthropologist, Cryptozoologist and a dedicated Sasquatch researcher who conducted field research in North America, Europe, China and Java.
Krantz served in the U.S. Air National Guard in Utah from 1949 to 1952, while attending the University of Utah. He obtained his doctorate in anthropology in 1971, with his thesis titled “The Origin of Man.”
In addition to his regular academic work at various universities, which specialized in all aspects of human evolution, he became focused mainly on researching the Sasquatch phenomena.
He theorized that Gigantopithecus was the ancestor of the Sasquatch, which, during the latter part of the last ice age, along with humans and many species of animals, had crossed from Asia via the Bering Land Bridge into what is now Alaska.
Krantz is credited for authoring around 60 academic articles and 10 books on human evolution, which included Sasquatch. He was known for doing things “his own way” and was reluctant to follow the “traditional scientific way” of research.
His better-known book “Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence”, was published in 1999. In that book he presents solid calculated evidence of the Sasquatch entity.
Dr. John Bindernagel (1941-2018) was born in Kitchener, ON. and was a Wildlife Biologist who received his PhD in Wildlife Biology from the University of Wisconsin and worked in Africa, Asia, Oceana and Canada.
In 1975 he moved to British Columbia after becoming interested in Sasquatch, figuring that B.C. was the hotspot for Sasquatch activities in North America.
He strongly believed that the Sasquatch phenomena should get more attention from serious scientists and should be scrutinized objectively, stating “We can’t bring the evidence to our colleagues because it’s perceived as taboo.” And that is still true today.
In 1998 he published his first book, North America’s Great Ape: The Sasquatch, and his second book in 2010, The Discovery of the Sasquatch: Reconciling Culture, History and Science in the Discovery Process.
Bindernagel was honoured in a tribute at the Bindercon Conference in October of 2022, in Courtenay, B.C., where I presented my new book: Nahganne: Tales of the Northern Sasquatch (2022).
Dr. J. Robert Alley became interested in Sasquatch while attending the University of Manitoba, taking courses in health sciences, biology and anthropology, in 1970-71.
While on a backpacking vacation near Nordegg, AB, in 1973, he came across a 40.64 cm (16 in.) long, human-like footprint, clearly showing five toes, and it was this occurrence that started his quest for the unclassified species called Sasquatch.
Eventually he became a professor of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Alaska Southeast, at Ketchikan, AK, retiring in 2022.
Alley authored two books on Sasquatch; Raincoast Sasquatch: The Bigfoot/Sasquatch Records of Southeast Alaska, Coastal British Columbia and Northern Washington, from Puget Sound to Yakutat, (2003), and Brushes with Bigfoot: Sasquatch Behavior Reports and Close Encounters, Native and Non-native Perspective, (2021).In 2011, Robert Alley became aware of my interest in Sasquatch and forwarded a report of Sasquatch activities that occurred a few kilometres south of Beaver Creek, Yukon. That report is documented in Nahganne. Tales of the Northern Sasquatch, p.198.
