Grover Krantz
Encyclopedia
Grover Sanders Krantz was a professor of physical anthropology
at Washington State University
, perhaps most famous to the general public as one of the few scientists not only to research Bigfoot
, but also to express his belief in the cryptid
's existence. Throughout his professional career, Krantz authored more than 60 academic articles and 10 books on human evolution
, and conducted field research in Europe
, China
, and Java
.
Outside of Krantz's formal studies in evolutionary anthropology
and primatology
, his research on Bigfoot drew heavy criticism and accusations of "fringe science
" from his colleagues, costing him research grants and promotions, and delaying his tenure
at the University. Further, his articles on the subject were rejected by peer-reviewed scholarly journals. However, Krantz was tenacious in his work and was often drawn to controversial subjects, such as the Kennewick Man
remains, arguing for their preservation and study. He has been described as having been the "only scientist" and "lone professional" to seriously consider Bigfoot in his time, in a field largely dominated by amateur naturalists.
s, and while Krantz tried to follow the basic Christian philosophy of behaviour and morality, he was not active in the religion. He was raised in Rockford, Illinois
until the age of 10, when his family relocated back to Utah. He attended the University of Utah
for a year beginning in 1949 before joining the Air National Guard
, being honorably discharged in 1953. Krantz then transferred to the University of California, Berkeley
, where he completed a Bachelor of Science
degree in 1955 and a Master's degree
in 1958. With the submission of his doctoral dissertation, titled The Origins of Man, Krantz obtained his doctorate in anthropology from the University of Minnesota
in 1971.
in Berkeley, California
before acquiring a full-time teaching position at Washington State University
, where he taught from 1968 until his retirement in 1998. He was a popular professor despite giving notoriously difficult exams, and often ate lunch with students and talked about anthropology, unified field theory
in physics, military history
, and current events. After his death, a scholarship named after Krantz was established at the University to promote "interest in the fields of physical/biological anthropology, linguistic archaeology, and/or human demography."
In the 1970s, Krantz studied the fossil remains of Ramapithecus, an extinct genus of primates then thought by many anthropologists to be ancestral to humans, although Krantz helped prove this notion false. Krantz's research on Homo erectus
was extensive, including studies of phonemic speech and theoretical hunting patterns, and argued that this led to many of the anatomical differences between H. erectus and modern humans. He also wrote an influential paper on the emergence of humans in prehistoric Europe
and the development of Indo-European languages
, and was the first researcher to explain the function of the mastoid process
. His professional work was diverse, including research on the development of Paleolithic stone tools, Neanderthal
taxonomy and culture, the Quaternary extinction event
, sea level
changes, and the evidence of sex in the human fossil record.
In 1996 Krantz was drawn into the Kennewick Man
controversy, arguing both in academia and in court that direct lineage to extant human populations could not be demonstrated. In an interview appearing in The New Yorker
, Krantz stated his view that "this skeleton cannot be racially or culturally associated with any existing American Indian group" and "the Native Repatriation Act
[sic] has no more applicability to this skeleton than it would if an early Chinese expedition had left one of its members there." In 2001 he attempted to submit the last paper he wrote before his death, titled "Neanderthal Continuity in View of Some Overlooked Data," although it was rejected by the peer-reviewed journal Current Anthropology
, with then editor Benjamin Orlove stating that it did not make enough reference to the most current research.
, In Search of..., and Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science
.
Krantz's studies of Bigfoot, which he called "Sasquatch," (an Anglicization of the Halkomelem
word sásq’ets (ˈsæsqʼəts, meaning "wild man") led him to believe that this was an actual creature. He theorized that sightings were due to small pockets of surviving gigantopithecines
, with the progenitor population having migrated across the Bering land bridge
, which was later used by humans to enter North America
. (Gigantopithecus lived alongside humans but is thought to have gone extinct 300,000 years ago in eastern Asia.)
In January 1985 Krantz tried to formally name Bigfoot by presenting a paper at the meeting of the International Society of Cryptozoology held in Sussex, England, assigning it the binomen
Gigantopithecus blacki, although this was not permitted by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
because G. blacki was an existing taxon
and because the creature was lacking a holotype
. Krantz argued that his plaster casts were suitable holotypes, later suggesting G. canadensis as a name. Krantz then tried to have his paper, titled "A Species Named from Footprints," published in an academic journal although it was rejected by reviewers.
After seeing footage stills of the Patterson-Gimlin film
which appeared on the February 1968 cover of Argosy
, Krantz was skeptical, believing the film to be an elaborate hoax, saying "it looked to me like someone wearing a gorilla suit" and "I gave Sasquatch only a 10 percent chance of being real." After years of skepticism, Krantz finally became convinced of Bigfoot's existence after analyzing the "Cripplefoot" plaster cast
s gathered at Bossburg, Washington
in December 1969. Krantz later studied the Patterson-Gimlin film in full, and after taking notice of the creature's peculiar gait and purported anatomical features, such as flexing leg muscles, he changed his mind and became an advocate of its authenticity. While in Bossburg, he also met John Willison Green and the two remained friends until Krantz's death.
The Cripplefoot tracks, left in snow, purportedly showed microscopic dermal ridges (fingerprints) and injuries tentatively identified as clubfoot by primatologist John Napier
. Krantz asked Dutch professor A.G. de Wilde of the University of Groningen
to examine the prints, who concluded that they were "not from some dead object with ridges in it, but come from a living object able to spread its toes." Krantz also attempted to have both the FBI and Scotland Yard
study the dermal ridge patterns, and was told by renowned fingerprint expert John Berry, an editor of the journal Fingerprint Whorld, that Scotland Yard had concluded the prints were "probably real." To his disappointment, a subsequent 1983 article in the journal Cryptozoology, titled "Anatomy and Dermatoglyphics of Three Sasquatch Footprints," was largely ignored.
After constructing biomechanical models of the Cripplefoot casts by calculating their distance, leverage, weight dynamics and distribution, and comparing the data to the track's heel, ankle and toe base, Krantz concluded that the footprints had been left by an animal about 2.44 m (8 ft) tall and weighing roughly 363 kg (800 lb). The morphological detail in the cast, particularly impressions of the thenar eminence
muscle, also helped convince Krantz, who argued that a hoax "would require someone quite familiar with the anatomy of the human hand to make the connection between a non-opposable thumb and an absence of the thenar eminence." This culminated in Krantz's first publication on the subject of Bigfoot, with his article "Sasquatch Handprints" appearing in the journal North American Research Notes in 1971.
Shortly before his death, Krantz also examined the Skookum cast
. He did not publicly endorse its authenticity, saying in an interview with Outside
magazine, "I don't know what it is. I'm baffled. Elk. Sasquatch. That's the choice."
. Krantz was married four times and divorced thrice; his fourth wife was Diane Horton, whom he married on November 5, 1982. He also had a stepson, Dural Horton. Krantz was a road enthusiast and frequently took road trips, traveling to all 48 continental states.
On Valentine's Day
2002, Krantz died in his Port Angeles, Washington
home from pancreatic cancer
after an eight-month battle with the disease. At his request, there was no funeral. Instead, his body was shipped to the body farm
at the University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility, where scientists study human decay rates to aid in forensic investigations. In 2003, his skeleton arrived at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History
and was laid to rest in a green cabinet, alongside the bones of his three favorite Irish Wolfhound
s – Clyde, Icky, and Yahoo – as was his last request (See "Epilogue" by Dave Hunt of the Smithsonian in Only A Dog).
In 2009, Krantz's skeleton was painstakingly articulated and, along with the skeleton of one his dogs, included on display in the Smithsonian's "Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake" exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History. His bones have also been used to teach forensics
and advanced osteology
to George Washington University
students.
Among his works on Sasquatch are:
Physical anthropology
Biological anthropology is that branch of anthropology that studies the physical development of the human species. It plays an important part in paleoanthropology and in forensic anthropology...
at Washington State University
Washington State University
Washington State University is a public research university based in Pullman, Washington, in the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 1890, WSU is the state's original and largest land-grant university...
, perhaps most famous to the general public as one of the few scientists not only to research Bigfoot
Bigfoot
Bigfoot, also known as sasquatch, is an ape-like cryptid that purportedly inhabits forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid...
, but also to express his belief in the cryptid
Cryptid
In cryptozoology and sometimes in cryptobotany, a cryptid is a creature or plant whose existence has been suggested but is unrecognized by scientific consensus and often regarded as highly unlikely. Famous examples include the Yeti in the Himalayas and the Loch Ness Monster in...
's existence. Throughout his professional career, Krantz authored more than 60 academic articles and 10 books on human evolution
Human evolution
Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...
, and conducted field research in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, and Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
.
Outside of Krantz's formal studies in evolutionary anthropology
Evolutionary anthropology
Evolutionary anthropology is the interdisciplinary study of evolution of human physiology and human behaviour and the relation between hominids and non-hominid primates. Evolutionary anthropology is based in natural science and social science...
and primatology
Primatology
Primatology is the scientific study of primates. It is a diverse discipline and researchers can be found in academic departments of anatomy, anthropology, biology, medicine, psychology, veterinary sciences and zoology, as well as in animal sanctuaries, biomedical research facilities, museums and zoos...
, his research on Bigfoot drew heavy criticism and accusations of "fringe science
Fringe science
Fringe science is scientific inquiry in an established field of study that departs significantly from mainstream or orthodox theories, and is classified in the "fringes" of a credible mainstream academic discipline....
" from his colleagues, costing him research grants and promotions, and delaying his tenure
Tenure
Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...
at the University. Further, his articles on the subject were rejected by peer-reviewed scholarly journals. However, Krantz was tenacious in his work and was often drawn to controversial subjects, such as the Kennewick Man
Kennewick Man
Kennewick Man is the name for the skeletal remains of a prehistoric man found on a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, USA, on July 28, 1996...
remains, arguing for their preservation and study. He has been described as having been the "only scientist" and "lone professional" to seriously consider Bigfoot in his time, in a field largely dominated by amateur naturalists.
Biography
Krantz was born in Salt Lake City in 1931. His parents were devout MormonMormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
s, and while Krantz tried to follow the basic Christian philosophy of behaviour and morality, he was not active in the religion. He was raised in Rockford, Illinois
Rockford, Illinois
Rockford is a mid-sized city located on both banks of the Rock River in far northern Illinois. Often referred to as "The Forest City", Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. As reported in the 2010 U.S. census, the city was home to 152,871 people, the third most populated...
until the age of 10, when his family relocated back to Utah. He attended the University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
for a year beginning in 1949 before joining the Air National Guard
Air National Guard
The Air National Guard , often referred to as the Air Guard, is the air force militia organized by each of the fifty U.S. states, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the territories of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia of the United States. Established under Title 10 and...
, being honorably discharged in 1953. Krantz then transferred to the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, where he completed a Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree in 1955 and a Master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in 1958. With the submission of his doctoral dissertation, titled The Origins of Man, Krantz obtained his doctorate in anthropology from the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
in 1971.
Professional career
In the early 1960s, Krantz worked as a technician at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of AnthropologyPhoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology
The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology is an anthropology museum located in Berkeley, California...
in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
before acquiring a full-time teaching position at Washington State University
Washington State University
Washington State University is a public research university based in Pullman, Washington, in the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 1890, WSU is the state's original and largest land-grant university...
, where he taught from 1968 until his retirement in 1998. He was a popular professor despite giving notoriously difficult exams, and often ate lunch with students and talked about anthropology, unified field theory
Unified field theory
In physics, a unified field theory, occasionally referred to as a uniform field theory, is a type of field theory that allows all that is usually thought of as fundamental forces and elementary particles to be written in terms of a single field. There is no accepted unified field theory, and thus...
in physics, military history
Military history
Military history is a humanities discipline within the scope of general historical recording of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, their cultures, economies and changing intra and international relationships....
, and current events. After his death, a scholarship named after Krantz was established at the University to promote "interest in the fields of physical/biological anthropology, linguistic archaeology, and/or human demography."
In the 1970s, Krantz studied the fossil remains of Ramapithecus, an extinct genus of primates then thought by many anthropologists to be ancestral to humans, although Krantz helped prove this notion false. Krantz's research on Homo erectus
Homo erectus
Homo erectus is an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about . The species originated in Africa and spread as far as India, China and Java. There is still disagreement on the subject of the classification, ancestry, and progeny of H...
was extensive, including studies of phonemic speech and theoretical hunting patterns, and argued that this led to many of the anatomical differences between H. erectus and modern humans. He also wrote an influential paper on the emergence of humans in prehistoric Europe
Prehistoric Europe
Prehistoric Europe refers to the prehistorical period of Europe, usually taken to refer to human prehistory since the Lower Paleolithic, but in principle also extending to geological time scale - for which see Geological history of Europe....
and the development of Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
, and was the first researcher to explain the function of the mastoid process
Mastoid process
The mastoid process is a conical prominence projecting from the undersurface of the mastoid portion of the temporal bone. It is located just behind the external acoustic meatus, and lateral to the styloid process...
. His professional work was diverse, including research on the development of Paleolithic stone tools, Neanderthal
Neanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
taxonomy and culture, the Quaternary extinction event
Quaternary extinction event
The Quaternary period saw the extinctions of numerous predominantly larger, especially megafaunal, species, many of which occurred during the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene epoch. However, the extinction wave did not stop at the end of the Pleistocene, but continued especially on...
, sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
changes, and the evidence of sex in the human fossil record.
In 1996 Krantz was drawn into the Kennewick Man
Kennewick Man
Kennewick Man is the name for the skeletal remains of a prehistoric man found on a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, USA, on July 28, 1996...
controversy, arguing both in academia and in court that direct lineage to extant human populations could not be demonstrated. In an interview appearing in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, Krantz stated his view that "this skeleton cannot be racially or culturally associated with any existing American Indian group" and "the Native Repatriation Act
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law passed on 16 November 1990 requiring federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American "cultural items" to...
[sic] has no more applicability to this skeleton than it would if an early Chinese expedition had left one of its members there." In 2001 he attempted to submit the last paper he wrote before his death, titled "Neanderthal Continuity in View of Some Overlooked Data," although it was rejected by the peer-reviewed journal Current Anthropology
Current Anthropology
Current Anthropology is a peer-reviewed anthropology academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press and sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Founded in 1959 by the anthropologist Sol Tax...
, with then editor Benjamin Orlove stating that it did not make enough reference to the most current research.
Bigfoot research
Krantz's specialty as an anthropologist included all aspects of human evolution, but he was best known outside of academia as the first serious researcher to devote his professional energies to the scientific study of Bigfoot, beginning in 1963. Because his cryptozoology research was ignored by mainstream scientists, despite his academic credentials, in a bid to find an audience Krantz published numerous books aimed at casual readers and also frequently appeared in television documentaries, including Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious WorldArthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World
Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World is a thirteen part British television series looking at unexplained phenomena from around the world. It was produced by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network and first broadcast in September 1980....
, In Search of..., and Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science
Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science
Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science was a documentary film which originally aired on the Discovery Channel on January 9, 2003. The program features scientists from various disciplines analyzing the most compelling evidence for the existence of Bigfoot, including the Skookum cast and the...
.
Krantz's studies of Bigfoot, which he called "Sasquatch," (an Anglicization of the Halkomelem
Halkomelem language
Halkomelem is a language of the First Nations peoples of southeastern Vancouver Island from the west shore of Saanich Inlet northward beyond Nanoose Bay, and of the mainland around the Fraser River Delta upriver to Harrison Lake and the lower...
word sásq’ets (ˈsæsqʼəts, meaning "wild man") led him to believe that this was an actual creature. He theorized that sightings were due to small pockets of surviving gigantopithecines
Gigantopithecus
Gigantopithecus is an extinct genus of ape that existed from roughly one million years to as recently as three hundred thousand years ago, in what is now China, India, and Vietnam, placing Gigantopithecus in the same time frame and geographical location as several hominin species...
, with the progenitor population having migrated across the Bering land bridge
Bering land bridge
The Bering land bridge was a land bridge roughly 1,000 miles wide at its greatest extent, which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia at various times during the Pleistocene ice ages. Like most of Siberia and all of Manchuria, Beringia was not glaciated because snowfall was extremely light...
, which was later used by humans to enter North America
Models of migration to the New World
There have been several models for the human settlement of the Americas proposed by various academic communities. The question of how, when and why humans first entered the Americas is of intense interest to archaeologists and anthropologists, and has been a subject of heated debate for centuries...
. (Gigantopithecus lived alongside humans but is thought to have gone extinct 300,000 years ago in eastern Asia.)
In January 1985 Krantz tried to formally name Bigfoot by presenting a paper at the meeting of the International Society of Cryptozoology held in Sussex, England, assigning it the binomen
Binomen
In zoological nomenclature, a binomen , is the two-part name of a species. The term was introduced in 1953, abolishing the previously used "binomial name" . A binomen consists of a generic name and a specific epithet...
Gigantopithecus blacki, although this was not permitted by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 28 members from 20 countries, mainly practicing zoological taxonomists...
because G. blacki was an existing taxon
Taxon
|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement...
and because the creature was lacking a holotype
Holotype
A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...
. Krantz argued that his plaster casts were suitable holotypes, later suggesting G. canadensis as a name. Krantz then tried to have his paper, titled "A Species Named from Footprints," published in an academic journal although it was rejected by reviewers.
After seeing footage stills of the Patterson-Gimlin film
Patterson-Gimlin film
The Patterson-Gimlin film is a famous short motion picture of an unidentified subject the film makers purported to be a "Bigfoot", that was supposedly filmed on October 20, 1967, by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin on the Klamath River outside of Orleans,...
which appeared on the February 1968 cover of Argosy
Argosy (magazine)
Argosy was an American pulp magazine, published by Frank Munsey. It is generally considered to be the first American pulp magazine. The magazine began as a general information periodical entitled The Golden Argosy, targeted at the boys adventure market.-Launch of Argosy:In late September 1882,...
, Krantz was skeptical, believing the film to be an elaborate hoax, saying "it looked to me like someone wearing a gorilla suit" and "I gave Sasquatch only a 10 percent chance of being real." After years of skepticism, Krantz finally became convinced of Bigfoot's existence after analyzing the "Cripplefoot" plaster cast
Plaster cast
A plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – particularly in palaeontology .Sometimes a...
s gathered at Bossburg, Washington
Bossburg, Washington
Bossburg is a ghost town in Stevens County, Washington, and is located on the east bank of the Columbia River just south of the Canadian border. Bossburg had a maximum population of 800 in 1892. The town was once named "Young America", although in 1896 it was renamed in honor of the town’s first...
in December 1969. Krantz later studied the Patterson-Gimlin film in full, and after taking notice of the creature's peculiar gait and purported anatomical features, such as flexing leg muscles, he changed his mind and became an advocate of its authenticity. While in Bossburg, he also met John Willison Green and the two remained friends until Krantz's death.
The Cripplefoot tracks, left in snow, purportedly showed microscopic dermal ridges (fingerprints) and injuries tentatively identified as clubfoot by primatologist John Napier
John Napier (primatologist)
John Russell Napier, MRCS, LRCP, D.Sc. was a British primatologist, paleoathropologist, and physician, who is notable for his work with Homo habilis and OH 7, as well as on human and primate hands/feet...
. Krantz asked Dutch professor A.G. de Wilde of the University of Groningen
University of Groningen
The University of Groningen , located in the city of Groningen, was founded in 1614. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands as well as one of its largest. Since its inception more than 100,000 students have graduated...
to examine the prints, who concluded that they were "not from some dead object with ridges in it, but come from a living object able to spread its toes." Krantz also attempted to have both the FBI and Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
study the dermal ridge patterns, and was told by renowned fingerprint expert John Berry, an editor of the journal Fingerprint Whorld, that Scotland Yard had concluded the prints were "probably real." To his disappointment, a subsequent 1983 article in the journal Cryptozoology, titled "Anatomy and Dermatoglyphics of Three Sasquatch Footprints," was largely ignored.
After constructing biomechanical models of the Cripplefoot casts by calculating their distance, leverage, weight dynamics and distribution, and comparing the data to the track's heel, ankle and toe base, Krantz concluded that the footprints had been left by an animal about 2.44 m (8 ft) tall and weighing roughly 363 kg (800 lb). The morphological detail in the cast, particularly impressions of the thenar eminence
Thenar eminence
The thenar eminence refers to the group of muscles on the palm of the human hand at the base of the thumb...
muscle, also helped convince Krantz, who argued that a hoax "would require someone quite familiar with the anatomy of the human hand to make the connection between a non-opposable thumb and an absence of the thenar eminence." This culminated in Krantz's first publication on the subject of Bigfoot, with his article "Sasquatch Handprints" appearing in the journal North American Research Notes in 1971.
Shortly before his death, Krantz also examined the Skookum cast
Skookum Cast
The Skookum cast is a plaster cast often claimed to be an imprint of the body of Bigfoot, although it is more typically regarded as that of an elk.-Description:...
. He did not publicly endorse its authenticity, saying in an interview with Outside
Outside (magazine)
Outside is an American magazine focused on the outdoors. The first issue debuted in September 1977 with its mission statement declaring that the publication was "dedicated to covering the people, sports and activities, politics, art, literature, and hardware of the outdoors..."Its founders were...
magazine, "I don't know what it is. I'm baffled. Elk. Sasquatch. That's the choice."
Personal life and death
Grover Krantz had one brother, Victor Krantz, who worked as a photographer at Smithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
. Krantz was married four times and divorced thrice; his fourth wife was Diane Horton, whom he married on November 5, 1982. He also had a stepson, Dural Horton. Krantz was a road enthusiast and frequently took road trips, traveling to all 48 continental states.
On Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
2002, Krantz died in his Port Angeles, Washington
Port Angeles, Washington
Port Angeles is a city in and the county seat of Clallam County, Washington, United States. The population was 19,038 at the 2010 census. The area's harbor was dubbed Puerto de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles by Spanish explorer Francisco de Eliza in 1791, but by the mid-19th century the name had...
home from pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...
after an eight-month battle with the disease. At his request, there was no funeral. Instead, his body was shipped to the body farm
Body Farm
A body farm is a research facility where human decomposition can be studied in a variety of settings. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the decomposition process, permitting the development of techniques for extracting information from human remains...
at the University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility, where scientists study human decay rates to aid in forensic investigations. In 2003, his skeleton arrived at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. Admission is free and the museum is open 364 days a year....
and was laid to rest in a green cabinet, alongside the bones of his three favorite Irish Wolfhound
Irish Wolfhound
The Irish wolfhound is a breed of domestic dog , specifically a sighthound. The name originates from its purpose rather than from its appearance...
s – Clyde, Icky, and Yahoo – as was his last request (See "Epilogue" by Dave Hunt of the Smithsonian in Only A Dog).
In 2009, Krantz's skeleton was painstakingly articulated and, along with the skeleton of one his dogs, included on display in the Smithsonian's "Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake" exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History. His bones have also been used to teach forensics
Forensics
Forensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action...
and advanced osteology
Osteology
Osteology is the scientific study of bones. A subdiscipline of anatomy, anthropology, and archeology, osteology is a detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, morphology, function, disease, pathology, the process of ossification , the resistance and hardness of bones , etc...
to George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
students.
Selected bibliography
Non-Sasquatch works include:- Climatic Races and Descent Groups (North Quincy, MA: Christopher Publishing House, 1980. ISBN 9780815803904)
- The Process of Human Evolution (Cambridge, MA: Schenkman Publishing, 1981. ISBN 9780870733482)
- Geographical Development of European Languages (New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, 1988. ISBN 9780820408002)
- Only A Dog (Hong Kong: William Meacham, 2008. ISBN 9789881732415)
- Numerous scholarly papers, published in Current AnthropologyCurrent AnthropologyCurrent Anthropology is a peer-reviewed anthropology academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press and sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Founded in 1959 by the anthropologist Sol Tax...
, American AnthropologistAmerican AnthropologistAmerican Anthropologist is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association . It is known for publishing a wide range of work in anthropology, including articles on cultural, biological and linguistic anthropology and archeology...
, American Journal of Physical AnthropologyAmerican Journal of Physical AnthropologyThe American Journal of Physical Anthropology is a peer-reviewed scientific journal and the official journal of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists...
, American Journal of ArchaeologyAmerican Journal of ArchaeologyThe American Journal of Archaeology , the peer-reviewed journal of the Archaeological Institute of America, has been published since 1897...
, American AntiquityAmerican AntiquityThe professional journal American Antiquity is published by the Society for American Archaeology, the largest organization of professional archaeologists of the Americas in the world. The journal is considered to be the flagship journal of American archaeology.American Antiquity is a quarterly...
, and other journals
Among his works on Sasquatch are:
- The Scientist Looks at the Sasquatch (Moscow: University Press of Idaho, 1977, with anthropologist Roderick SpragueRoderick SpragueRoderick Sprague is a renowned American anthropologist, ethnohistorian and historical archaeologist, and the Emeritus Director of the Laboratory of Anthropology at the University of Idaho, where he taught for thirty years...
. ISBN 9780893010447) - The Scientist Looks at the Sasquatch II (Moscow: University Press of Idaho, 1979, also with Roderick Sprague. ISBN 9780893010614)
- The Sasquatch and Other Unknown Hominoids (Calgary: Western Publishing, 1984, with archaeologist Vladimir Markotić. ISBN 9780919119109)
- Big Footprints: A Scientific Inquiry Into the Reality of Sasquatch (Boulder, CO: Johnson Books, 1992. ISBN 9781555660994)
- Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence (Surrey, BC: Hancock House, 1999. ISBN 9780888394477)
- Numerous scholarly papers, published in Northwest Anthropological Research Notes, Cryptozoology, and other journals