Grover Krantz

Gordon S. "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 investigated the Skookum body cast.

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.

During at least one of the scientific TV programs discussing the legendary Patterson-Gimlin film - Dr. Krantz demonstrated how the "bent knee" type of walk shown in the film would be very difficult if not impossible for a human to immitate. He may also be the individual responsible for discovering the dermal ridges on the earliest bigfoot print casts.

Krantz died in 2002 from pancreatic cancer in his Port Angeles, Washington home. At his request, there was no funeral. Instead, his body was shipped to the University of Tennessee's body farm, where scientists study human decay rates, valuable information for detectives and coroners investigating murders.

In 2003, his skeleton arrived at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History laid it in its final resting place in a green cabinet.

Among his works on sasquatch are:
* The Scientist Looks at the Sasquatch (Moscow: University Press of Idaho, 1977, with anthropologist Roderick Sprague)
* The Scientist Looks at the Sasquatch II (Moscow: University Press of Idaho, 1979, also with Roderick Sprague)
* The Sasquatch and Other Unknown Hominoids (Calgary: Western Publishing, 1984, with archaeologist Vladimir Markotic)
* Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence (Hancock House, 1999 ISBN 0888394470)
* Several scholarly papers, published in Northwest Anthropological Research Notes

Non-sasquatch works:
* Climatic Races and Descent Groups (1980 ISBN 0815803907)
* The Antiquity of Race (1981, 1994, 1998)
* The Process of Human Evolution (1982, 1995, ISBN 0870733478)
* Geographical Development of European Languages (1988, ISBN 082040800X)