Media Article # 145
Article submitted by Richard Noll

Thursday, February 25, 1971

Bigfoot leaves foot impression

By John Webster
Seattle Times

Last Sunday morning four men from Orton Hall went sasquatch hunting. Attracted by reports of large numbers of footprints south of Colville, the students made contact with some people in the small town of Arden who knew the location of some of the footprints.

Although they didn't find any sasquatches, the four students did get a plaster cast of one of the prints and a number of color slides of the animal's trail.

The "footprints," which were left in snow by the elusive beast, measured 16" long and about 8" wide, according to Jim Curtis II, one of the four who made the trip to Arden. Curtis said that they followed the tracks for a couple of miles until they ran out of snow.

The prints were believed by local residents to have been left sometime Friday evening, he added.

Grover Krantz, assistant professor of anthropology, explained in an interview that although there are other areas where sasquatch reports are much more common, the Arden area is unique for its unusually good stretches of footprints.

He said that for the last year a hunter in the area has been working for a group of people doing research for the International Wildlife Conservation Society. The hunter has been attempting to capture a sasquatch for them with the use of a gun that fires tranquilizer darts.

So far, said Krantz, the hunter has been able to identify the tracks of five different "individuals." The newest tracks are from what he believes may be the sixth individual.

Krantz said that the newest prints are not as large as others that have been documented, some of which measure 17 to 19 1/2 inches. He added that the hunter made a color movie last October of what is believed to be a sasquatch.

He said that the hunter's film, which has not yet been released to the public, shows "an incredibly big human-like shape with brown or dark brown hair, and heavily developed shoulders and arms."

Krantz, who is doing some investigation of his own into the mystery of the sasquatch, has plaster casts of several footprints. He also has a cast of what is believed to be a hand. The "hand" is about a foot long and has four short, stubby fingers and a thumb.

Two pictures with this article:

Trackway and plaster cast

Caption reads:

"The cast (L.) of one of Bigfoot's foot impressions, as compared to a man's. The "trail" (R.) of the fabled sasquatch was followed until the snow ran out. The footprints measured 16" long and 8" wide. Photo courtesy of Tom Neitzel

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