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Sasquatch
Footprints and photographs are among the evidence presented in a study examining the existence of Bigfoot in British Columbia and the northwestern United States
208 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 1975
About the author
Don Hunter
22 books4 followersDon Hunter emigrated from the UK to Canada in 1961, where he earned a B.Ed from the University of British Columbia. In 1969 he joined The Province, a daily newspaper in Vancouver, as a theatre critic, reporter, editor, and eventually as a writer for the up-front opinion column “Out and About.” A personal memoir of his teaching experiences in northern BC led to a CBC television movie and a subsequent miniseries drama in 1989. That same year, his collection of short stories, Spinner’s Inlet, was shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Prize. His latest title, Incident at Willow Creek, will be released in April 2009.
Hunter currently lives in Fort Langley, BC with his wife, June. They are the parents of two daughters, Susan and Taryn.
Hunter currently lives in Fort Langley, BC with his wife, June. They are the parents of two daughters, Susan and Taryn.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 22, 2017
Sasquatch/Bigfoot: The Search for North America’s Incredible Creature by Don Hunter with Rene Dahinden is by far one of the best books I’ve read on the subject. Hunter’s writing style draws the reader into the story with ease. He presents the information about the subject matter in a matter-of-fact way that allows the reader to develop their own opinion if Sasquatch/Bigfoot exists without being influenced by the author. Hunter provides a wealth of detailed information about many of the famous stories/sightings of Sasquatch/Bigfoot throughout North American in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s that is often lost in the more modern books published in the last ten years. The best part about Hunter’s book is that it is secretly a biography of Rene Dahinden, which was a wonderful surprise. As most know in the world of bigfoot research, Dahinden is one of the most prolific researchers that in many ways created the foundation and backbone for modern bigfoot research. Reading and learning how Dahinden became involve in bigfoot research, his relationship with many of the earlier researchers, and learning many of Dahinden’s insights/thoughts related to events happening at the time was fascinating and revealing. If anything I developed more of an appreciation and respect for Dahinden because of his perseverance, dedication, and drive in finding the elusive creature because of Hunter’s book.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the subject of bigfoot and/or considers themselves a bigfoot researcher. Hunter’s book would be one of the required books on my syllabus if I was teaching a college course on the subject.
#Bigfoot #Sasquatch
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the subject of bigfoot and/or considers themselves a bigfoot researcher. Hunter’s book would be one of the required books on my syllabus if I was teaching a college course on the subject.
#Bigfoot #Sasquatch
November 4, 2021
Sasquatch by Don Hunter with Rene' Dahinden is a very informative book. Don Hunter did the writing but a lot of that was based on research and interviews conducted by Rene' Dahinden who was so obsessed with Sasquatch he chose pursuing it over his own family. Two of the stories mentioned in the book were actually used in a Sasquatch movie called HUNTING GROUNDS which incorporated the story of Albert Ostman, a Canadian story where he was kidnapped by a family of Sasquatch and he escapes with the aid of snuff he gave to the Sasquatch to eat. In the movie HUNTING GROUNDS they altered the story to where chewing tobacco is used to make the Sasquatch ill so the hunter could escape. The other event in the movie HUNTING GROUNDS is the 1924 Ape Canyon attack which is told around the campfire and is essentially the same story from this book. A fascinating thing in the book is the Roger Patterson/Bob Gimlin Bluff Creek Film of the Sasquatch which has been shown many, many times. The Museum of Natural History rejected the film as a fake as well as the Smithsonian. The Canadian scientist rejected it because he said he could see the creature had a human heel exposed on the bottom of the foot. Whether you are a believer or not it is a fun read and the one guy you really pull for is Rene Dahinden who put in a lot of man hours, study, interviews, and expeditions to try and locate a Sasquatch. He was committed to his calling.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 19, 2024
A SYMPATHETIC RECOUNTING OF THE SASQUATCH LEGENDS AND EVIDENCE
The Prologue to this 1993 book (original edition: 1973) by Don Hunter states, “[René] Dahinden, a Swiss-born Canadian adventurer, has investigated… countless stories of Sasquatch sightings, thousands of footprints… He has never seen a Sasquatch; he is not easily persuaded by those who say they have seen one… a number of [sighting storis] that will be studied in the following pages are a part of the whole Sasquatch saga: he either told the truth, told a lie, or made a mistake in identification… [Such an incident] raises the question … thy would this person, in his situation, say that he saw this creature, and so graphically describe if he didn’t see it? And the only logical reply is that he---and the others---did see it, and that it does exist… the mountain of material collected by Dahinden that seems to point more and more to… Sasquatch’s existence. Yet Dahinden will not claim unconditionally that it DOES exist. His concern is to prove WHETHER it exists. By the end of this book the information he has gathered will have been presented and the reader may draw his own conclusions.” (Pg. 11-13)
He notes, “Many stories of the Sasquatch have come from … Indians… Cynics tend to dismiss the reports on the somewhat arbitrary and even racist grounds that they ARE from Indian sources, suggesting---in their more charitable moments---that folklore and booze have combined to weave an over-elaborate Saturday night fantasy. The fact that the Indians generally keep the stories to themselves until pursued by people such as Dahinden seems to escape their reasoning.” (Pg. 33)
He observes, “Although the most dramatic events involving Sasquatches in recent years have occurred… in the United States, it’s in British Columbia that Dahinden feels the most promising areas exist for pursuing the creature… And it’s from B.C. that the majority of Sasquatch reports have some since the start of this century.” (Pg. 63)
He notes, “So with the suggestion of a functioning intelligence, and the presence of apparently human-like proportions, there appears ground for an area of speculation that may or may not upset the protectors of orthodox anthropology---that is, the prospect of productive mating between humans and the creature we call Sasquatch, with the result: a being possessing some of the characteristics of each, ratios, uncertain.” (Pg. 102-103)
He recounts, “René refers to 1967 as ‘the big year.’ … Patterson and a partner, Bib Gimlin, had ridden into the Bluff Creek area on saddle horses… Patterson’s horse fell and as it did he saw the cause of the animals’ alarm… a large creature meeting all the qualifications of the Sasquatch… Patterson grabbed his movie camera, and started running towards the creature, filming as he went… it was a human-like creature… She—there are pendulous breasts clearly visible in the film---was covered with short, shiny black hair… the creature waked with a human-like gracefulness, swinging its arms… she turned to face him, apparently not frightened by his nearness…. The lady of the woods had made off into the deeper forest.” (Pg. 109, 114-115) “Patterson’s first impulse was to rush off with the film to New York and stun the world of science, at the same time building dreams of making a vast fortune…” (Pg. 116)
He continues, “Patterson and Gimlin took the film to those who should know if anyone should whether a movie has been faked---the technicians in the special effects department at Universal Studios… Their conclusion was: … ‘we would have to create a completely new system of artificial muscles and find an actor who would be trained to walk like that… we would have to say that it would be almost impossible.’ René has pursued the question of the film’s authenticity relentlessly. Some of the experts he has shown it to, giving convincingly detailed reasoning… conclude it is real. Others, more cautious, say in effect: ‘It would be very difficult to say it is faked.’ And a few say it isn’t real because it couldn’t be. They offer no analysis or the film to support their rejection of it.” (Pg. 119)
He continues, “René had expected the Patterson film to change the whole tone of the Sasquatch issue. When it didn’t the effect on him was two-edged. First there was the depressingly enveloping anti-climax, the thought that, ‘My god, what DO you have to show them before they’ll take it seriously?’---‘they’ being the science authorities who were, in most cases, content to let the film slip into the Sasquatch files with the rest the of the rejected data.” (Pg. 131)
In conclusion, he praises “the conviction and courage of the numerous people named throughout this book wo have come forward and reported, with the possibility of ridicule as their only reward.” (Pg. 199)
This book will be of interest to those seeking a ‘sympathetic’ portrayal of the Bigfoot/Sasquatch issue.
The Prologue to this 1993 book (original edition: 1973) by Don Hunter states, “[René] Dahinden, a Swiss-born Canadian adventurer, has investigated… countless stories of Sasquatch sightings, thousands of footprints… He has never seen a Sasquatch; he is not easily persuaded by those who say they have seen one… a number of [sighting storis] that will be studied in the following pages are a part of the whole Sasquatch saga: he either told the truth, told a lie, or made a mistake in identification… [Such an incident] raises the question … thy would this person, in his situation, say that he saw this creature, and so graphically describe if he didn’t see it? And the only logical reply is that he---and the others---did see it, and that it does exist… the mountain of material collected by Dahinden that seems to point more and more to… Sasquatch’s existence. Yet Dahinden will not claim unconditionally that it DOES exist. His concern is to prove WHETHER it exists. By the end of this book the information he has gathered will have been presented and the reader may draw his own conclusions.” (Pg. 11-13)
He notes, “Many stories of the Sasquatch have come from … Indians… Cynics tend to dismiss the reports on the somewhat arbitrary and even racist grounds that they ARE from Indian sources, suggesting---in their more charitable moments---that folklore and booze have combined to weave an over-elaborate Saturday night fantasy. The fact that the Indians generally keep the stories to themselves until pursued by people such as Dahinden seems to escape their reasoning.” (Pg. 33)
He observes, “Although the most dramatic events involving Sasquatches in recent years have occurred… in the United States, it’s in British Columbia that Dahinden feels the most promising areas exist for pursuing the creature… And it’s from B.C. that the majority of Sasquatch reports have some since the start of this century.” (Pg. 63)
He notes, “So with the suggestion of a functioning intelligence, and the presence of apparently human-like proportions, there appears ground for an area of speculation that may or may not upset the protectors of orthodox anthropology---that is, the prospect of productive mating between humans and the creature we call Sasquatch, with the result: a being possessing some of the characteristics of each, ratios, uncertain.” (Pg. 102-103)
He recounts, “René refers to 1967 as ‘the big year.’ … Patterson and a partner, Bib Gimlin, had ridden into the Bluff Creek area on saddle horses… Patterson’s horse fell and as it did he saw the cause of the animals’ alarm… a large creature meeting all the qualifications of the Sasquatch… Patterson grabbed his movie camera, and started running towards the creature, filming as he went… it was a human-like creature… She—there are pendulous breasts clearly visible in the film---was covered with short, shiny black hair… the creature waked with a human-like gracefulness, swinging its arms… she turned to face him, apparently not frightened by his nearness…. The lady of the woods had made off into the deeper forest.” (Pg. 109, 114-115) “Patterson’s first impulse was to rush off with the film to New York and stun the world of science, at the same time building dreams of making a vast fortune…” (Pg. 116)
He continues, “Patterson and Gimlin took the film to those who should know if anyone should whether a movie has been faked---the technicians in the special effects department at Universal Studios… Their conclusion was: … ‘we would have to create a completely new system of artificial muscles and find an actor who would be trained to walk like that… we would have to say that it would be almost impossible.’ René has pursued the question of the film’s authenticity relentlessly. Some of the experts he has shown it to, giving convincingly detailed reasoning… conclude it is real. Others, more cautious, say in effect: ‘It would be very difficult to say it is faked.’ And a few say it isn’t real because it couldn’t be. They offer no analysis or the film to support their rejection of it.” (Pg. 119)
He continues, “René had expected the Patterson film to change the whole tone of the Sasquatch issue. When it didn’t the effect on him was two-edged. First there was the depressingly enveloping anti-climax, the thought that, ‘My god, what DO you have to show them before they’ll take it seriously?’---‘they’ being the science authorities who were, in most cases, content to let the film slip into the Sasquatch files with the rest the of the rejected data.” (Pg. 131)
In conclusion, he praises “the conviction and courage of the numerous people named throughout this book wo have come forward and reported, with the possibility of ridicule as their only reward.” (Pg. 199)
This book will be of interest to those seeking a ‘sympathetic’ portrayal of the Bigfoot/Sasquatch issue.
May 1, 2022
Like Looking for the Holy Grail, Except...
Written a half-century ago (1973) this book introduces us to the Sasquatch phenomenon of the time, focusing on the Pacific Northwest and the experiences of René Dahinden, one of the “Four Horsemen” of those early days (along with John Napier, John Green, and Grover Krantz).
Author Don Hunter portrays a man who, having been orphaned in Switzerland, moved as a young man to Canada, alone and lacking purpose and direction in life. Perhaps this in part explained his obsessive leap into the largely still unknown (in the public consciousness) world of Sasquatch. Here he found a cause, a pursuit, to pour himself into. His story is a very human one: he was not a one-dimensional, naïve fanatic. He did get married and have a family, and was probably the most skeptical of those early pioneers. He “has never seen a Sasquatch [and] is not easily persuaded by those who say they have seen one.”
Even in those days the Sasquatch question was one that elicited polarized responses: there were those who were convinced it exists, and then there were those who dismissed the whole subject as nonsense. But Dahinden fell into neither camp, declaring in his gruff and unpolished style:
“Something is making those g**damn footprints and I’m going to find out what it is.”
His caution and skepticism were not enough, however, to offset his tendency to obsession. And so we read, unfortunately, that at one point his wife gave him an ultimatum and his choice cost him his marriage and his family. Almost against his will, he found himself immersed in a chaotic life of frantic travel to the scenes of sightings reports, usually the first investigator to arrive. And he found that attempts to cooperate with other Sasquatch hunters sometimes descended into a circus atmosphere of farce and rivalry as he witnessed people abandon all reason because they so wanted to believe. (The Ivan Marx fiasco where the man claimed to have a Bigfoot trapped in a mine and so began a bidding war is particularly illustrative.)
He was crushed when Roger Patterson appeared to be the winner with his 1967 film evidence, but with its unexpected dismissal by the scientific community, he gained new hope in the realization that the game was still afoot. Nevertheless, Patterson’s experience darkened his expectations:
“I have my doubts all the time about what I’m doing. I’ve always had them. It’s a lonely place to be, on one side of the fence with the rest of the world on the other side. But it’s where I have to stay… I know I won’t be able to convince the world by argument, because it doesn’t want to be convinced. I just have to keep on going – and I will do [that] – until one of these creatures walks in front of a gun.”
He’s probably right in that it will take somebody shooting a Sasquatch to convince the scientific community that a relic hominid has remained hidden all these years. It’s unfortunate that the question of the creature’s existence, which should be in the category of true or false, is instead largely regarded as “not even false,” that is to say, ridiculous.
René Dahinden was something of a tragic figure. His caution, skepticism, and frustration with the difficulty of discerning real claims from hoaxes was in constant tension with his unrelenting drive to prove the creature’s existence. His obsession cost him his marriage, and he died in 2001, his quest unfulfilled. And yet here we are, 50 years later, and though the Four Horsemen have all died, a new generation has taken up the quest, and with it, the stigma that remains.
For, as Dahinden ruefully observed, “The search for Sasquatch is a bit like looking for the Holy Grail, except that it is performed by very unholy people.”
Written a half-century ago (1973) this book introduces us to the Sasquatch phenomenon of the time, focusing on the Pacific Northwest and the experiences of René Dahinden, one of the “Four Horsemen” of those early days (along with John Napier, John Green, and Grover Krantz).
Author Don Hunter portrays a man who, having been orphaned in Switzerland, moved as a young man to Canada, alone and lacking purpose and direction in life. Perhaps this in part explained his obsessive leap into the largely still unknown (in the public consciousness) world of Sasquatch. Here he found a cause, a pursuit, to pour himself into. His story is a very human one: he was not a one-dimensional, naïve fanatic. He did get married and have a family, and was probably the most skeptical of those early pioneers. He “has never seen a Sasquatch [and] is not easily persuaded by those who say they have seen one.”
Even in those days the Sasquatch question was one that elicited polarized responses: there were those who were convinced it exists, and then there were those who dismissed the whole subject as nonsense. But Dahinden fell into neither camp, declaring in his gruff and unpolished style:
“Something is making those g**damn footprints and I’m going to find out what it is.”
His caution and skepticism were not enough, however, to offset his tendency to obsession. And so we read, unfortunately, that at one point his wife gave him an ultimatum and his choice cost him his marriage and his family. Almost against his will, he found himself immersed in a chaotic life of frantic travel to the scenes of sightings reports, usually the first investigator to arrive. And he found that attempts to cooperate with other Sasquatch hunters sometimes descended into a circus atmosphere of farce and rivalry as he witnessed people abandon all reason because they so wanted to believe. (The Ivan Marx fiasco where the man claimed to have a Bigfoot trapped in a mine and so began a bidding war is particularly illustrative.)
He was crushed when Roger Patterson appeared to be the winner with his 1967 film evidence, but with its unexpected dismissal by the scientific community, he gained new hope in the realization that the game was still afoot. Nevertheless, Patterson’s experience darkened his expectations:
“I have my doubts all the time about what I’m doing. I’ve always had them. It’s a lonely place to be, on one side of the fence with the rest of the world on the other side. But it’s where I have to stay… I know I won’t be able to convince the world by argument, because it doesn’t want to be convinced. I just have to keep on going – and I will do [that] – until one of these creatures walks in front of a gun.”
He’s probably right in that it will take somebody shooting a Sasquatch to convince the scientific community that a relic hominid has remained hidden all these years. It’s unfortunate that the question of the creature’s existence, which should be in the category of true or false, is instead largely regarded as “not even false,” that is to say, ridiculous.
René Dahinden was something of a tragic figure. His caution, skepticism, and frustration with the difficulty of discerning real claims from hoaxes was in constant tension with his unrelenting drive to prove the creature’s existence. His obsession cost him his marriage, and he died in 2001, his quest unfulfilled. And yet here we are, 50 years later, and though the Four Horsemen have all died, a new generation has taken up the quest, and with it, the stigma that remains.
For, as Dahinden ruefully observed, “The search for Sasquatch is a bit like looking for the Holy Grail, except that it is performed by very unholy people.”
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June 30, 2022Hey everyone....I grew up in the valley rene called home . I know why he was there.. looking to write a book .. need sponsors .. have proof of everything
I dont want to lead people astray just show hard facts ... Some hunters go a season with out filling a common white tail tag .... Unseen... I know the migration route ...... Yes ... I know exactly .. My video with my mom confirms rene and where he discovered... Looking for sponsors .. Thank you Cody Dehinen
I dont want to lead people astray just show hard facts ... Some hunters go a season with out filling a common white tail tag .... Unseen... I know the migration route ...... Yes ... I know exactly .. My video with my mom confirms rene and where he discovered... Looking for sponsors .. Thank you Cody Dehinen
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