Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race

Ten years earlier, John R. Napier (1973, p. 125) declared that he found the prints he himself studied “biologically convincing.” Napier (1973, pp. 204 –205) stated: “The evidence that I have examined persuades me that some of the tracks are real, and that they are manlike in form. . . . But when the size of the tracks is taken into account, and the conclusion is reached that the man-like creature in question has a stature of at least 8 ft. and weighs upward of 800 lb., the mind starts to boggle at such a preposterous idea. The vision of such creatures stomping barefoot through the forests of north-west America, unknown to science, is beyond common sense. Yet reason argues this is the case. . . . Thomas Huxley’s aphorism that ‘logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men’ puts steel into my soul. . . . I am convinced that the Sasquatch exists.” Coming from a scientist who headed the primate program at the Smithsonian Institution, this is a very strong statement. Napier is also one of Great Britain’s leading experts in the field of primate anatomy. His name will come up often in our discussion of hominid fossil discoveries in Africa.

In the face of much good evidence, why do almost all anthropologists and zoologists remain silent about Sasquatch? Krantz observed, “They are scared for their reputations and their jobs” (Huyghe 1984, p. 96). Napier similarly noted: “One of the problems, perhaps the greatest problem, in investigating Sasquatch sightings is the suspicion with which people who claim to have seen a Sasquatch are treated by their neighbours and employers. To admit such an experience is, in some areas, to risk personal reputation, social status and professional credibility” (1973, p. 88). In particular, he told of “the case of a highly qualified oil company geologist who told his story but insisted that his name should not be mentioned for fear of dismissal by his company” (Napier 1973, p. 88). In this regard, Roderick Sprague, an anthropologist from the University of Idaho, said of Krantz: “It is Krantz’s willingness to openly investigate the unknown that has cost him the respect of many colleagues as well as timely academic promotion” (1986, p. 103).

The majority of the Sasquatch reports come from the northwestern United States and British Columbia. However, there are also numerous reports from the eastern parts of the United States and Canada. For example, Green (1978) stated that there were, as of 1977, 11 reports from New York, more than 24 reports from Pennsylvania, 19 reports from Ohio, 18 from Michigan, 9 from Tennessee, more than 36 from New Jersey, 19 from Arkansas, 23 from Illinois, 30 from Texas, and 104 (maybe more) from Florida. Moving out west, Green recorded 74 reports from Montana, 32 from Idaho, 176 from Oregon, 281 from Washington, 225 from British Columbia, and 343 from California.

The volume of reports from the Pacific Northwest caused John R. Napier (1973, p. 96) to state: “The North American Bigfoot or Sasquatch has a lot going for it. It is impossible on the evidence . . . to say that it does not exist. Too many people claim to have seen it or at least to have seen footprints to dismiss its reality out of hand. To suggest that hundreds of people at worst are lying or, at best, deluding themselves is neither proper nor realistic.”

“One is forced to conclude,” said Napier, “that a man-like life-form of gigantic proportions is living at the present time in the wild areas of the northwestern United States and British Columbia. . . . That such a creature should be alive and kicking in our midst, unrecognized and unclassifiable, is a profound blow to the credibility of modern anthropology” (Green 1978, p. 12). It might also be said that the existence of living ape-men in North America, from Washington and Oregon to Florida and New Jersey, is a blow not only to anthropology, but to biology, zoology, and science in general.

10.6 Central And South America

Apelike wildmen are also reported in southern Mexico and throughout Central America. In White Indians of Darien, Richard Oglesby Marsh said a man told him that in 1920 he had killed a humanlike animal in Central America. In Buckskin Joe, Edward Jonathan Hoyt reported an encounter he had in 1898 in Honduras. A large, apelike creature, about 5 feet tall, crawled over the end of his bunk. Hoyt killed the animal, which resembled a human (Green 1978, p. 133).