Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 23, 2008 | Bigfoot Found on Mars

Snapshot taken by NASA's Mars Rover

"Is this the picture that proves that there is life on Mars? And the existence of Bigfoot?" --The Telegraph

Today, January 23, in 2008 a picture taken by NASA's rover on Mars began to circulate as "Bigfoot on Mars" despite being four years old at the time.

The news hit the UK first with the The Telegraph reporting, "The photograph, taken in 2004 by the Mars explorer Spirit, appears to show a human shaped object that looks startingly like previous photographs purporting to have captured Bigfoot."

On this side of the Atlantic Ocean, a local ABC affiliate printed this in their Water Cooler section, "Recently, a space enthusiast enlarged a single frame from one of those images, and found a figure that some say resembles some sort of 'Bigfoot' creature."

For the rest of the day the photo went viral and finally made it to Anderson Cooper of CNN. Although Anderson Cooper found it laughable, he did interview a serious documentary director. Watch the video below.

Is Bigfoot on CNN? by neverknwo

Perhaps our favorite explanation for Bigfoot on Mars is our post we did a few months ago about a comic titled, "Bigfoot: Sword of the Earthman" The best tagline from the comic, "Bigfoot – Sword of the Earthman is not the story of how Bigfoot became a myth on Earth. It’s the story of how he became a legend of the stars."

A page from the comic, "Bigfoot – Sword of the Earthman"

You must buy this piece of Bigfoot pop-culture history! You can get your copy here, and get updates of future issues at BigfootComic.com.

Today in Bigfoot History | JAN 22, 1996 | Grover Krantz Advocates Killing Bigfoot

Grover Sanders Krantz was a professor of physical anthropology at Washington State University

"Someday down the line, 50 years from now, somebody by the rare chance might just stumble across the skeleton of a Sasquatch..." Grover Krantz

Today, January 22, 1996, the late Grover Krantz picks a side on the kill/no kill Bigfoot debate. Krantz's idea that in order to preserve the Bigfoot species, we need a specimen to understand it first. This is one of the most polarizing debates in Bigfooting. Some have argued that Grover's stance is a little more nuanced than any newspaper article can convey. There are also those that argue Krantz's view would be different today due to the advances in DNA. Either way, the debate continues to stir high emotions among the community. Read the article below that touches on arguments for both sides.

The Salt Lake Tribune

January 22, 1996

WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Dr. Grover Krantz, anthropology professor at Washington State University, has touched off something of a controversy in Bigfoot circles by openly advocating the view that a specimen should be hunted down and killed. "Someday down the line, 50 years from now, somebody by the rare chance might just stumble across the skeleton of a Sasquatch, and then the government sends out masses of [chimpanzee researcher] Jane Goodall's granddaughters, and establishes definitely, they were there, but they're extinct," Krantz theorized. "Everybody will be standing around wringing their hands saying: `If only we knew they were real, we could have saved them.' Well, they could have been saved if only we would blow one away now. The first one who bags one should get a big, big prize. The second one should be hanged."

One opponent of Krantz's view is Peter Byrne, director of the Bigfoot Research Project at Oregon's Mount Hood. Byrne is a big-game hunter in the classic tradition -- Irish, with a good head of white hair and a penchant for khakis and wool sweaters. He spent a good part of his hunting-and-tracking career in Nepal before developing an interest in the Sasquatch and undertaking the first major organized Bigfoot expedition in Oregon in 1960.

It failed to produce a Sasquatch, but Byrne hasn't quit looking. He now spends much of his searching tracking down witnesses, carefully probing their stories for holes and sending investigators to look for corroborating evidence.

Loren Coleman Clarifies His Remarks in New Haven Article

Loren Coleman, left, speaks with host Joshua Foer at the Institute Library in New Haven.

In our previous post, "Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman Speaks about Melba Ketchum's Bigfoot DNA Study" we quoted the New Haven Register article interviewing Loren Coleman. Since our post we received comments regarding a few of Mr. Coleman's statements, in particular his "No data, no discovery" and "Angel DNA" comments. 

Yesterday (January 20th, 2013) Loren Coleman posted an article on Cryptomundo to clarify his remarks to the New Haven Register. Full disclosure: I am a regular contributor to Cryptomundo and a big fan of Loren Coleman's contributions to the Bigfoot community. Read an excerpt from his clarifications below:

In discussing the recent DNA news, I quoted John Hawks, the Wisconsin anthropologist, in my agreeing with his notion that “no data, no discovery” is the stance to take. My attribution to Hawks was absence from the article.

I said that quotes supposedly from the researcher in Texas, saying ridiculous things like “These are angels from heaven,” were released on Facebook, and that does not help the cause of serious research on Bigfoot. Those remarks were denied later as having been said by the Texas individual. The article does not make it clear I was talking about the leakage and not the exacting quotations.

In the solving of the source of the “Montauk Monster,” at my New Haven talk, I was clear to credit myself and others for pointing to a “raccoon in second-stage decomposition,” as what the thing on the beach was. Besides myself and a New York game official, Darren Naish was behind the solution too.

We wanted to cover the two primary topics that were discussed in our comments area, but Loren Coleman also touches upon other aspects of his New Haven interview, and your welcome to read them here.