A Bigfoot Researcher And His Dog, Together Forever, For Science
Grover Krantz donated his body for scientific research when he died. But his donation came with a catch: Once the men in the lab coats had finished learning all they could from him, he wanted them to keep his remains, and keep them with the remains of his dog Clyde.
Krantz had the sort of résumé that might make him legit in the eyes of those who study bodies. He was an anthropologist and a professor. He researched the fossils of ancient humans, so it's appropriate that we should look on his own bones and learn from them. He studied the history of human speech and debunked misconceptions that had lasted for years.
He also believed in Bigfoot. He chased after Bigfoot sightings and took casts of footprints then tried to study those with the same methods he used to study actual human ancestors. He wrote five different books on Bigfoot, as well as a bunch of research papers (published in cryptozoological journals).
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His university was embarrassed by his side projects, and as for mainstream journals, they didn't think much of his work. They rejected his plan to give Bigfoot a scientific name, Gigantopithecus black—among other reasons, because there's already an actual ape by that name.
Krantz died in 2002. As he'd requested, his remains went to a body farm, which studied his flesh as it decayed. And when that was over with, they sent his skeleton to the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian also received the bones of his three dogs. The museum put Kranz in their exhibit called "Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake," even though he wasn't actually part of 17th-century anything. And they assembled one dog's bones into a skeleton and posted it right along with him.
Their plaque identifies him as an anthropologist. There was no reason to ruin things by mentioning anything about Bigfoot there.
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For more on Bigfoot fans, check out:
Hunting Bigfoot: 4 Things You Learn Chasing Fiction
6 Urban Legends That Were Totally Made Up By Celebrities
Seemingly Sane Celebrities With Bizarre Paranormal Beliefs
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