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René Dahinden
1930-2001
Image courtesy of Sasquatch Odyssey
Copyright©1999 by Big Hairy Deal Films Inc |
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One of the greatest hominologists (those who study Sasquatch, Bigfoot, Yeti,
and other unknown hominioids) of the modern era died at 8:40 PM Pacific Daylight
Time, on 18 April 2001, in British Columbia.
Born in Switzerland, Rene Dahinden moved to Canada in 1953. Two months after he arrived,
he heard about the Sasquatch and within three years was conducting serious research
on the hairy primates, sometimes with British Columbian researcher and chronicler
John Green whom Dahinden met in 1956. Since then Dahinden conducted numerous field
investigations throughout the Pacific Northwest, interviewed many witnesses, and
examined apparent physical evidence for the legendary creature.
Dahinden was the first to show the Patterson-Gimlin Film (taken on October 20, 1967
at Bluff Creek, California) of a Bigfoot in the former Soviet Union, and he worked
hard to see to it that the film got the scientific attention he felt it deserved.
In recent years, with Dahinden's acquiring of the photographic images of the Patterson-Gimlin
Film, some of his time was occupied in technical legal and copyright affairs.
His only book, Sasquatch (McClelland & Stewart, 1973; republished as Sasquatch/Bigfoot,
Firefly, 1993), was written with Don Hunter.
In the Hollywood Bigfoot family movie comedy Harry and the Hendersons (1987),
the Sasquatch hunter, a character played by David Suchet (better known to television
viewers through his BBC/PBS Mystery series role as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot),
was loosely modeled on Rene Dahinden.
Dahinden was open and friendly, entertaining and interviewing researchers from around
the globe. He traveled to San Francisco to visit me in 1974, and I was touched by
his humor, insights, and encyclopedic knowledge of the field. He will be missed by
cryptozoologists worldwide.
--Loren Coleman
[Appreciation to Larry Lund and John Green for specific temporal information
on Rene Dahinden's death.] |
© Loren Coleman 2003
Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman is the author of
twenty books, including
Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America
(Paraview Pocket, 2003). His website is
www.lorencoleman.com. |
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