René Dahinden (August 22, 1930 – April 18, 2001) was a Canadian

Bigfoot Bigfoot (), also commonly referred to as Sasquatch (), is a large, hairy Mythic humanoids, mythical creature said to inhabit forests in North America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.Example definitions include: *"A large, hairy, manlike ...

(Sasquatch) researcher. Dahinden was born in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and moved to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in October 1953, where he would live for the rest of his life. He became interested in the Bigfoot phenomenon shortly after arriving in Canada, and during the next few decades he conducted many field investigations and interviews throughout the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

. Dahinden was a major advocate for the controversial

Patterson–Gimlin film A 1967 American short motion picture, created by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin, depicts an unidentified subject that the filmmakers stated was a Bigfoot. The footage was shot in 1967 in Northern California, and has since been subjected to ...

, which was shot in 1967 and supposedly provides photographic evidence of Bigfoot. With Don Hunter, he co-wrote the book ''Sasquatch'', which was published in 1973 in a hardcover edition. In 1975, the book would be issued as a paperback. This title would then be revised and renamed in 1993 as ''Sasquatch/Bigfoot: The Search for North America's Incredible Creature, Revised Edition''. David Suchet's French Canadian Bigfoot-hunting character in the 1987 film ''

Harry and the Hendersons ''Harry and the Hendersons'' is a 1987 American fantasy comedy film directed and produced by William Dear and starring John Lithgow, Melinda Dillon, Don Ameche, David Suchet, Margaret Langrick, Joshua Rudoy, Lainie Kazan, and Kevin Peter Hal ...

'' is based on Dahinden. For a year, Dahinden acted as spokesman for Kokanee beer, and appeared in commercials in Canada. Dahinden died of prostate cancer on April 18, 2001, in British Columbia. In an obituary in the ''National Post'', his friend Christopher Murphy remembered a remark of Dahinden's: "One day he said to me: 'You know, I've spent over 40 years – and I didn't find it. I guess that's got to say something.'" He, Peter Byrne,

John Green John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author and YouTuber. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including ''The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is one of the List of best-selling books#Bet ...

, and Grover Krantz have been dubbed the “Four Horsemen of Sasquatchery”.

References

External links

Obituary
, written by

Loren Coleman Loren Coleman (born July 12, 1947) is an American cryptozoologist, author and television personality who has written over 40 books on a number of topics, including cryptozoology. He is also the President, Founder and leading Director of the Inter ...

Rene Dahinden on YouTube at The Sasquatch Archives
Cryptozoologists Swiss emigrants to Canada Bigfoot 1930 births 2001 deaths Writers from Alberta 20th-century Canadian zoologists {{zoologist-stub