IVAN T. SANDERSON - Forgotten Father of Cryptozoology

While Ivan Sanderson was not the first man to chase after crytids, he was the man who named the field that we all dabble in.

He and fellow zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans defined the actions of scattered peoples in the 1950s, gathering the idea into a name : Cryptozoology - the study of hidden animals. This concept encompasses both the "folklore creatures" such as sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster and the animals considered extinct and perhaps also folklore.  The term 'cryptid' is said to have been coined by J. E. Wall in 1983, meaning a living thing having the quality of being hidden or unknown.

Why a post on a man that many have never heard about?  Because he was the first influence on me while growing up.  His books were amazingly available in the local library and reading of the unknown in them sparked an interest. They were devoured alongside the books by Charles Fort and so my interest in strange tales was born : UFOs, aliens, objects falling out of the sky, spontaneous human combustion, and too many others to list. And, of course, sasquatch.

He was born in January, 1911 in Scotland and died a naturalized citizen of the U.S. in 1973.  He was an explorer, an author, tv and radio star, journalist, researcher, zoo keeper, spy.

Sanderson earned a BA in Zoology with honors from Cambridge University (much more complicated and harder earned than a BA in the US) and an MA in both Botany and Ethnology. He led expeditions to the African and Asian continents, and throughout the Caribbean and Central American regions. Some of those took place while he was still in his teens and early to mid-twenties.

With the coming of World War II, he was a part of British Naval Intelligence, in charge of counter-espionage against the Germans in the Caribbean. When his cover was blown, he went to work for British Security Coordination. He then finished out the war as a press agent in New York city. After the war, he made his home in New York, becoming a citizen.

And he began the "Nature" stage of his life, writing books on animals and his various expeditions. Sanderson also made many tv and radio appearances discussing and displaying his collection of collected animals.  In 1952, he even bought property and built his own zoo to house his prized and much loved creatures. Unfortunately a fire destroyed most of his rare animals and a flood resulting from two hurricanes in 1955 destroyed his zoo.

Sanderson was an early follower of Charles Fort, admiring him and his work. He took an interest in the same unexplained things around the world just as Charles Fort did before him. Sanderson paid special attention to lake monsters, sea-serpents, mokele-mbembo, giant penguins and the yeti and sasquatch. He founded the Ivan T. Sanderson Foundation in August of 1965 in New Jersey. Two years later he changed the name to Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained (SITU) in 1967, claiming it made the organization more proactive and interesting than a "foundation". The non-profit organization investigated claims of strange phenomena ignored by mainstream science.

SITU made Sanderson's collection of papers and his writings and research available to both paying members and honorary members. It is said that Charles Berlitz researched his book on the Bermuda Triangle using SITU and Sanderson's files. The world famous little gold modal airplanes that Erich Von Daniken featured in his book also came from the collection. Howard Menger, UFO author, hung out and probably made use of the files also.


Sanderson's wife became ill with cancer and died, leaving SITU in chaos as she was the bookkeeper and records keeper. Sanderson spent much of his time with her during her last months and then he too became ill. Also diagnosed with cancer, he died at home. Several of the board members attempted to keep SITU functioning, but soon found none of them could fill Sanderson's shoes and keep the enthusiasm alive. Also, without someone keeping good records, members using the library and files would take them from the premises saying they would return them as soon as they were done. Many of the files never made it back. It is said that in the last days of SITU, cars would actually back up to the porch and boxes of files were loaded into them. A sad ending for the endless amount of information that Sanderson had spent his life collecting and organizing for future cryptozoologists to study.


And now his connection to sasquatch. He did field work. He researched and collected stories of encounters. He was both a correspondent and a friend to people like Loren Coleman, John Green, and Rene Dahinden.  He was a skeptical believer. He looked for truth in the stories told, willing to share the encounters people told him with others in hopes that somewhere more information could be found and stories verified or supported.

Coleman admitted that Sanderson could be skeptical. He related in his book "Mysterious America" that Sanderson discovered the 1909 'Jersey Devil' was an elaborate real estate hoax. He was also involved in the Bluff Creek investigations and examined the Minnesota Iceman. [more on those later].

In addtion to his books on nature, his fiction{pen name Terence Roberts}, UFOs and USOs {Unidentified Submerged Objects},  Sanderson also wrote books on the paranormal : Things; More Things; Abominable Snowmen: Legend come to life; Investigating the Unexplained; Uninvited visitors, a biologist looks at UFOs; and Invisible Residents the reality of Underwater UFOs with David Hatcher Childers.  Magazine articles and essays were contributed throughout his career. Sanderson also provided the artwork for his writings.

 

First the Minnesota Iceman. In December, 1968, Sanderson heard about the carnival sideshow display of a human-like creature. The frozen creature encased in a block of ice had been touring for the past two years.  The refrigerated truck used to transport the insulated coffin and it's contents had been driven to a farm in Minnesota for the winter.

Sanderson gathered Bernard Heuvelmans, a Belgian zoologist, and they went to examine the creature. They were able to spend two days studying it while it remained frozen in its ice. They never saw the body out of the ice, it remained frozen their entire visit.

The two men noted that the feet of the creature seemed adapted for neither climbing nor for walking bipedal. The hands seemed neither ape-like nor human, but something in between. The hair had alternating bands of dark and light hair, a pattern similar to a squirrels. In short, it was like no creature either of them had ever seen before. Heuvelmans was convinced he was viewing a genuine deep-frozen Neanderthal.  Sanderson simply stated he found the creature authentic.

Sanderson became frustrated with the conditions under which they were made to examine the body. There was no space in the truck for them to adequately photograph it. He did make detailed sketches. Sanderson also informed other scientists at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D. C. and they became interested in the possibility that a new species may have been found. This news seems to have panicked someone, for the Minnesota Iceman disappeared.

Frank D. Hansen, the man who was displaying the creature claimed that the owner had contacted him and said he wanted the body back. The owner was described by Hansen as being an eccentric West Coast millionaire connected with the movie industry. It is said that was when Hansen made the switch. He had contracted with a company to make a replica of the creature and it was this fake that he began showing around the country, still keeping it encased in ice and telling people the body was real. This seems a reasonable explanation to me, considering Sanderson's skepticism and his knowledge of animals.

And now to Bluff Creek.

In 1957, Sanderson began investigating the allegations concerning sasquatch activity in the area. He became the first, and for many years the only, serious scientist to recognize there might be an actual living being, a sasquatch.

In 1959, Tom Slick entered the scene and organized the Pacific Northwest Expedition to investigate the Bluff Creek area. Key members included Bob Titmus, Rene Dahinden, John Green, and Sanderson. It is said that Slick wanted a body, but the others expressed doubts about that being the correct approach. After forming the group, Slick gave little money to the serious researchers, instead handing out sums to local people and hunters to have them look for tracks and other evidence for him. He wasted the money on the locals being an easy mark for con artists.

Tiring of the "amateurs" and having to ride in the back of the car with the tracking dogs, Dahinden soon called it quits and left. The experience with the dogs just emphasized how much Dahinden disliked the way Slick had organized the work.

Timus was the "deputy leader" but rarely was in the field as he had to attend to running his business. None of the others were able to stay full time but came as they could. All pictures and all other evidence was required to be sent to Slick in San Antonio. It makes one wonder just what happened to all of it.

In those early days of investigation and research without the cameras and videos and recorders and other technology of today, Sanderson joined with others who tried to find ways to do the field work needed to find answers. They focused on tangibles, like footprints, hair samples.  He believed that the sasquatch, the yeti were primitive, human-like creatures. Sanderson broke them down into three types.

1) Neanderthaler - a cave man type found in Mongolia, China  and Tibet.

2) Sasquatch or bigfoot - found in North America, Central America and possibly South America.

3) Meh-Teh - a beast like creature with fangs, found in the Himalaya Mountains in Asia, more from the ape side of evolution than from the human.

Not bad deductions from a man who had limited information available to him to form theories.

Oh, and one last item for those who think to dismiss Sanderson's contributions. It is said that Ivan Sanderson's articles in magazines and other writings helped inspire Roger Patterson to go look for sasquatch for himself. Without Sanderson, there may have been no Patterson Film. And no Patty.

Nancy

"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."