Biography: Tom Steenburg

Tom Steenburg The Giant Hunter
From the book "Meet The Sasquatch" by Chris Murphy
Used with permission

Thomas Steenburg has been actively involved in Sasquatch research since 1978. Up until September 2002 he lived in Alberta and was the main researcher in that province. He had, however, done some extensive research in British Columbia and moved to Mission, B.C. in 2002 for the express purpose of living and doing research in Canada's "Sasquatch" province. Tom has military training and is a rugged outdoorsman. He is one of the few Sasquatch researchers who continually goes out into the wilderness. He had one encounter with a grizzly bear and considers himself very lucky that he managed to get up a tree in time-suffering only a lower back wound and a clawed packsack. Tom has thoroughly documented much of his research in three books. He tells me that his most memorable experience was a chance investigation in 1986 of a sighting along the Chilliwack River. While Tom was in Hope, B.C., an elderly man saw the SASQUATCH RESEARCH sign on Tom's Ford Bronco (previous vehicle) and informed him of the sighting which had occurred three days earlier. Tom did some checking and found the exact location. He learned that an American couple were camping in the area. After doing some fishing in the Chilliwack River, they hung their catch on a tree back at their campsite. They saw a Sasquatch take the fish and wander off. Tom searched the entire area and to his amazement found 110 footprints measuring 18-inches/45.7 cm long starting near a little creek across the road from the campsite. The prints went along the creek bed for about 40 yards/36.6 cm, and then they suddenly turned to the right and headed up a very steep hill at about a 45 degree angle. He lost the trail by a rock slide area. He photographed the clearest prints and then made a plaster cast. Impressed with Tom's recollection of this event, I visited the location with him in August of last year. Although the Chilliwack River area is only some 62 miles/100 km from Vancouver, the whole region is heavily forested. There are numerous campgrounds and one can see (unfortunately) that a lot of people use them. We trekked the area of the footprints and although there is now more undergrowth, it is almost incomprehensible how a hoaxer could make prints in the ground that were of the nature Tom found. One can, of course "scuff up" the ground but the results are far from a proper footprint. Nevertheless, even Tom does not overlook the possibility that the prints were fabricated. However, he was not specifically called to investigate the incident as explained and he had to do a fair bit of checking to find the sighting location.