Steven Streufert has died.
Obituary by Loren Coleman
The well-known Bigfoot historian, intellectual, and founder/owner of Willow Creek, California’s Bigfoot Books, Steven Streufert, 60, passed away on Saturday, December 6, 2025, near Fairfield, California. The Neptune Society posted a short notice of his cremation.
Back in the 1970s, travelers to Bigfoot country, Humboldt County, would look in at one spot to discuss Bigfoot. It was in August 1975 that I first met Al Hodgson, when I stopped by Willow Creek, on my cryptozoological trek from California to New England by car. There was Al, at his general store, friendly and sharing what he knew of Bigfoot with a stranger interested in the topic.
In 2011, on a return trip to Willow Creek, I talked with Al again. But there was a new check-in point in Willow Creek. Albert “Al” E. Hodgson, the grand elder statesman and well-known gentleman of Willow Creek, California’s Bigfoot community, died Easter morning, April 1, 2018. Hodgson was 94 years old. He had faded from the scene in recent years, and a new touchstone had emerged ~ Steven Streufert.
In 2005, Steven Streufert founded Bigfoot Books, first as a general book store and then one specializing in Bigfoot and other unusual subjects.
Onward to Willow Creek
Born on December 19, 1964, Steven listed Milwaukee, Wisconsin as his hometown. His move began soon, however. He gave Albuquerque, New Mexico, before his California residences in Mount Shasta, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Berkeley, Loleta, Arcata, Eureka, with Willow Creek his most longterm home in conjunction with the Bigfoot Book site. He went to schools (graduating in 1983) at Ls Colina Junior High and San Marcos Senior High. Then he attended the University of California, Santa Cruz (Class of 1990) and Santa Barbara City College (1984-1991). At Cal Poly Humboldt, he studied Literature and teaching Writing in the Masters program, Class of 1997.
Northern California and Willow Creek
Steven’s move to Mount Shasta in 1992, must have been an insightful precursor to his permanent relocation to open the bookstore in Willow Creek in 2005.
What is intriguing is the evolution in his thinking that Streufert experienced after he moved to Willow Creek.
In Krissy Eliot’s 2019 article, we discover that Steven soon became deeply involved in Willow Creek.
A self-described skeptic, Streufert moved to Willow Creek two decades ago with a belief that Bigfoot could be real. His enthusiasm for the subject led him and some friends to form the Bluff Creek Project (BCP) in 2009—an independent, open source, crowdfunded group interested in locating the original Patterson-Gimlin film site, which has become overgrown (they succeeded). They also set up motion-sensitive cameras around the area to catch footage of wildlife, and they review said footage every spring to see if they’ve captured a Bigfoot.
But after almost a decade of seeing no solid evidence of the creature, Streufert is less convinced of its legitimacy, and doesn’t care who knows it.
“I don’t accept any [evidence or claims] as de facto. Is there any good evidence? Well, I used to think so. But each piece of it falls apart. Either it’s inconclusive, which you can’t blame anyone for, or it’s really a hoax,” Streufert said. “Sometimes I just have to laugh because I live in the woods, and the crap that [some] claim as an encounter is something that happens in my yard every night. Howls, raccoons, eye-shine coming from deer.”
Over time, the BCP has become less involved with Bigfoot and more with general wildlife observation, sharing their data and photos with established groups like the Environmental Protection Information Center of Northern California and the Center for Biological Diversity. Although they’ve never photographed Bigfoot, the group has captured images of rare species like the Humboldt marten, a candidate for endangered species status.
Bigfoot shouldn’t get all the publicity in Willow Creek, according to Streufert.
“Breaking news can be the Bluff Creek Project documenting an endangered species while looking for Bigfoot,” Streufert said. “I think that’s a major achievement for research. That we actually found something real.”
In recent years, Steven was pegged as a “skeptic.” But was he? He says he was more open-minded than it is usually reported.
Ground Zero For Bluff Creek Research
Steven Streufert in Willow Creek, for almost twenty years from 2005 through 2023, served as the focal point for researchers. Students of Bigfoot would often stop at Bigfoot Books on their way to study the Patterson-Gimlin film site at Bluff Creek, California (36 miles away through hazardous and dangerous cannabis growing fields).
Bigfoot Books was often isolated, regularly empty and quiet, except when a film company was in town shooting a documentary or an infrequent Bigfoot conference was occurring.
Of Bullet and Arson
Steven was no stranger to violence.
A bit of Sasquatch-related gun violence occurred. It may or may not have been consciously directed at an outspoken individual in the Bigfoot community. But the fact is someone apparently conducted a drive-by shooting at the very rural location of Bigfoot Books in Willow Creek, California. A bullet broke the double-paned front window and zipped right through the screen.
Streufert, the owner of Bigfoot Books on 40600 Highway 299, Willow Creek, California, was one of the leaders in the Willow Creek and Bluff Creek area, preserving significant pieces of local Bigfoot history. (Photo up top, courtesy of Tom Yamarone.)
Bigfoot Books, 1.5 miles east of downtown Willow Creek on Highway 299, was a general purpose used book shop, that, as the name implies, began to specialize in books about Bigfoot soon after it opened. The store was located along the Trinity River in the “Bigfoot Country” of inland Humboldt County, northern California, and went public in 2005.
The owner, Streufert, is a professional bookman and bookseller, and had worked with books, in brick & mortar stores and in libraries, since the mid-late 1980s. He had been an antiquarian since 1992, and online since 1999.
Streufert’s blog, Bigfoot’s Blog, had existed since 2008. His Facebook group, nicknamed “Coalition” (with nearly 2000 members) had formed in 2011.
This shooting occurred Monday May 26, 2014, to Tuesday May 27, 2014. In an interview with me, Steven Streufert said “I left the store around 7:00 pm [Monday] and arrived at 11:30 am the following morning [Tuesday]. The dentist next door was there earlier. Hence it should have occurred at night.”
The bullet was found. Streufert described it as a larger caliber bullet. It was taken by the Sheriff’s Department for the investigation.
“A hefty copper-jacketed slug,” said Streufert. “It was a big, fat slug. It was all smashed, but had glass embedded in the tip, as if it were a hollow pointed kill bullet.”
He told me that he routinely received threatening messages, emails, and texts. His only worry was that his daughter was sometimes there when not in school.
Then on September 1, 2024, Steven’s Bigfoot Books was burned (probable arson). His entire stock of books was lost, and most of the inside of the store too.
Steven wrote me: “Well, I guess I need to mention this … the bookstore burned. I was found unconscious on the front porch, surrounded in plumes of smoke and with flames encroaching. I’m lucky the CHP guy spotted me from the highway. I lost pretty much everything, and wasn’t even wearing shoes when they stuck me into the ambulance.”
Steven was living at the bookstore. Why?
“I had to move out of the cabin. They wanted to sell it, and I couldn’t really pay the rent post-Pandemic. So I’d really downsized, but a lot of personal stuff was stashed in there [at the bookstore], waiting for the next stage.”
“Uninjured, uninsured, but alive.
“The store inventory was mostly gone already, as I was getting to close up the shop, but a lot of good books still burned. Luckily, most of the Bigfoot stuff had found new homes.”
And finally…
“The store cat is doing OK, too.”
Unanswered Questions
Steven Streufert was thrown into a mental health crisis with the destroying of his Bigfoot Books. He moved around, and lived off a $11,000 Go Fund Me bank of donations. I sent him various blankets and bedding when I heard he was sleeping, uncovered, after the fire. Others did generous things too for our friend.
We do not know how Steven died or what killed him. There were “blood sugar” talk and health concerns raised.
Throughout October and November 2025, Steven sent out X postings about the locations he was photographing of “Zodiac Killer” sites in Northern California. It seemed unusual and not so. Steven Streufert liked to explore “mysteries” around every corner.
His death seems sudden but then again, not so.
Reality Television and Documentaries
Besides the multiple and individual friendships that Steven fostered in his greetings to travelers and tourists, his knowledge was broadly given in filmed interviews. You can search and find Steven via the following appearances.
Someone has posted this cartoon in remembrance of Steven’s passing. He probably would have enjoyed the sense of humor behind it.
