Bigfoot has left the building

SEATTLE (Dec. 7) - The man who used 16-inch feet-shaped carvings to create tracks that ignited the ``Bigfoot'' legend has died. He was 84.

Ray L. Wallace's family admitted his role in the creature myth after his death Nov. 26 from heart failure.

``The reality is, Bigfoot just died,'' his son, Michael, said.

In August 1958, a bulldozer operator who worked for Wallace's construction company in Humboldt County, California, found huge footprints circling and then leading away from his rig.

The Humboldt Times in Eureka, California, coined the term ``Bigfoot'' in a front-page story about the phenomenon.

Family members said Wallace asked a friend to carve the wooden feet that he and his brother Wilbur wore to create the tracks.

The nation - fascinated by tales of the Himalayan Abominable Snowman - quickly bought into the notion of a homegrown version.

``The fact is there was no Bigfoot in popular consciousness before 1958. America got its own monster, its own Abominable Snowman, thanks to Ray Wallace,'' Mark Chorvinsky, editor of Strange magazine, told The Seattle Times.

Wallace cut a record of supposed Bigfoot sounds, printed posters of a Bigfoot sitting with other animals and provided films and photos that purported to show the creature eating elk and frogs, Chorvinsky said.

Chorvinsky believes the family's admission raises serious doubts about key ``proof'' of Bigfoot's existence: the so-called Patterson film, with its grainy images of an erect apelike creature striding away from the camera operated by rodeo rider Roger Patterson in 1967.

Wallace said he told Patterson where to spot a Bigfoot near Bluff Creek, California, Chorvinsky recalled. ``Ray told me that the Patterson film was a hoax, and he knew who was in the suit.''

Michael Wallace said his father called the Patterson film ``a fake'' but claimed he'd had nothing to do with it. But he said his mother admitted she had been photographed in a Bigfoot suit, and that his father ``had several people he used in his movies.''

The disclosure is not fazing others who study such creatures.

Jeff Meldrum, an associate professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, says he has casts of 40 to 50 footprints he believes were made by authentic unknown primates.

``To suggest all these are explained by simple carved feet strapped to boots just doesn't wash,'' Meldrum said, noting 19th century accounts of such a creature.

Chorvinsky says those early reports were mistakes, myths or hoaxes.

Or as one logger noted "is this fact or is it Wallace's claim to fame and final hoax to claim he started it?" Big foot has been sited all over this region over the years. Who knows...maybe that thing I thought was a stump in the pic when we were out with Gardeness Trish of the Paper People was what it looked like after all and was indeed Bigfoot!
http://davesgarden.com/fp.php?pid=360535



This message was edited Sunday, Dec 8th 12:40 PM

OK,thats scarey

ROTF, Zany!

LOLOL Zany :)

I think more people in the northwest are laughing about the Bigfoot hoax than are believing there is such a creature. The most amazing thing about all of this is how several people could have kept this a secret for so long. I remember seeing the pictures of a hairy ape/manlike creature walking along, and closeups showed a belt buckle holding his pants up! And still the scientists kept saying there was such a creature! chuckle Very amazing. The scientists who still say Bigfoot exists probably haven't used up their grant money yet.

Sorry, I will not accept the death of BigFoot. Visits to the redwoods just wouldn't be the same. Zany - yep, that's him! I'd recognize him anywhere. Waaay more believable than some fat guy riding about the skies in a sleigh and benevolently tucking gifts under trees. So there. S

Stella, I like your style.

"sniff"...No more Bigfoot? Wahhhh!!

Quick, make up another tale for the tourists!

OK MaryE since we are practically neighbors we need to get together for a cup of tea and figure out how to get some of the grant money that they are presently giving to these guys. LOL Maybe they would give us a grant for studying our horses tails? Or nose prints on cameras?

Bigfoot is NOT a hoax! She lives right here in Spicewood, not four miles from me ~ named Tina (otherwise known as my sister) and wears size 11s (sometimes 12s). Can I get some grant money to study her? I might need a little extra cash to fund my escape once she finds out that I posted her shoe size on the internet.

Wingnut, how could you? Oooh, girl, you are in trouble, but bad!

:O! LOLOL!

LOL - I thought this thread would be about Shoe!! Our DG bigfoot :)

Wing, tell your sister not to hurt you! I will confess to sizes 10 and 12 myself (Midwest Bigfoot :) My neighbor friend (also a woman) wears size 14.

POPPYSUE! I heard dat!! ;>)
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I can see the headlines now "Mythical Northwest Beast Found Alive in N.C. Greenhouse". Do you think they would give us any grant money to go there and study him? A free trip!

This message was edited Wednesday, Dec 11th 7:54 PM

If any of us get grant money for this it will be to grant us money to live in a looney toones hospital for the rest of our lives. LOLOLOL

Hmmm, money? To live looney!? Great!

Eebba deeebba deeeba Thass All Folks ♫

Hey Lisa, I seen the header to this post and I expected to see a picture of my size 13 EEE after the comments you and jesse made about my shoes.

Those are some big shoes, H-Man. Did anyone catch Conan O'brien and hear his comments about the bigfoot story?