Giant footprints proved Bigfoot was real
| Giant footprints proved Bigfoot was real | |
|---|---|
| FALSE | |
| "Huge humanlike footprints found in 1958 at Bluff Creek, California, proved that a giant ape-man, "Bigfoot," roams the Pacific Northwest." | |
| Domain | Paranormal & Supernatural |
| Tactic | Fabrication |
| Era | Historical |
| First seen | 1958 |
| Origin | Footprints found at a logging site in Northern California and reported by the Humboldt Times in October 1958 |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-29 |
| Further reading: books on Paranormal & Supernatural | |
The name Bigfoot was born in 1958 when loggers at Bluff Creek, California, found giant footprints and a newspaper published a photo of one. After the death of logging contractor Ray Wallace in 2002, his family said he had made the tracks as a prank, using carved wooden feet, and showed the feet to reporters.
The claim
The 1958 tracks launched the modern Bigfoot phenomenon, followed by the 1967 Patterson–Gimlin film and thousands of sightings.
What the evidence shows
- Family revelation. Wallace's children said he and his brother made the prints as a joke and kept doing it for years.
- No body. Despite decades of searching, no bones, bodies or confirmed DNA from a large unknown primate have been found.
- DNA studies. Genetic analyses of hair samples attributed to Bigfoot and similar creatures have identified known animals such as bears and wolves.
Sources
- Timothy Egan, "Search for Bigfoot Outlives the Man Who Created Him," The New York Times, January 3, 2003.
- Bryan C. Sykes et al., "Genetic analysis of hair samples attributed to yeti, bigfoot and other anomalous primates," Proceedings of the Royal Society B 281 (2014).