I'm Shocked, Stunned, and Dismayed

HUH?

"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.

12/05/02 22:18 EST

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL."

Sorry about that.

Now that adds insult to injury. First it was the Piltdown Man:

Link to Piltdown Man story

Now Bigfoot.

Next you'll be telling me that the tooth fairy is a fraud. Sheesh!

Un uh Phoenix. There's proof of the tooth fairy. I mean, where do you think the dime came from.

Poor Roger -- you only got a dime? I got a buck (guess my Tooth Fairy had more money than your Tooth Fairy.)

[size=18]And what about Santa?

No, no, no, I don't want to hear it!

I refuse to believe it!

Go away! Go away!

I'm putting my hands over my ears and shutting my eyes tight!

Go away! [/size]

Some years ago, a TV Tabloid Show featured an interview with an old County Sheriff from whose jurisdiction numerous "Bigfoot Sightings" had emanated. Asked his opinion of the matter, the Sheriff responded "I've been patroling the roads and trails of this county for over 40 years, and I've never seen one of them critters dead on the shoulder of the road. To my mind, thats conclusive proof such a critter doesn't exist. If there were any, some SOB would have hit one with a car long before now."



timber

Thanks to timber's nonexistant typing skills, this post was edited.

Aw....someone got to the Santa tangent before I did.

Heh! Heh! Heh!

Until I read it in The Enquirer or any one of a number of tabloids displayed at the check out stands in the grocery store I will continue to believe. If and when the above sources debunk they had better provide pictures or I will still believe!

Sumac, Bigfoot ain't dead. He's on vacation in Scotland. He and Nessie are planning a surprise party for Yeti, the abominable snowman.

Roberta

This is known here already:

"The Loch Ness Monster. Normally found in a loch in Scotland, nessie has enjoyed much publicity over the years with swarms of photographers waiting in damp conditions for a chance to catch a picture of the majestic beast. Despite attempts to discover more about him/her/it using advanced sonar equipment, nessie has managed to escape detection. (Between you and me, she was down the shops getting the newspaper). But now, nessie has seen the attraction of the limelight and has been spotted in many large department stores in major European cities over Christmas posing as Santa Claus. Nessie is planning to make public appearances and there are rumours that she will be releasing a single later in the year. While nessie is approachable, we do not advise it as you may find her ego unbearable."

Walter, it can't be! Nessie Santa Claus? Horrors!

Yeah, but what about the Easter Bunny, he's around, isn't he? Please, I only want good news, you hear?

I don't know if the comets are to blame, or the global warming,
but Santa was sighted giving Easter eggs to the children in Tyrol.

A bit early this year, or is Santa unemployed? I know about the so called depression slowing down christmas-sales...

no...no...no....it simply cannot be true

not a word of it

Why not on earth did ossobuco say nothing of this? Girt big footprints all over her petunias. Yeti there's nary a discouraging word from her about it.

It's disgraceful, pitiable, in fact. I've never gotten over the demise of Pecos Bill or Paul Bunyan. I expect Johnny Appleseed will be uprooted next.