Bigfoot Hoax

[Guest guest]

WHEN RAY L. Wallace died late last month at the age of 84, family members revealed his role in making the 1958 footprints, which drew national attention to Humboldt County, Calif.

 

But 71-year-old John Auman of Glenoma, Wash., said that he was working nearby at the time and remembers the tracks — which Wallace made with the aid of big, wooden feet strapped to his boots — as a theft deterrent, not just a joke.

 

Auman, then about 27, was working as a logger rebuilding roads. Wallace was a road builder as well.

Wallace left the giant footprints around construction equipment parked in the woods to scare away vandals who had been messing with the vehicles, Auman said.

 

The tactic worked — but then the tale took on a life of its own.

Auman said Wallace’s innovative crime-control efforts brought tourists to the dying California town of Eureka.

“Ray should get a medal,” he said.

And the big footprints scared off the thieves who had been coming to worksites and stealing fuel, batteries, engines — whatever wasn’t nailed down.

 

“If your rig was parked overnight, you might as well figure it would have no tires in the morning,” Auman said. “That’s why all this started.”

 

Locals pretty much knew there was no giant, hairy ape-man wandering the woods, Auman said.

But after media accounts drew national attention, Wallace — concerned he’d get in trouble with the sheriff — kept his role to himself, Auman said.

 

“I talked with Ray about it one time,” Auman said. “And we laughed about it. He didn’t say he done it, but I knew he did.”

Auman returned to Washington state’s Lewis County and worked as a logger until he was injured on the job and retired in 1978.

© 2002 Associated Press.

[livingentity]

I have been in that area and a lot of their tourist economy is derived from the Big Foot thing - they even have a festival!!! Wonder what will happen now. A lot of gift shops are going to shut down.