Bigfoot A Hoax?

elzbal writes "The family of a Pacific Northwest prankster is coming clean. The Seattle Times is reporting that Bigfoot was just a creative figment of Ray L. Wallace's imagination. He orchestrated the prank that created Bigfoot in 1958. According to family members, he had asked a friend to carve a few pair of 16-inch-long feet. Then he and his brother Wilbur had slipped them on and created the footprints as a prank, family members said. He was also somehow involved in the famous walking Bigfoot film."

Comments

Re:This is a SURPRISE?

[stefanlasiewski]

Bigfoot, we never knew ye. What will the Weekly World News do? Their circulation has been battered enough already.

Hey, no worries there. They've had several front pages speculating on the location of Osama bin Laden!

It's not a question of likelihood

[Anonymous Coward]

The hoax explanation doesn't cover all the facts. The stems are bent without damange to the plant and the area of the circles displays odd flux vortices. You simply can't do that with a wooden plank.

It doesn't have to be aliens, but it sure isn't some drunks on a lark.

Re:It's not a question of likelihood

[manyoso]

And this is a perfect example of the faulty reasoning used by people who mistake crop circles as proof of alien contact.

Simply because one can not adequately explain how the crop circles were made does not inevitably lead to the conclusion that 'aliens did it' or that it does not have a completely mundane and ordinary solution. I can not adequately explain many of the magical tricks performed by talented magicians, but I do not suppose that the *tricks* are truly magical in nature.

Now, you have every right to believe what you will, but do not mistake that *belief* with proof or evidence of the existence of aliens. After all, it is possible that aliens did make the crop circles (highly improbable IMHO ;), but until we have proof we are just left with our respective opinions.

I am delighted that people require such strong 'proof or evidence' to disprove a fantastical notion, but require no proof and flimsy evidence to believe in a fantastical creature such as Bigfoot :)

Re:In other news....

[EschewObfuscation]

[From the article]
> Remembrances may be donated to Children's
> Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle.

Seriously, it might be nice if any bigfoot reward money were instead donated to the medical center. It would be a nice legacy for the man, and a good ending to the story.

Probably never happen, though - I bet that Bigfoot hunting goes on for the next hundred years.

Anyone else care to bet that a lot of the same people who doubt the moon landing will continue to believe in Bigfoot?

This man didn't invent Bigfoot!

[RevAaron]

He may have hoaxed it a few places, but Bigfeet, Yeti, Sasquatches have been around in our mythologies for thousands of years. It's not like it was just invented one day in '58! Not that having a mythology about it makes it a reality, but take everything, even this guy's claims, with ag rain of salt.

Re:Who said it was aliens?

[Blkdeath]

From what I read, all that has been claimed is that it wasn't the so-called "hoaxers" that made these circles. Nobody has claimed it was aliens.

Perhaps you should extend your reading list some.

Nobody has been able to film them being made.

Discovery channel has aired film of the hoaxsters creating circles. It's been on television dozens of times.

The geometry has been proven to be beyond the ability of a normal IQ person.

Most people with a compass and protractor and an hour or two can make circle patterns on paper. Anybody who's taken a high school survey class can map those circles into a field.

The stems are bent but not crushed.

Wheat isn't that delicate.

There are traces of radioactivity at some sites.

There are traces of radioactivity in my kitchen.

No human footprints are found.

Tram lines. Boards.