'Bigfoot' Creator Dies Ray L. Wallace, the man behind the 'Bigfoot' hoax, is dead at 84. Even admitting the hoax cannot dissuade some believers though. 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. In August 1958, a bulldozer operator who worked for Wallace's construction company in Humboldt County, Calif., found huge footprints circling and then leading away from his rig. The Humboldt Times in Eureka, Calif., coined the term "Bigfoot" in a front-page story about the phenomenon. Family members said Wallace asked a friend to carve the wooden 16-inch-long 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. Article Here