February 16, 2006
Okay, today, less words and more photographs, per your requests.
Some facts: Ray Wallace produced fake imprints of Bigfoot tracks that generally followed a routine pattern. These items were revealed by various relatives after Wallace died in 2002. The following are two sets of the ones most often photographed.
Both photographs © 2002 Dave Rubert. Used with permission.
Facts: The Ray Wallace fakes do NOT match the Jerry Crew October 1958 foot cast that began the use of the word “Bigfoot” in a more widespread fashion, nor do they match the Bluff Creek filmsite prints from 1967, one of which is compared below with a Wallace wooden foot.
But within various Bigfoot books, you will easily find photos of “Bigfoot” prints that match Wallace’s handiwork. Some are not as easy to identify as others because the placing of footprints is not an exact science and materials do shift around. Nevertheless, some images in some books need to be questioned.
The following comparative series, found frequently on Bigfoot lists and forums, and probably an uncredited creation of Richard Noll’s, shows one of the Wallace fakes next to several well-known Bigfoot prints. Clearly this shows that real cryptids, Sasquatch/Bigfoot, if you will, are out there, leaving authentic footprints. But in the choice of one of Wallace’s tools as the item to compare, versus looking across the board at the testimony/pattern/evidence, or ignoring what is going on with the 1958-1959 Bluff Creek area (so-called Titmus) tracks, we begin to see something sinister occurring here. “Peas-in-a-pod” toes (which I credit to John Napier’s book), a certain angle to the toes, a square hallux, and that troublesome “split-ball” (which Ivan Sanderson loved) are characteristic clues to reveal the Wallace fakes within the background (bad) data that they have become. Remember, this is not to say there are not Bigfoot. Quite the opposite. Remove the Wallace fake material and you actually have a stronger case for Sasquatch. More to come.
Click image for full-size version
Today is just a day to look, examine, and record your thoughts.
To be continued.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Filed under Artifacts, Bigfoot, Books, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Public Forum, Sasquatch