Hoaxes in Bigfootery

Fake prints, bodies, and films won’t destroy the Bigfoot legend, even though they are ubiquitous. Hoaxes just make the cryptid more cryptic, and controversial. Hoaxing shenanigans are an unfortunately common part of cryptozoology. Those serious about finding Bigfoot must deflect ridicule resulting from the parade of hairy hoaxes that appeared at the beginning of popular interest in the creature and continue up to today. Some incidents are obviously ludicrous and an embarrassment to researchers who aim to be taken seriously. Other finds were roundly criticized or outright debunked, yet they lived on as a questionable piece of evidence that Bigfoot believers held tightly to, hoping that eventually they would be vindicated with a zoologically earthshaking discovery. The footprints started everything. Jerry Crew and the Wallace prints Bigfoot first showed up in popular culture in 1958 when the giant hairy creature of the Pacific Northwest gained its infamous moniker after huge prints were…