Chiropractor Tom Payne was glad to have finally found Bigfoot, although the creature’s famed 16-inch appendages were missing.

Bigfoot, an 8-feet-tall carved wood statue was stolen from the end of Payne’s driveway where the imposing creature had stood for 5½ years. When they located the statue a block away from Payne’s office, his big feet had been sawn off.

Two suspects were arrested in connection with the case but they offered no motive for the theft. The feet were not recovered.

Now, if the next Bigfoot evidence comes in the shape of 16-inch footprints…

If you’re over fifty - if you’re a boomer - then you will automatically recognize the words Bigfoot, Yeti and Sasquatch.

Legends about Bigfoot go back hundreds of years into Native American history (Sasquatch is a Salish Indian word meaning “wild man”) and sightings reported in America can be traced to the 1830s but Bigfoot first stepped out of legend and into the American consciousness in a big way in 1958.

That was the year that Ray Wallace discovered Bigfoot footprints in Humboldt County, California. The find launched a half-century of interest in the hairy, humanoid creature of legend and inspired thousands of individuals to spend their lives searching for more evidence of the large ape-like creature.

Following Ray Wallace’s death in 2002, his family came forward and admitted that he had perpetrated a hoax. They claimed that Ray had made the footprints himself using 16 inch carved feet that he strapped onto his boots. The amazing thing is that this revelation made little to no difference to the true believers and the search for Sasquatch continued in earnest.

Fuel to the fire of their imaginations was the famous Patterson-Gimlin film of 1967. Shot at the Bluff Creek area of the Six Rivers National Forest in northern Californa, the film showed a large, hairy, bipedal creature as it ambulated out of view. The film was studied by experts on both sides of the question of Bigfoot’s existence, especially because it allowed study of the creature’s gait. Although questions remain, the film has never been proved to be real nor has it ever been proved to be a hoax.

Born in 1958, the year of Bigfoot’s great publicity surge, was Jeffrey Meldrum, a tenured Associate Professor of Anatomy and Anthropology, and Adjunct Associate Professor of the Department of Anthropology at Idaho State University. Meldrum became a believer after finding some 15″ footprints in Walla Walla, Washington. Originally assuming the footprints to be a hoax, he then noted anatomical traits he says could not be faked. Meldrum, the author of Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, has found that his belief in Sasquatch embarrasses his academic colleagues and he has become an outcast amongst the faculty at Idaho State.

Bigfoot has even made it in Hollywood, starring alongside John Lithgow in the 1987 film Harry and the Hendersons in which a family on a camping trip hits a bigfoot with their station wagon and takes him home.

Look for books on bigfoot and you will likely find them in the “paranormal” section of your local bookstore. Yet the legend continues, fueled by occasional sightings, findings of footprints or other evidence. 50 years after Bigfoot made it big, his existence is still a hotly debated issue.

More about Bigfoot:

Bigfoot at 50 - Evaluating a Half-Century of Bigfoot Evidence

The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization

The International Bigfoot Society