Bigfoot (August 1958)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   OED doesn't have a "bigfoot" entry.  The term was used before, such as the
title of ADVENTURES OF BIG-FOOT WALLACE (1870).
   From the AP and AOL News:


SEATTLE (Dec. 7) - The man who used 16-inch feet-shaped carvings to create
tracks that ignited the ``Bigfoot'' legend has died. He was 84.

Ray L. Wallace's family admitted his role in the creature myth after his
death Nov. 26 from heart failure.

``The reality is, Bigfoot just died,'' his son, Michael, said.

In August 1958, a bulldozer operator who worked for Wallace's construction
company in Humboldt County, California, found huge footprints circling and
then leading away from his rig.

The Humboldt Times in Eureka, California, coined the term ``Bigfoot'' in a
front-page story about the phenomenon.
(...)