Raymond L. Wallace

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"Ray Wallace" redirects here. For the 24 character, see Ray Wallace (24 character).

Raymond L. "Ray" Wallace (April 21, 1918 − November 26, 2002) is a controversial figure amongst Bigfoot researchers.

Wallace was born in Clarksdale, Missouri. He worked as a logger for much of his life, but also in road construction throughout much of Washington, Oregon and California. He served in the Army during World War II as an aircraft gunner. Wallace finally settled in Toledo, Washington in 1961.

In August 1958, the Humboldt Times of Eureka, California, was the first to use the term "Bigfoot" in their story about huge footprints found by a worker of Wallace's Humboldt County construction company.

Upon Wallace's death, his eldest son, Michael, revealed that Wallace was in possession of large wooden feet. It was suggested that Wallace used these wooden feet to stamp imprints around northern California as a prank. Mike made these claims after his death and there is no quoted evidence to suggest Wallace admitted to doing this himself. Several researchers have questioned the Wallace family's intentions in this. Though the news made headlines in the New York Times, most serious researchers discredit the Wallace family story.^{[citation needed]}

Wallace died in a Centralia, Washington nursing home at the age of 84. Wallace adopted four boys due to his inability to conceive and is survived by three of them (Michael, Larry & Rick) and his wife, Elna. His son, Gary, was killed in a logging accident in the 1980's. Gary is survived by his three sons, Kris Murray, Eric and Lisa Wallace, and wife.