Today in BF History: JAN 07

Double Dose today! Yes Lunch Clubbers we can officially say we have two items of note today in bigfoot history. Lets begin with the fellow to the left.

Today in 1811 the first recorded account of an overly large foot print by a non-native person was on January 7, 1811 by the explorer, David Thompson. (The guy commemorated on the stamp above.)

David Thompson (April 30, 1770 – February 10, 1857) born Dafydd ap Thomas,[1] was an English-Canadian fur trader, surveyor, and map-maker, known to some native peoples as "Koo-Koo-Sint" or "the Stargazer". Over his career he mapped over 3.9 million square kilometres of North America and for this has been described as the "greatest land geographer who ever lived."

Thompson was known for keeping detailed records. When he found curious animal tracks in the snow near Jasper, Alberta which he wrote about the 14 inches long footprints in his journal on January 7th, 1811. (see T.C. Elliott, "Journal of David Thompson", Oregon Historical Quarterly, 15 March-June 1914) Some years later, a book of Thompson's, Narrative of His Explorations of Western America, based on his journal, was published. In it he says:

I now recur to what I have already noticed in the early part of last winter, when proceeding up the Athabasca River to cross the mountains, in company with.... Men and four hunters, on one of the channels of the River we came to the track of a large animal, which measured fourteen inches in length by eight inches in breadth by a tape line. As snow was about six inches in depth the track was well defined, and we could see it for a full hundred yards from us, this animal was proceeding from north to south. We did not attempt to follow it, we had not time for it, and the Hunters, eager as they are to follow and shoot every animal, made no attempt to follow this beast, for what could the balls of our fowling guns do against such an animal? Report from old times had made the head branches of this River, and the Mountains in the vicinity the abode of one, or more, very large animals, to which I never appeared to give credence; for these reports appeared to arise from that fondness for the marvelous so common to mankind: but the sight of the track of that large a beast staggered me, and I often thought of it, yet never could bring myself to believe such an animal existed, but thought it might be the track of some Monster Bear.

Now as for the second item in Bigfoot History: The death of Bigfoot in 1899.


Today In a land and at a time known for its tough and colorful characters, William A. "Bigfoot" Wallace felt right at home. During his sixty years in Texas, he set the standards as a ranger, backwoodsman and folk hero.

Born in Lexington, VA on April 3, 1817, Wallace grew up and worked on his father's fruit orchard. But after his older brother and a cousin died in the Goliad Massacre in the spring of 1836, William decided to join the Texas Revolution to avenge the deaths. He would have to wait, however, for by the time he arrived, the Texan's war for independence had already been won.

Wallace first settled near LaGrange. In 1840, after Wallace had been in Texas for over two years, he decided to help in the layout and construction of the new capital at Austin. While there, it is said, he was once misidentified as an Indian, named Bigfoot, that had ransacked a neighboring settler's home. After finding that Wallace's foot was actually smaller than the 14-inch imprint of the Indian, he was found innocent of the misdeed. As a result of the episode, however, Wallace acquired the nickname of Bigfoot, and the name stuck.

Bigfoot participated in a number of the early Texas conflicts. He fought in the Battle of Plum Creek in 1840, and against Mexican General Adrian Woll's invasion of Texas in 1842. Later that year, he volunteered for the retailatory Somervell Raid across the Rio Grande River, and subsequently joined the Mier Expedition organized to penetrate further into Mexico. Wallace survived the Black Bean executions that followed the capture of the Mier participants, and was imprisoned at Perote Prison east of Mexico City. After his release, he joined other Texans in the Mexican-American War. In the 1850s, he commanded a company of Texas Rangers fighting border bandits and Indians on the frontier.

Wallace lived a long life and spent his declining years in Frio County. He enjoyed telling stories of his past, frequently with much embellishment and humor. The publication of some of these stories in 1870 by biographer John Duval contributed to Bigfoot's reputation as a Texas folk hero.

Bigfoot died on January 7, 1899 and is buried in the State Cemetery in Austin.