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The FBI looked into Bigfoot legend, and you can read the documents

Get ready to join the bureau's X-Files division.

Amanda Kooser
Freelance writer Amanda C. Kooser covers gadgets and tech news with a twist for CNET. When not wallowing in weird gear and iPad apps for cats, she can be found tinkering with her 1956 DeSoto.
Amanda Kooser
2 min read
Bigfoot store in California

In the '70s, G-men untangled a hairy case. Now you can comb through the archives and brush up on the details.

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Back in the days of bell bottoms, the FBI was willing to entertain the notion that Bigfoot, the mythical giant furry humanoid, might be more than a flight of fancy. 

The FBI Records Vault is an online Freedom of Information Act Library stocked with thousands of scanned documents covering fascinating and bizarre topics ranging from the Roswell UFO incident to a background investigation of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

On Wednesday, the FBI Records Vault Twitter account brought our attention to an intriguing set of documents involving the agency's role in a Bigfoot investigation in 1976 and 1977

The collection spans 22 pages of correspondence and newspaper clippings starting with a letter the FBI sent in response to Peter Byrne, director of The Bigfoot Information Center in Oregon. 

The New York Times profiled Byrne's work in 1976. He's a former professional hunter who took up the futile cause of trying to prove Bigfoot is real.

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The FBI examined this mysterious hair sample.

FBI

Byrne asked the FBI to analyze a sample consisting of "15 unidentified hairs and tissue." Byrne wrote he thought the hairs "may be of importance." 

The documents reveal a history of Bigfoot-related letters and memos leading up to the FBI Laboratory agreeing to examine the mystery hair. 

After a battery of tests and comparisons, the FBI reached a definite conclusion. It was no Bigfoot. The sample came from a creature in the deer family.

This no doubt came as a disappointment to Byrne, who's known for his book The Hunt for Bigfoot. 

Byrne remains a notable and controversial figure among Bigfoot aficionados. His persistence with the FBI back in the '70s has gifted us a very entertaining FBI Vault file to enjoy, but we're still waiting on some hard evidence that shows Bigfoot isn't just a fantasy.

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