Ray Wallace, who started one of the most notorious myths of our time -- the legend of Bigfoot -- has died.

Wallace died of heart failure Nov. 26 at a Washington state nursing home, at the age of 84.

Wallace's family feels that they can finally reveal the truth: Wallace made up Bigfoot.

For the last 40 years, the legend of Bigfoot has grown larger than the mythical monster itself.

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Wallace, a native of Clarksdale, Mo., used photos, footprints, and Sasquatch sightings that convinced some people that Bigfoot was real. But his family says it was all a hoax.

Ray Wallace's family remembers him as a prankster whose biggest hoax contributed to the Bigfoot legend.

His family says Wallace asked a friend to carve 16-inch feet, then he and his brother wore them to create huge tracks on the ground at his California construction company in 1958. That led The Humboldt Times to coin the term "Bigfoot" on its front page.

His nephew Dale Wallace still has those "Bigfoot" fake feet.

Mark Chorvinsky, editor of Strange magazine, said the family's admission raises serious doubts about the grainy 1967 film of an erect apelike creature striding away from the camera.

Others are unfazed. Idaho State University Professor Jeff Meldrum said accounts of something like Bigfoot go back to the 19th century.

Some of Wallace's friends and Bigfoot believers are not so willing to accept the family's explanation.

Cliff Lebrecque, a Bigfoot believer, says that the big beast left an imprint on him some 25 years ago.

"I got the, you know, shook out of me and it scared me to death," Lebrecque said.

From his small Independence, Mo., shop, Lebrecque said that he remembers the Missouri man who first spotted Sasquatch.

"In fact, that casting right there was sent to me by Ray Wallace," Lebrecque said.

Lebrecque said that he even filmed Bigfoot years ago and insisted that the creature is not a man in a monkey suit.

"And look real close and see if you can see any zippers and buttons and stuff like that," Lebrecque said.

Lebrecque insists the Bigfoot story measures up.

"From toe to heel, it's about 21 inches. That's big. That makes Shaq look small," Lebrecque said.

Lebrecque said that he is retiring next year and will likely show his Bigfoot artifacts at shows around the country. He said that despite what Wallace's family says, there are thousands of Bigfoots out there and thousands of believers.