The FBI investigated Bigfoot after an Oregon research organisation asked the agency to examine a sample of hairs and skin that it had been unable to identify.
Documents released through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s records archive show that officials considered the case between 1976 and 1977, in an effort to establish whether the legendary creature existed in the American wilderness.
The 22-page report includes correspondence between the Bigfoot Information Center and Exhibition (BIC) in Oregon and the FBI’s Scientific and Technical Services Division. BIC director Peter Byrne requested testing on about 15 hairs attached to a small piece of skin.
In a letter, Mr Byrne said the material was the first potentially significant sample the organisation had obtained in six years. He later stressed that the investigation was genuine, writing: “Please understand our research here is serious. That it is a serious question that needs answering …”
The FBI explained that its laboratory primarily carried out examinations for law enforcement agencies involved in criminal investigations. However, it agreed to analyse the sample “in interest of research and scientific inquiry”.
Microscopic examination was carried out using transmitted and incident light, with the hairs compared against samples of known origin under a comparison microscope.
The laboratory concluded that the hairs came from a member of the deer family, rather than Bigfoot. The material was returned to the Bigfoot Information Center and Exhibition as requested.
A letter thanking the FBI said: “Thank you very much for sending the analysis of hair and skin … We are most appreciative of the work of Special Agent [name redacted].”
Mr Byrne was abroad in Nepal at the time and was expected to return within a week or two to receive copies of the correspondence.
