Ape Canyon

In the summer of 1924, a group of gold prospectors claimed that 7 foot (2.1 m) tall ape-like animals attacked them with boulders. According to their tale, they came across the animals in the wilderness, and when one of the group fired a rifle at one of the animals, he struck it three times, and saw the wounded animal topple off a cliff into an inaccessible canyon. The ape men supposedly returned later to bombard their cabin with large stones and leave giant footprints. The story caused a local sensation, prompting U.S. Forest Service rangers J.H. Huffman and William Welch to investigate. Huffman and Welch descended into the supposedly "inaccessible canyon" but found nothing. They demonstrated how 14 inches (36 cm) long footprints found near the cabin could easily be faked, and concluded the miners probably placed large stones near the cabin themselves to bolster their tale. Despite the story being debunked by the rangers, "people still wanted to believe", and the prospectors' story was repeated and continued to spread in later years, inspiring new theories and claims of new sightings.^[1]

46°12′05″N 122°06′24″W / 46.201358°N 122.106633°W / 46.201358; -122.106633