THE man behind the legend of Bigfoot has died - and his family has finally admitted that the huge, hairy ape-like creature whose reputation terrified even the toughest of American backwoodsmen was all a hoax.

Ray L Wallace created America's own Abominable Snowman - a legend to rival the Loch Ness Monster - by persuading a friend to carve a pair of 16-inch long feet which he and his brother used to create a frightening trail of footprints in Humboldt County, California in 1958.

What started as a hilarious prank soon escalated into worldwide headlines and spawned a Bigfoot industry culminating in 1967 in a grainy classic film showing an ape-like creature striding away from the camera.

However, Michael Wallace, commenting last night on his father's death aged 84 from heart failure last week, said: ''The reality is, Bigfoot just died.''

Rodeo rider

He also revealed that, while his father had dismissed the 1967 Bigfoot film made by Roger Patterson, a rodeo rider, as a ''fake'', his mother had rather reluctantly admitted she had been photographed in a Bigfoot suit and that his father ''had several people he used in his movies.''

Mr Wallace, one of four adopted sons raised in lumber camps across the Pacific northwest, said: ''My father was a prankster, but never malicious. He just liked playing jokes. It wasn't his fault that people latched on to it. But right from the beginning he was Bigfoot.''

The legend started on the morning of August 27, 1958, when Jerry Crew, a bulldozer operator working for Mr Wallace's construction company, found footprints that formed a track to, all around, and then away from his machine.

Mr Crew, an active member of the local Baptist Church, called his fellow workers, but although some of them had heard similar stories from reliable acquaintances, they were suspicious and dismissed their workmate's find.

A month later, the wife of one of the workers got on to the case and wrote a letter to the Humboldt Times of Eureka detailing the rumours among the men of a ''Wild Man'' in the woods.

Letters began to pour in about more footprints. When Mr Crew appeared in the newspaper office with plaster of Paris casts of these latest ''finds'' the newspaper used the term Bigfoot in a front-page story about the phenomenon - and a star was born.

The story was picked up on the international news wires and cables flooded in from newspapers, radio, and television stations.

The nation - fascinated by tales of the Himalayan Abominable Snowman - quickly bought into the notion of a homegrown version.

Bigfoot societies and leagues were set up, Bigfoot clothing and household accessories became big business, and a television series starring its own Bigfoot had a cult following.

Mr Wallace himself helped keep the legend alive by writing to newspapers and magazines about the latest Bigfoot happenings.

Media reports in 1995 said Mr Wallace claimed he had proof the creature was a big fan of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. Then in March 1998, Mr Wallace offered a million-dollar reward to anyone who could bring him a live baby Bigfoot

He told reporters he wanted to raise a baby Bigfoot with ''care and respect'' and train it to ride around with him in his pickup truck and do chores around his ranch.

Mr Wallace cut a record of supposed Bigfoot sounds, printed posters of a Bigfoot sitting with other animals, and provided films and photos that purported to show the creature eating elk and frogs, and munching cereal.

Mr Chorvinsky, editor of Strange magazine, believes the family's admission raises serious doubts about key ''proof'' of Bigfoot's existence: the so-called Patterson film.

Mr Wallace said he told Patterson where to spot a Bigfoot near Bluff Creek, California, Chorvinsky recalled. ''Ray told me that the Patterson film was a hoax, and he knew who was in the suit.'' However the disclosure has not dismayed others who study such creatures.

Jeff Meldrum, an associate professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, said he has casts of 40 to 50 footprints he believes were made by authentic unknown primates.

He said: ''This thing has roots that go deeper than any isolated incident. If I had come to the conclusion it was all a hoax I would have washed my hands of it years ago.

''To suggest all these are explained by simple carved feet strapped to boots just doesn't wash.''

Michael Wallace said he had polled family members - all of whom were in on the joke - after his father's death and they had decided the time was right to own up.