Staff writer Wes Helbling hatched the idea as an April Fool’s Day prank. I went out to the Bonne Idee to find a suitable setting for a photograph we’d use as a background to superimpose an image of an alleged bigfoot.

By the time I got back, he’d finished the story. I took a look at it, and though it was well written, I exercised my editorial license. I changed a reference Wes used that the couple involved in the story had just returned from vacationing in Roswell, New Mexico. For the uninitiated, Roswell is the site of the most famous (or infamous) UFO sighting in U.S. history. We put up spending some time at Poverty Point.

Apparently, the story was a bit too believable for a few too many folks.

Here is the original story. As far as fake photos go, they did a good job with this one. According to the sheriff, people all over that town buzzed about this “sighting”. When a reporter called to do a story about bigfoot Wednesday morning, the staff writer, the sheriff, and the captain of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries had no choice but to admit this was a prank in the spirit of April Fool’s.