Case file · Cryptid
Tom Slick's yeti expeditions and the US 'yeti rules'
Texan oil millionaire Tom Slick funded yeti hunts in Nepal from 1957, with anthropologist Carleton Coon advising; the US government even set rules for American yeti expeditions.
1957 CE · 27.86, 86.79 · status: official
The account
The rules, issued through the US embassy in 1959, required a Nepalese permit, forbade harming a yeti except in self-defence, and gave the Nepalese government approval over news of any discovery. Slick's teams collected supposed yeti droppings, which contained an unidentified parasite, and obtained pieces of the Pangboche hand.
The sceptical view
The expeditions produced no yeti; the hand finger later proved human, and the rules reflect the excitement of the 1950s rather than evidence.