Case file · Cryptid
Skamania County Bigfoot ordinance
On 1 April 1969 Skamania County, Washington, passed Ordinance 69-01 making it a crime to kill a Sasquatch, with a fine of up to $10,000 and five years in jail.
1969 CE · 45.70, -121.89 · status: official
The account
In 1984 the county amended the law, declared itself a Sasquatch refuge and made killing one a gross misdemeanour (or justifiable homicide if proved to be a human-like being). The county lies around Mount St. Helens and Ape Canyon.
The sceptical view
Passed on April Fools' Day and in the wake of the Patterson–Gimlin film, it protected a creature never proven to exist.