"Regulations Governing Mountain Climbing Expeditions In Nepal - Relating To Yeti"

This week I stumbled upon a blog post from the U.S. National Archives sharing a document from 1959 outlining regulations for what to do if you spot a Yeti while hiking in Nepal. Sent to the U.S. State Department from the Counselor of Embassy at the time, this document outlines three main regulations to consider if a Yeti is found. The first is that one needs to pay His Majesty's Gov. of Nepal for a permit to carry out the expedition. Second, "in case 'Yeti' is traced, it can be photographed or caught alive but it must not be killed or shot at except in an emergency arising out of self-defense. All photographs taken of the animal, the creature itself if captured alive or dead, must be surrendered to the Government of Nepal at the earliest time." The third regulation states: "News and reports throwing light on the actual existence of the creature must be submitted to the Government of Nepal as soon as they are available and must not in any way be given out to the Press or Reporters for publicity without the permission of the Government of Nepal."

Original Government Document at the U.S. National Archives
Photo Courtesy of {The U.S. National Archives}

At first I had to do a double take and check if it was a joke from the Archives... it looks real to me! It's interesting that someone, somewhere wanted to take a trip to Nepal to search for a Yeti. Though this document is a bit out of context, I imagine it still triggered the imagination of quite a few government employees. After doing a simple Google search, I found many claims of Yeti sightings in Nepal... I could hardly believe it! Even the Nazi's had an interest in the famed Yeti: "backing a scientific expedition to Tibet by the zoologist Ernst Schäfer in 1939 in the misguided hope that the yeti might prove to be the origin of the Aryan race. " Read more about Nazis, the Khumjung Yeti scalp, and other expeditions HERE. Who knows, maybe there are even more accounts of monster and supernatural sightings just waiting to be discovered in the National Archives?

View the National Archives' original blog post HERE.