 The concept of discovering human bones that had been boiled in pots was inspired by research done for the episode " Anasazi " . Despite having trouble locating books on cannibalism , Spotniz even named the characters after real life cannibals . Chaco Chicken was based on Chaco Canyon , New Mexico , which is where bones consumed by the Anasazi were found . The idea of cannibals being afflicted by a degenerative neurological disease was inspired by Kuru , a Creutzfeld @-@ Jakob @-@ like prion disease that afflicted the Fore people of Papua New Guinea through cannibalism . Howard Gordon came up with the idea to start the episode with a love affair between George Kearns and Paula Gray . Gary Grubbs , the actor who played the sheriff , was later cast as the fire captain in the 1998 X @-@ Files film . 
