The Pedro Mountains Mummy |
He was found sitting cross - legged on a small shelf in a cave in a granite mountain. His hands were folded in his lap, in the timeless tradition of the Buddah. He appeared to be middle aged, his skin was dark brown and wrinkled, his nose flat and splayed, the forehead low, the mouth thin lipped and wide. And to top it of, he was 14 inches tall. The mummy was discovered by gold prospectors in 1932 blasting the walls of a gulch in the Pedro Mountains, 60 miles southwest of Casper, Wyoming. After studying it, puzzled scientists ventured that it could be a mummified pygmy and possibly the progenitor of the American Indians. Displayed in carnival freak shows for several years, the remains were eventually purchased by Ivan T. Goodman, a Casper businessman, and taken to New York City. |
Dr. Harry Shapiro of the American Museum of Natural History X-rayed the body, and was certified as genuine by the Anthropology Department of Harvard University. Some speculated that the person, if it was a person, may have been 65 years old at the time of his internment. The speculation generated interest in the legends of the Shoshone and Crow Indians of Wyoming, about miniature people only inches tall. Shortly before Goodmans death in 1950, the mummy was stolen and never found again. Interest in the mummy continued however nationwide.30 years later, photographs of the X-rays were given to a Dr. George Gill, professor of anthropology at the University of Wyoming. The withered body he concluded, was that of an infant or fetus of an unknown prehistoric tribe of Indians. He proposed that the infant suffered from anencephaly, a congenital abnormality that would account for the adult proportions of the bones. Discoveries of mummified remains are not wholly uncommon in Wyoming, where the arid climate is condusive to tissue preservation. As Gill pointed out, the Indians may have found similar |
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diseased mummies and assumed they were the remains of adults. This in turn would support the legends of the "little people." Be that as it may, Dr. Gills beliefs are far from the last word on the matter, as the body is missing. Today, with genetic technologies, it would be quite possible to put the issue to rest. The Pedro mummy remains a scientific curiousity. "All we have are bits of information" Dr. Gill remarked. He and many other anthropologists hope that someday, the San Pedro mummy resurfaces for further study. |
Sources: The Casper Star-Tribune, July 22nd and 24th, 1979. The Casper Tribune Herald, October 22, 1932: C. J. Cazeau and Stuart D. Scott, Exploring the Unknown, p.222 |
