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The San Pedro Mountains mummy (known informally as "Pedro") is a mummy discovered in Wyoming in the 1930s and since lost. Scientific analyses have concluded that it is the mummy of a Native American infant that was born with anencephaly, but due to its small size and unusual physical features, it has been regarded as an early hominid and related to legends of little people. A similar mummy that was studied in the 1990s has been nicknamed "Chiquita".

Discovery and description

The mummy that became known as Pedro was discovered in either 1932 or 1934 in the San Pedro mountains in Carbon County, Wyoming by two gold prospectors, Cecil Mayne and Frank Carr. After blasting open a cave, on a ledge inside it they discovered a mummified body in a seated position, approximately 6–7 inches (15–18 cm) tall, weighing approximately 1 pound (450 g). Its standing height was estimated at 17 inches (43 cm). The site may be within the Little Man mining claim, near Pathfinder Reservoir.

Subsequent history and analysis

In 1936, Mayne stated in a sworn affidavit that the mummy was then the property of Homer F. Sherrill and was in the Field Museum in Chicago, which has no record of it. Sherrill, a Nebraskan, exhibited it as an early hominid. It was displayed for years in the window of a drug store in Meeteetse, Wyoming. It was purchased in the 1940s by Casper car dealer Ivan Goodman, who mounted it on a wooden base and enclosed it in a domed glass jar and advertised it as a 65-year-old "pygmy", "preserved as it actually lived". In 1950, in New York, Goodman either lost it or, according to a 1979 article in the Casper Star-Tribune, sold it to Leonard Wadler, who reportedly moved to Florida and died there in the 1980s.

Due to its small size and adult appearance, the mummy was related to Shoshone legends of little people called the Nimerigar, and to non-Native American folklore about "pygmy" Indians. In August 1941, the Milwaukee Journal wrote about it in an article headlined "Did a Race of Pygmies Once Live in America?" In 1979, John Adolfi of Syracuse, New York, offered $10,000 for the mummy, hoping to use it to cast doubt on the established account of human evolution.

Second mummy

In 1994, Gill was interviewed about the San Pedro mummy for an episode of the TV show Unsolved Mysteries along with Eugene Bashor, who was seeking evidence of the Nimerigar. A family in Cheyenne who saw the program then came forward with a similar mummy, 4 inches (10 cm) high, which had been purchased from a sheepherder in the same region of Wyoming around 1929 and was dubbed "Chiquita". X-rays and DNA testing performed at Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie and Denver Children's Hospital confirmed that it was a naturally mummified anencephalic female infant of Native American ancestry, and it was carbon-dated to approximately 1500 or 1700. The family then withdrew access to the mummy.

Both mummies are unique among Wyoming Native American burials in being in a seated position, with the arms wrapped around the legs. Chiquita is also unusual for a Native American in being blonde.

See also

• Atacama skeleton
• Alyoshenka
• Koro-pok-guru, small people in Ainu folklore

References

1. ^ Hein, Rebecca (November 8, 2014). "The Pedro Mountain Mummy". WyoHistory. Wyoming Historical Society. Retrieved April 21, 2024. According to this source, 1934 is the correct discovery year.
2. ^ Fugleberg, Jeremy (July 6, 2014). "Meet Chiquita: Wyoming's 500-year-old mummy". The Casper Star-Tribune. AP. Retrieved April 21, 2024 – via The Denver Gazette.
3. ^ Burke, Brendan (February 3, 2005). "Man offers $10,000 for Pedro Mountain Mummy". Casper Star-Tribune. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
4. ^ Fugleberg, Jeremy (September 15, 2014). "Into the cave: Is 'Little Man Mine' site where mummy was found?". Casper Star-Tribune. Retrieved April 21, 2024 – via Billings Gazette.
5. "Mummified Pygmy Found". The Waco News-Tribune. UP. December 15, 1934. p. 7. Retrieved April 21, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
6. Sheldon, Natasha (January 4, 2018). "The Truth Behind the Disturbing Mystery of the San Pedro Mountains Mummy". History Collection. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
7. ^ Peterson, Christine (October 31, 2010). "Did a mummy prove the legend?". Casper Star-Tribune. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
8. Loendorf, Lawrence L.; Nancy Medaris Stone (2006). Mountain Spirit: The Sheep Eater Indians of Yellowstone. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-0874808681.
9. Cite error: The named reference Loendorf189 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

External links

• Description of the Wyoming Mummy collection, 1929-1991, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

• Mummies
• Shoshone
• Archaeology of the United States
• Pseudoarchaeology
• Forteana
• History of Wyoming