In October 1932, two gold diggers, Frank Carr and Cecil Maine, roamed the San Pedro Mountains of Carbon County, Wyoming. A hundred kilometers from the city of Kasper, they were looking for a gold deposit for industrial development. They were unlucky, since golden sand came across in many places, but everywhere there were only pitiful crumbs. One morning in a deep gorge, they noticed a characteristic shine from afar. It was necessary to make sure that they really attacked the gold mine. Maine and Carr laid dynamite and blew up the rock.
When the smoke and dust from the explosion dispersed, the gold prospectors saw that a large stone block had broken off from the rock and the entrance to a natural cave 4.5 meters deep and only 1.2 meters high was opened. Curiosity and hope to find gold there drove the desperate guys into the cave. They crept into a narrow hole and carefully examined the stone walls. The rocks turned out to be completely empty - there was no gold there. But their attention was attracted by a small figure of a mysterious creature, sitting cross-legged and arms on a ledge 75 centimeters from the ground. The ugly "dwarf" did not move and, obviously, died long ago, and his body was dry.
The prospectors examined the figurine and realized that the extraordinary dried-up freak could be sold profitably. The seated figure was only 18 centimeters high, and the full-length "dwarf" was no higher than 35 centimeters. The mummy's weight was 300 grams. This strange figure resembled a grinning old man who seemed to wink at amazed men - one eye was half closed. The tiny "old man" with dark brown skin and deep wrinkles on his face had a low forehead, huge eyes, a wide flat nose and a huge mouth with thin lips.
The creature's head was abnormally flat and covered in a dark, jelly-like substance. Hands, too large for such a "crumb", were preserved quite well, one could even make out long fingers with miniature marigolds. The "dwarf" discovered by Main and Carr did not resemble any known creature that ever lived on Earth. The gold diggers packed their booty and brought Casper to the city. The "dwarf freak" made a real sensation there. The discoverers christened their find "Pedro" - after the San Pedro mountains, where they found the mummy. Local car dealer Ivan Goodman bought the curiosity.
Goodman went with his unusual purchase to the anthropologist Dr. Henry Shapiro, a staff member of the US Natural History Museum. Dr. Shapiro was interested in the mysterious mummy, and he offered to study it using an X-ray to exclude falsification.
Research has shown that the mummy had human internal organs and a skeleton. The X-ray showed a fracture on the right scapula and damage to the spine, all the ribs were clearly visible. Scientists suggested that the skull of the "dwarf" was smashed by an extremely heavy blow, and the jelly-like substance is frozen blood and brain tissue.
Promotional video:
The little "man" had 32 teeth, the fontanelle on the skull is completely closed. Anthropologists have established that death overtook the unfortunate Pedro at the age of 65. As for the age of the mummy, scientists have been unable to figure out anything definite. The mummy was very ancient, and the exact methods that researchers now use to determine the age of archaeological finds did not yet exist.
In 1950, Ivan Goodman passed away, and the dwarf mummy went to his heirs. At first it was owned by a certain Leonard Wadler, and then the trail of a unique find was lost, and now its whereabouts are unknown.
According to the Casper Star-Tribune newspaper, in an attempt to remedy this situation, Bibleland Studios owner John Adolfi (Syracuse, NY) announced a $ 10,000 reward on February 3, 2005 to whoever donates this mummy (if it still exists) for research with the purpose of resolving the issue of her belonging to the so-called "little people" from Indian legends. "Dwarf Pedro" will undergo a DNA test, more thorough X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging to identify him once and for all. Until now, however, the Adolfi award remains unclaimed.
Professor George Gill, an anthropologist at the University of Wyoming, received X-rays of the missing Pedro in 1979. In his opinion, the mummy did not belong to an adult, but to a small child suffering from anencephaly. The extraordinary child belonged to the primitive ancestors of the Indian race. However, against his hypothesis about a child with a congenital disease, the fact that Pedro had a mouthful of good teeth and the structure of the skull also corresponded to an adult speaks against it.
Another hypothesis was put forward in 1993 by a zoologist from France - Dr. François de Sarre. He suggested that it was a malformed fruit, which the Jivaro Indians covered with skin ripped from an adult. All the signs of microcephaly are evident. In this disease, the skull and brain develop abnormally, acquiring an irregular shape and size.
However, the Indians of North America have their own opinion about the origin of Pedro. Many Native American legends tell of little people who lived on the continent in antiquity and, perhaps, secretly exist somewhere to this day. The Shoshone Indians believe that these dwarfs are bad neighbors, evil and insidious, shooting poisoned arrows at people.
Unfortunately, very little is known about the "baby Pedro", moreover, the "dwarf" has disappeared. Even if the mummy exists, its location is unknown, and it is inaccessible to the entire scientific world. It also remains a mystery how the mummy was placed in a granite rock.
