Encounter Atlas
The Minnesota Iceman was a carnival exhibit: a hairy, man-like body about 6 feet tall, frozen inside a block of ice in a refrigerated coffin. Showman Frank Hansen toured it around shopping malls and state fairs, hinting it had been found in Siberian ice.
In 1968 naturalist Ivan Sanderson and Belgian zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans examined it through the ice and announced it could be a real, recently killed hominid. The Smithsonian's John Napier looked into it and concluded it was a latex model. Hansen then swapped in what he called a substitute, which muddied the story further.
The figure was sold on eBay in 2013 and now sits in the Museum of the Weird in Austin, Texas, where people can still argue about it in person.
What witnesses report
- A hairy body frozen in ice
- One arm bent over the head
- An eye apparently knocked out
Famous cases
- 1968Sanderson and Heuvelmans examine it
Rollingstone, Minnesota - 1969Argosy "missing link" cover story
United States - 2013Sold on eBay to the Museum of the Weird
Austin, Texas
Seen the Minnesota Iceman?
Tell us what happened. Every report is read by a person before it goes on the map, and you can stay anonymous.
