The Unknown Origin Of The Mysterious Miniature Mummy Of San Pedro Mountain

Pedro, a well-preserved mummy of a tiny man found in the Mountains of San Pedro, Wyoming. 

During the summer of 1940, two miners came across something rarer than gold. While digging in the mountains of San Pedro, Carbon County, Wyoming, prospecting for gold, Cecil Mayne and Frank Carr blasted a boulder of rock to get through the vein of gold when they saw a small cave. The only way to get into the cave was to crawl on it, and when they got in, they saw a tiny man perfectly preserved mummy. An old man with his legs crossed and arms folded on his knees sitting on a small rack. With bulging eyes, flattened skull, and dark brown wrinkled skin remained intact, looking sad and unusual.

Image: Wikipedia

Its size is more intriguing; it does not exceed six and a half inches tall in its sitting position, just over 16 centimeters. And if straightened up, would hardly be taller than 36 centimeters.

The news spread quickly to the journalists about the mummified grown man flashed in the newspaper, the experts started to study the said mummy, and they called it Pedro (since it was found in San Pedro Mountain). 

Speculations came in that Pedro’s photograph was fake; experts also said that it wasn’t an adult but a baby. The third group of critics said that Pedro was indeed a grown man since a baby doesn’t have a full set of teeth and ominously pointed fangs.

In addition to the claim that Pedro was an adult are the traces of meat in its stomach and its reason for death, allegedly caused by violence from the injuries into his limbs, skull, and spine. 

Image: Cody, Wyoming. Western History Collection, Casper College Western History Center

Another theory led to the Shoshone Indian Tribes’ legends, a mysterious race of the “tiny people” or “little spirits”, the Nimerigars, a local native American tribe who once lived in Wyoming. In some stories, these tiny people have healing powers or magical powers. In another version, they were a nasty tribe who attacks Native Americans with their poisoned arrow. It is not a surprising thought since nimerigars mean cannibals in Shoshone Language. 

The story may sound odd, but in the 18th century, one British missionary in Coshocton, Ohio, saw an entire dwarf cemetery and said in a note, “I saw in Coshocton long rows of graves of little people. They were buried with their heads to the west, where the sun was hidden behind the mountains. And this gave rise to the theory that these people worshiped the sun.” 

Image: Wikipedia

Based on an article in the Casper Star-Tribune (a newspaper published in Casper, Wyoming) on July 7, 1979, the mummy’s discovery started a debate, whether real, a full-grown man, a baby, or one of the legendary “little man”. The mummy got into Meeteetse, Wyoming, in a local drug store where it served as an attraction before it was bought by Ivan T. Goodman (a Casper, Wyoming businessman), passed on to Leonard Wadler (a Newe York businessman) and its present location is unknown.

At present many people are looking for it, anthropologists and historians; according to Casper Star-Tribune, an offer of a $10,000 reward will be given to whoever finds the mummy. 

By Kris De Vera Estrella, IFY Books