Solid Muldoon, Beulah, Colorado

“Reburied

July 22, 1984

Here lies the Solid Muldoon, whose moniker came from a tune. A great man was he. May his spirit roam free. Long live our Solid Muldoon.”

File this one under Strange, Macabre and maybe even hilarious. Oddities and Curiosities were a huge thing in the late 1800s. This was no exception.

This headstone is marking the resting place for a plaster replica of a forged artifact. You heard that right, a forged artifact. But it had a predecessor of plaster before it was even thought of, in Cardiff, New York, and it was of Gigantic Proportions. 

In 1869, a New York Cigar maker, George Hull, created one of the biggest hoaxes in American History. He would create his own truth to withstand an argument he had with a Methodist preacher about biblical giants. The hoax of the “Cardiff Giant” was born and it was a 10 foot tall, 3,000 pound petrified man. Designed to fool, George brought a large block of gypsum in Iowa and had it carved into a giant by artists in Chicago. The giant had realistic pores, muscles and even hair. The hair was later removed as it “didn’t petrify” well.  It was then buried and dug up as a fake attraction. 

In October of 1869, workers digging for a well discovered the “Petrified Giant” when the well digging found its way to the giant’s foot. The unearthing began and spectators began coming out the woodwork to see. Crowds formed quickly and created a surreal and intense sensation. There were true believers and those calling it a hoax among the crowds. But, regardless of belief, the crowds continued on. Belief in the giant was uncontestable all of the sudden. At least for the gullible. His scheme to remedy an argument turned into an asset and George set out to make money from those gullible believers. 

In December of 1869, Hull confessed that it was in fact a hoax, but the frenzy was so out of control that it didn’t matter. By then, P.T. Barnum even created his own replica to surge on the money making aspect of the hoax. Phineas Taylor Barnum, as in one of the founders of Barnum and Bailey Circus. It is rumored that the saying “There’s a sucker born every moment.” was coined by Barnum at this juncture of his career

Today the original artifact is in a Farmer’s Museum in New York.

So what does this have to do with a Colorado country road in near to middle nowhere? This replica is on the side of the highway on the way to Beulah, Colorado. Once the Good Pasture townsite, it sits quietly across from the historic Good Pasture Barn. The townsite was several years after this story, and in the timeframe we are talking about this was likely not a very busy place to be. This would have been a quiet mountain on the way to other places. This story plots, twists and turns and gets downright ancient pretty quickly. 

Skip ahead a few years to George Hull again, when the frenzy of the giant was over he began to run out of money. Using the very last of his funds from the Cardiff Giant, he set out with Colorado legends in mind. His scheme had to undergo a series of events to work and he started another plan. He was going to make an ancient petrified man this time.

Determined to make this hoax work, he learned to make plaster molds himself. He plastered his son-in-law to make one of his molds, and then did the same to himself after his son-in-law quit due to the freezing conditions of the plaster. He was determined to make this one work. The mold was then used to make a prototype of sorts. This prototype was made of mortar, bones, meat and other organic and inorganic materials. He then purchased a human skeleton and made the final firing with the skeletal remains inside. When they fired the mortar it even began to age and look very old as it browned. Like Limestone once source says. 

Enter the missing link, tall, long armed and disproportionate. Forgive me if my first thoughts on reading this were Pauly Shore moments. But then as I read on, that faded quickly as I learned that the “aging” came from needles laced with lead beaten into the matter to create pores. He also created petrified fruits, and artifacts that would lay with his human creation. In addition to his fruits, there were also a sea turtle, a fish and other small fossils to scatter around the “man”.

He was ready for his masterpiece, but was now out of money. He reached out to P.T. Barnum, he had once offered him money for the giant and figured Barnum would be up for the scam. Barnum ultimately fronted him a few thousand dollars in exchange for 75% of this new venture. Under contract and ready to roll, they named this newly formed company “The Giant Company.” Hull then switched his name to George Davis most of the time and used other aliases to keep the speculation of another hoax away. One last thing before setting out to make a new fortune, William Conant, a friend of Barnum also became an associate in the partnership.  Presumabling taking up another percentage in the scam.

Hull and Conant searched out the perfect spot to bury the evidence, turned out to be none other than a small hill right outside of Beulah, Colorado. Muldoon Hill is just out of town, 5 miles from Beulah. One of Conant’s sons, Fred, happened to be an editor of a newspaper in Colorado Springs. The Colorado Mountaineer was a small newspaper, though many miles from the location of the new hoax, close enough to help bring in a crowd. To make this work they employed a rock hunter Lewis Allen to help locate a place where other fossils were already on record to offer credibility. 

Fred Conant would later run articles about fossils being found near Beulah to build up the story. 

In that time the artifacts were shipped into Colorado Springs labeled under machinery. The railroad brought so much to the region, strange to think that smuggling was still just as prominent back then. I bet this was one of the strangest things smuggled into Colorado however. They let the memory of the shipments settle before burying it on that hill, then working slowly executed the remainder of the plan.  After burying it, let the dirt also settle for a few months to hopefully go unnoticed by locals and those coming to see the spectacle.  

Finally on September 16th, 1877, William Conant “discovered“ the artifacts. The Solid Muldoon, found by Conant, happened whilst eating his lunch on the side of the hill, he sat down on a rock observing his surroundings. He saw a stone which when dug a little, turned out to be a foot sticking from the ground. Conant began to unearth the curiosity, digging quickly to uncover the artifact. His wonder turned to excitement when he realized the artifact was an ancient man. When he unearthed the entire body, the head unfortunately broke off when using a wooden lever to lift the artifact by the neck. A newspaper captured the detailed essence of the archaeological dig at the moment. This is what they described,  “The type of human race presented was said to be a strange one. The reclining position of the body is of the ‘Asiatic’ type. A cross between Egyptian and American Indian. Cheek bones being very prominent.” 

With the help of the newspaper, news spread like wildfire once again. And what a great coincidence that P.T. Barmun was in Denver! He would travel down quickly to have a look at the speculation.  You know, since he was in the region anyways… He offered to buy the oddity for $15,000 according to a letter from the finder W.A. Conant in October of 1877. Negotiations were entered by Contant and Barnum. Public interest skyrocketed and they began charging $.50 to see the petrified remains. Barnum would once again turn it into a circus and begin to pour in profits. 

This letter from Conant also details how scientists trusted by Barnum bored the “scull” with a common drill. Samples were labeled and taken to another professor’s room, as he could not be in attendance for the examination. It is stated that the examinations could prove that the samples are genuine and not a work of art. It is certified that it is in fact a fossilized man. The sale of one half of the interest in the artifact then took place once Barnum could prove its “authenticity”.

The figure was rumored to be named the Solid Muldoon after a wrestler William Muldoon. The old Irish song that says “There goes Muldoon, He’s a solid Man.” written by Edward Harrigan. Strangely enough when searching the meaning of Muldoon, it also refers to a very unlucky man or perpetual misfortune. I call that ultimate coincidence, or fortune telling, you chose.  

Solid Muldoon was quite the sight to see. It weighed 600 (450 in another published article) pounds and was 7 ½ feet tall. The body had his head attached once again before it began to make its circuit as a sideshow. As many oddities made rounds back in the day, he was paraded through Colorado and Nebraska. The man had ribs, curvature to his neck and even muscle tone. Another article states that when he was found in hardened clay, a cedar root from a small cedar tree was said to have grown over his arm and had to be cut away to get him out safely. Pick axes were used to free him from the clay. 

It all came to an end as George Hull had oversold the Solid Muldoon rights to share in profits to more than just Barnum, another figure enters the story. E.J. Cox, having spent a small fortune, became rather upset when he learned that George Hull was only good for roughly 12 percent of the share.  This was barely enough to cover a small portion of what had been spent. Cox revealed the hoax and gave away everything, including the identity of George Hull. The hoax master was once again demastered. Interest dropped almost immediately for the petrified Solid Muldoon. 

In 1976, an artist recreated the Solid Muldoon as nobody knows what happened to the original. The replica was then buried near where the original “discovery” was made.  A counterfeit of the counterfeit is buried here.

May he rest in peace…