The Minnesota Iceman?

Are these photographs of the original ~ “the” Minnesota Iceman ~ or the model that was used to replace it? What will be found when the Museum of the Weird’s exhibit is more closely examined?

Remember, it was not shown in “carnivals” but at state fairs and stock shows. Frank Hansen was not a “carnie,” but had previously displayed antique tractors at state fairs when he was asked to show the original and then a copy of this mysterious exhibition around the country.

These photographs have appeared on skeptical and sideshow sites of late.

The source of these photographs is via the “the true story behind Frank Hansen’s infamous Minnesota Iceman” in a 2011 book by Rick West, Pickled Punks and Girlie Shows. The book appears available from Rick West’s publisher; please order here. And from online sellers, like Amazon, see here.

Many images of the drawings of the original Minnesota Iceman, and photographs of the carcass or the model have been published – throughout the Interweb.

Some of the photographs you see out there were even taken by me (Loren Coleman) in 1969, at the Illinois State Fair, as per the one below:

Here are a few, some from Heuvelmans’ book.

There is a baseline of comparison, through photographs online, some that Heuvelmans took that are housed in ”The Department of Cryptozoology B. Heuvelmans, Museum of Zoology, Lausanne, Switzerland.” But most of those have not been properly reproduced. Some of the line drawings are Ivan Sanderson’s. Other illustrations were done for Heuvelmans’ studies and his book.

The Museum of Zoology, Lausanne is the sanctuary for Bernard Heuvelmans’ collection of books, paintings, and raw materials, detailing his years of cryptozoology research and gathering of cryptid data. You can more clearly seen how he organized his data on unknown hairy hominiods and other cryptids.

These photographs of the collection were taken and shared with me by Christoph Kummer, who was allowed to begin to examine the Heuvelmans files and then take these photographs, at my request.

I then asked and was granted permission to publish these photos in 2007, by Olivier Glaizot, Conservateur, Musée cantonal de zoologie, Lausanne, and his associate Michel Sartori. My grateful thanks to them all.

These photos show more of the Minnesota Iceman files, Heuvelmans’ ongoing study of Homo pongoides, which he undertook in some depth. I do not recall ever having seen this painting of H. pongoides before.

Christoph Kummer.

 The truth behind the Minnesota Iceman is yet to be revealed, but the new interest in the topic will certainly call forth an entire reexamination of the whole scenario. Stay tuned…