A&E’s Shipping Wars sort of blew the surprise on their program “Crypto-Prank-ology” broadcast on the evening of June 25, 2013.
As the description said,
Jennifer hauls a cold, creepy, mysterious load… and that’s just the seller, who joins her to ensure the oddity he’s shipping makes it to its destination before it unthaws.
Now here’s the press release…for the rest of the story…
The Long Lost Minnesota Iceman Resurfaces
What happened to the famed mysterious frozen hairy body of the 1960s? Was a real body switched? What is going on here? Why are the answers now resting in Austin, Texas, in 2013, and briefly in Portland, Maine, in 2014?
A little background…
In 1968, a carnival attraction being billed as “The Siberskoye Creature” began appearing at malls and fairgrounds across America. Also known as “The Creature In Ice,” the exhibit appeared to be the body of a hairy Neandertal or Bigfoot-like cryptid frozen in a solid block of ice in a refrigerated coffin.
The “Iceman” soon garnered the attention of scientists, the Smithsonian Institution, and even the FBI, who all wanted to get their hands on the creature. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the Iceman seemed to mysteriously vanish without a trace, and along with it all hopes of ever having the body thoroughly examined.
Over the ensuing decades the enigma of the Minnesota Iceman, as it was later to be called, became the subject of many books, lectures and television shows including Unsolved Mysteries and Animal X. The story grew to near legendary status among the generation that remembered seeing it, and for over three decades the mystery of whatever happened to it became as much an open question as whatever “IT” actually was.
Now, after many years of its whereabouts being unknown, the long enduring mystery of “Where is the Minnesota Iceman?” can finally be answered.
Museum of the Weird owner Steve Busti announces on Wednesday, June 26, 2013, that the Minnesota Iceman is currently in his possession, and will soon be exhibited to the world once again in his Austin, Texas tourist attraction. Busti is aiming to have the Iceman set up in his museum and open to the public within a week, with plans for a special Grand Opening event in July.
In addition to the Minnesota Iceman taking up permanent residence at the Museum of the Weird, Busti also plans to loan the Iceman for display at the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine for a special limited future engagement, during the Summer of 2014.
The Museum of the Weird is an homage to dime museums made popular by the likes of P.T. Barnum, and features everything from real mummies, shrunken heads and oddities, to wax figures of classic movie monsters, to live giant lizards. They even boast a live sideshow on stage every day, where one can see magicians, sword-swallowers, human blockheads, and even an “electricity-proof” man.
The International Cryptozoology Museum is the world’s only cryptozoology, and contains rare one-of-a-kind exhibits of expedition evidence of Yeti, Bigfoot, and Orang Pendek hair samples, footprint casts, a 8 ft tall Bigfoot replica, a full-sized juvenile Sea Serpent carcass, various television/movie props, such as Laura Linney’s police uniform from The Mothman Prophecies, and faux cryptid taxidermy items, including a 4 ft tall FeeJee Mermaid used in the movie P.T. Barnum.
Future developments in the incredible adventure that is the Minnesota Iceman can be followed at the CryptoZooNews, Loren Coleman’s new thoughtful cryptozoology blog, created in 2013 after his departure from his eight-year tenure at another’s cryptozoology blog.
Terry Cullen, Ivan T. Sanderson, Bernard Heuvelmans, Mark A. Hall and yours truly, Loren Coleman, were some of the earliest chroniclers of these mysterious journeys. This extends the artifact’s trek into the 21st century’s second decade.
Has it been confirmed that this isn’t Iceman 2.0?
I’ve seen this story three different places now, but no one has addressed whether or not this is the one and only “Iceman,” and whether or not Heuvelmans and Sanderson were taken in by a gaff, or fake.
To the previous 2 questions, which voice my own doubts, I’ll add a third:
Have you seen the Iceman personally already, Loren? And if so, what are your impressions on it?
the Argosy ‘interpretation’ looks nothing like the more ape-like face I am accustomed to seeing. The most amazing part of this article was seeing how closely Jeff Meldrum resembles Bernard Heuvelmans.
It looks like our “iceman” is no longer in ice. Hmm…