San Diego Giant



The San Diego Giant was a manufactured mummy, once exhibited as the "tallest human giant who ever lived." According to contemporary news reports, the mummy had been discovered by prospectors in a cave near San Diego, California in 1895, after which it was transported across country and offered for sale to the Smithsonian Institution; however, according to the article, terms could not be agreed, and it was instead purchased by Fred Rawson, a Berkeley County deputy marshal, who made plans to exhibit it across California. A later news article on fraudulent artefacts, published over a decade later, reported that the mummy had been shown at the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia, attracting the interest of members of the Smithsonian, and that it was offered to the museum at a price of five hundred dollars ; however, the institute first had a skin sample from the mummy tested and it was found to be gelatine, presumably putting the kibosh on the deal and opening the way for Rawson's acquisition.