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 the country as a travelling exhibit and was offered for sale to the Smithsonian Institution; however, according to a later article, terms could not be agreed, and it was instead purchased by Frederick "San Diego" Rawson, then a Berkeley County deputy marshal, who made plans to tour it across California. Over a decade later, an article about fraudulent artefacts related new details 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 the exhibitor offered it 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.

For his part, Rawson was reported to have been involved with a travelling circus show that ran through the West for a short period before leaving California for the Alaska gold fields, and his collection of paraphernalia, left behind, was offered for sale as abandoned storage by D. S. Duggan of Berkeley.