Pristine Petrified Phenomenon

The Pristine Petrified Phenomenon, sometimes referred to as the Henderson Co. Petrified Gentleman or simply P.G., was a Portland cement statue that was exhibited as a petrified body in 1903, first by A. W. Sitton, its apparent discoverer, and later by a syndicate incorporated as the Pristine Petrified Phenomenon Company at Asheville, North Carolina.

The Petrified Gentleman and His Touring Company
It was first claimed that the petrified remains of the unknown soul that would become known as the Pristine Petrified Phenomenon were discovered in March 1903 in the ground at Sitton's farm near Boylston Creek and Mills River in Henderson County, North Carolina, 23 miles (37 km.) south of Asheville. The petrifacted stone man was, in later press retelling, excavated by ditch-diggers working in Sitton's employ, and the find was given some credence by virtue of the fact that a tree root had apparently grown around it in the years since it had been buried. Sitton was then said to have exhibited the petrified man to anyone willing to pay ten cents, first at his farm directly, and later at Brevard in Transylvania County, the nearest town south.

From the start, the area papers questioned the authenticity of the find, suggesting it had already been toured years ago in not just North Carolina, but as far afield as Waco, Texas, where one editor claimed to have seen an alleged petrified man with an identical death wound. In particular, the Charlotte papers made contention that the Henderson Co. man was the same petrified man as had been shown in their city during 1896, which at that time was claimed to have been discovered near Columbia, South Carolina on the banks of the Saluda River.

The incredulity of regional news editors notwithstanding, Sitton continued to show the man to paying audiences until he received and accepted an offer of $3500 from a syndicate of businessmen in Asheville, who then conveyed the Phenomenon there. The syndicate was D. G. Noland, E. A. Reisecker, John Mackey, Henry Reed and Pat Carr, incorporators of the Pristine Petrified Phenomenon Company, which filed papers in early May 1903, their articles stating simply: "The object and intention in the formation of this company is to put on exhibition the petrified body of a man discovered and found in the county of Henderson, Boylston Creek, and all such other fossils, curiosities, articles and things of whatsoever kind the directors may choose."

After a short stint in Asheville, the Phenomenon was taken on a tour to St. Louis, Missouri, and then onward to New Orleans, Louisiana for an exhibition at the United Confederate Veterans Reunion of 19-22 May 1903, and from there back east to Columbia, South Carolina, and north to Spartanburg, S.C., before finally returning home again to Asheville, where the company determined it would remain while they considered the finances of their operation, having found the venture was less profitable that they had hoped. Later, stories would circulate that the owners did not anticipate that several other exhibitions of identical character would appear in New Orleans: it was reported that anywhere from six to thirteen other supposed petrified remains were on display at the Veterans Reunion, most, if not all, seen to be obvious frauds.

The Phenomenon did take one further tour, being sent to Morganton in July 1903 and then to Charlotte, where it was again decried as being the same man as was shown in 1895.

Faced with the failure of their business venture, the syndicate sued Sitton and a partner named John Long for fraud, seeking to recover the outlay of $3500 they had spent on such an unprofitable fraud. It was reported that evidence was given at the grand jury trial that the Phenomenon had been produced by a Californian manufacturer of such petrified men, whose products had been buried across the country, only to be discovered and exhibited by certain enterprising people. Despite this, Sitton was not demonstrated to have committed fraud, and, in the aftermath of this loss at trial, the Pristine Petrified Man Company ended their operations and abandoned the statue.

It was last known, in 1926, to be in the basement of 16 Church Street in Asheville, formerly the home of Noland Brown Undertaking Co.