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 unidentified prospectors in a cave near San Diego, California in 1895, and had been transported around the country as a travelling exhibit, eventually being offered for sale to the Smithsonian Institution; however, it was later reported, terms with the Smithsonian could not be agreed upon, and the mummy was instead purchased by Frederick "San Diego" Rawson, then a Berkeley County deputy marshal, who announced 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; the exhibitor offered it to the museum at a price of five hundred dollars ; and the institute had a skin sample from the mummy tested and it was found to be gelatine, presumably putting the kibosh on any 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.