The Solid Muldoon was a paleontological hoax perpetrated in southern Colorado in 1877. It was purportedly the petrified remains of a “giant” humanoid dating to paleolithic times, but in reality was a piece of statuary created by George Hull, William Conant, and P.T. Barnum with the goal of deceiving the public and generating a media frenzy. This was revealed to the public by the New York Times in 1878, and the statue never generated significant revenue from tourists. The statue quickly slid into obscurity and historical memory. Even though its ultimate fate is unknown, it’s a commonly-known piece of Colorado lore and culture.

History

Context

In the 1800s knowledge of fossilization was still in its infancy, and many people, including experts, believed it was possible for even still-living humans to be transformed into stone through some chemical process. This belief was exacerbated by hoax articles in newspapers claiming that petrified human remains had been found, or that living men had been transformed into stone statues by mysterious means.

The Solid Muldoon was predated by over a decade by a similar and more successful con known as the Cardiff Giant. This earlier “giant” had been carved from a block of gypsum in Chicago at the order of wealthy tobacconist George Hull, who wished to demonstrate the credulity of most people and the foolishness of belief in giants. He had the statue treated with chemicals to give it an aged or weathered appearance and shipped it to Cardiff, New York where it was buried on his cousin’s farm. A year later, that cousin hired laborers to dig a well at the site of the buried giant, and “discovered” the statue in the process.

The Cardiff Giant initially caused a media frenzy, with many proclaiming that its size was evidence of Biblical giants living in North America during prehistoric times. Others merely believed it was a statue, though one of authentic archaeological origin, possibly created by Native Americans.

In December 1869, Hull confessed his hoax to the press, but by this point ticketed viewing of the “giant” had generated thousands of dollars in profit for Hull, his cousin, and his business partners, as well as famed entertainer P.T. Barnum, who had created a counterfeit “Cardiff Giant” to display in his museum in New York City.

Creation

Seven years after the Cardiff Giant was revealed as a hoax, George Hull determined to carry out a nearly-identical con. In Pennsylvania, Hull had another giant created, this time baked in a massive kiln from a mixture of “ground stone, ground bones, clay, plaster, blood, eggs, and other materials.” This experimental process ensured there would be no chisel marks or similar signs of manufacture on the completed sculpture.

The second giant was carefully treated with chemicals to give the appearance of age, and Hull used needles to painstakingly create tiny “pores” in its surface, to make it appear more similar to real human skin. However, Hull lacked the finances to transport it or arrange for its “discovery.” In need of funds, he turned to P.T. Barnum, who agreed to finance the last leg of the hoax.

“Discovery”

Barnum hired William A. Conant to transport the statue to Pueblo, Colorado by train and then cart it to Beulah Valley. Once there, Conant half-heartedly buried the statue and then “discovered” it shortly after while posing as a fossil hunter. This cover story attracted little attention, as the hoax was perpetrated at the beginning of a boom in the Colorado fossil trade, following the discovery of dinosaur fossils in Morrison, Colorado and near Cañon City. Conant claimed to be seeking signs of fossils in Beulah when he came across an “unusual stone,” which turned out to be the foot of the “giant.” 

Conant then arranged for his “find” to be brought to a stable in Pueblo, where it was promptly put on display for paying viewers. This initial showing attracted hundreds of curious visitors, and generated a small media circus.

Within a month of its discovery, the press nicknamed the giant the “Solid Muldoon.” While this name is obscure today, at the time this was a playful pun referring to a popular Irish American song titled “Muldoon, the Solid Man.” The song itself is about a “solid” (trustworthy and principled) Irish immigrant to the east coast of the United States, but the title “Solid Muldoon” was applied to the "Beulah giant” as a reference to its alleged petrification. 

The media attention was exacerbated further when P.T. Barnum arrived in Colorado to examine the “giant”, and offered Conant $20,000 for it—which Conant very publicly refused. In response, Barnum began to loudly doubt the authenticity of the giant, and began demanding it be subjected to scientific examination before he would be willing to buy it.

In reality, this was likely all pre-planned play-acting designed to generate attention for the find. It may have even been that Barnum planned to have the giant “confirmed” to be authentic by a bribeable (or fraudulent) chemist. 

Doubts & Investigation

The similarity of the Solid Muldoon to the Cardiff Giant quickly drew significant doubts. Notable author Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh wrote in the Rocky Mountain News to denounce the Muldoon as a hoax. He openly proclaimed that it was not “a petrification nor a piece of ancient sculpture” and that “it is plain that the intention of the perpetrators of this fraud was to palm the Muldoon off on the community as a ‘petrification’ and attempt to make money by causing people to believe that the Muldoon was a verification of the theory of evolution.”

The Muldoon was sent on a tour of the country, beginning in Denver before traveling east along the Missouri river. However, it never drew the large crowds that the Cardiff Giant had, and everywhere it went it “was pronounced a first-class fraud… in language more emphatic than elegant” according to the Rocky Mountain News. When it arrived in New York, home of P.T. Barnum’s museum and its final planned destination, the New York Times quickly set about to uncover its true origins.

The Times soon discovered that the statue was a hoax originating with George Hull, and interest in the Solid Muldoon flagged. It faded into obscurity and vanished from records some time in the late 1870s. Its fate is unrecorded and has never been re-discovered.

Legacy

While the rest of the country quickly forgot about the Solid Muldoon, it remained well-remembered in Colorado. In the 1880s, the first newspaper of Ouray, Colorado was named The Solid Muldoon. While no longer in print, it was one of the predecessors to the modern Durango Herald. In the 1890s, retrospectives and artwork of the Solid Muldoon appeared in multiple Colorado newspapers. 

In 1976, as part of Colorado’s centennial celebrations, a Southern Colorado University art student recreated the Solid Muldoon for display at El Pueblo History Museum. At the end of this exhibition, the recreation was buried in a marked plot near Highway 78, near Beulah.

The hoax is also referenced in the name of the prehistoric monster Muldoon Man in the low-budget 1988 horror movie Curse of the Blue Lights, which was produced entirely in Pueblo, Colorado.