Bigfoot Evidence: Another Minnesota Iceman Account.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Mike Rugg Convinces Us The Minnesota Iceman Was Once Alive

http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.com/2013/07/mike-rugg-convinces-us-minnesota-iceman.html

 

Tonight on Monster X Radio, the guys will be talking to the new owner of the Minnesota Iceman, Steve Busti. Steve recently reintroduced the Iceman last week at the The Museum Of The Weird in Texas. You can listen to the show at 7PM EST by following this link. While you're waiting for it to begin, check out this video from Mike Rugg explaining what experts described during the exhibit's heyday in the late 70s.

See the Video

 

In this case I am pretty sure that Mike Rugg is accurately describing the history of the Iceman as well as insiders have already maintained it.  I personally believe these particulars to be accurate also, based on my discussions with both Sanderson and Heuvelmans, and after reviewing their files and photos on the subject. To me this substitute model does NOT match the original photos. However at present time I am waiting from word back from others that have undertaken to examine all of the photos exhaustively.    --Best Wishes, Dale D.

Will the Real Minnesota Iceman Please Stand Up

Bigfoot Evidence put out this news item this morning:

http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.com/2013/06/will-real-minnesota-iceman-please-stand.html

 

This is not "The original item" as described by Sanderson and Heuvelmans. It is a very, very good copy of it. I think we can readily recognize this as "THE REPLACEMENT MODEL" from the photographs of the face alone.
The originating article concludes with the following information:

http://bigfootcrossroads.blogspot.com/2013/06/will-real-minnesota-iceman-please-stand.html
...
SW:  The Big Foot Creature Exhibit, that sounds very interesting, when did you have the show out, does someone have the show out today and what was it?

 

 RW:  It was in the 70’s that I first started showing the Creature. I believe the last year I had it out was 84. I never saw the show after I sold to Rick Owens. I do know it went to California.  

 

Johnny Chambers, who did the make-up for “Planet of the Apes” built the creature. And Jerry ‘Tyron’ Malone designed the show. Jerry was known for his frozen whale exhibit and later his custom racing semi tractors. The creature was shown in a big case with a glass top. I used a chemical on the underside of the glass that made it look frosted. Looked like the creature was frozen.  I also had another creature that a friend and I built out of latex. That’s another story. 

 

But the best creature ever shown was Frank Hansen’s. He brought his exhibit out in 1967. I met him at his first fair. His creature was encased in ice and shown in a custom-built freezer.  It is quite a story; people thought the creature was real. Many people still believe it was real. I had the chance to go up and visit Frank shortly before his death. I even had the opportunity to purchase the creature and the exhibit…

 

”Preserved Forever in a Coffin of Ice!”

 

You know, I should have bought it. 

Another interesting aspect of what Rick West claims is that John Chambers, famous makeup artist from "Planet of the Apes", made the creature for West's Bigfoot exhibit. Which Rick started showing in the 70's, and could have very easily been under construction in the late 60's. Could this sideshow Bigfoot be responsible for creating the rumor that John Chambers made the costume for Patty in the Patterson-Gimlin film? Think for a moment how rumors change as they get passed along. Perhaps Chambers did create a Bigfoot creature, and people were just confused as to which one he was responsible for. Like getting to the center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know.

 

SO: we now know definitely, there was not one Iceman model but several competing versions, and in this case Hansen's display is clearly distinguished as something different and "Better than the rest". And Hansen's original display was not only different from the rest, it is different from the currently "Rescued" replacement model. All the same I think the attribution of ANY Bigfoot materials to John Chambers is only a popular legend.

Minnesota Iceman Sold on Ebay?

When this story came out I made a mention about it on this blog. I was told by one of the people that sends out my links "That's old news, we don't want to promote it"

The problem remains, IS this the same as the original Iceman viewed by Sanderson and Heuvelmans? If so I am afraid both men have been very badly discredited. However there are a number of importany inconsistencies. There was the very obvious matter of one eye supposedly shot out of the socket and the other eye bugged out of the other one as a reaction to the shot. There is not any  suggestion of that here. That is an important enough detail that more than one claimant as "The one that made the model" was supposed to have recognised the description from the bugged-out eyeball alone (That s what the Ball family stated).There was also the matter of an extended 'heel' to the hand and the body hairs pigmented in an agouti pattern alleged by Sanderson, details which Napier thought were suspicious and which indicated a hoax: neither one of those things are evident in these photographs.

If any of those details was true than we are not looking at the original but instead we are looking at an extremely well-made replica.

So at this point there are features which match the story that this is the supposed body that Heuvelmans and Sanderson saw and then again, the conradictory statements which continue to be a puzzle. I do not care to make any final decisions on the matter yet myself.

Best Wishes, Dale D.

http://blogs.forteana.org/node/195

Minnesota Ice Man - Sold

February 20, 2013 - 17:40 — Gordon

After a number of blog posts about Fortean property you need something to put in it. Well how about what is claimed to be Frank Hansen's original 1960's Minnesota Ice man sideshow exhibit?

A snip at $20 000 on ebay.
The listing reads
"This is the actual sideshow gaff billed as "The Minnesota Iceman" by
Frank Hansen in the 1960's. This is a one of a kind hoax that was
fabricated by a mid-20th century showman. The Iceman was featured in an
issue of Argosy Magazine (as you can see in the pictures) and spawned
decades of debate as to its authenticity. For around 40 years the
whereabouts of the Iceman were unknown to the cryptozoology community.
The "creature", while under ice, baffled the famed zoologist (and
so-called father of cryptozoology) Bernard Heuvelmans who examined it in
it's heyday. Stories circulated as to the origin of the creature
ranging from "a hunter shot it in the great northwoods", to "it was
killed during wartime in Southeast Asia", and even that it was found
floating in the ocean encased in it's signature block of ice. It is
thought that the "creature" was actually crafted by one of Disney's
early Imagineers. Regardless of who actually did create it, the quality
is flawless, and it has stood up remarkably well to the rigors of time
and repeated freezings. The chest freezer that it is housed in is
unfortunately not operational at this time. It has been looked at by a
licensed refrigeration contractor who determined that the compressor
needs to be replaced. A new custom sheet of glass was added in September
of 2012. The housing is extremely heavy, in upwards of 1000lbs, and is
approxamately 4' x 4' x 8'. This listing includes the rolling freezer
container, the creature, and the original signage. Buyer will need to
either arrange to pick item up in Minnesota, or arrange for shipping.
Follow this link to read the original Argosy Magazine article: http://www.bigfootencounters.com/articles/argosy2.htm
 Any questions, please feel free to email. Serious inquiries only.
 Thank You!"

So is this the real deal? There are other images at ebay to allow you to make up your mind. Was the original Ice Man a fake or genuine? Was it subsequently replaced by a fake and is this a fake that was associated with Hansen or is it a fake of a fake? Or a fake of a real animal? Or a fake of a fake of a real animal? Whatever it is it looks mighty impressive and I am searching down the back of the sofa to see if the Charles Fort Institute has enough money to buy it, but I'm not holding my breath!
For some excellent colour photographs of the beast Hansen showed I can strongly recommend L'Homme de Néanderthal est toujours vivant


And here is a composite photograph by Heuvelmans and two interpretaive drawings

Whoever buys it I hope it goes on display somewhere. Well it's gone. The auction is over, if anyone knows who bought it could they ask them to contact us so we can find out what's going to happen to? It's a shame it didn't end up at somewhere like Loren Coleman's International Cryptozoology Museum

Another Bigfoot Comparison

Last Friday or so, there was a posting on one of my Facebook groups reprinting the picture above anthe notice that "The one in the middle was the one that I saw" in Ohio, and this was joined by a similar statement from another member. I thought this was interesting because I had seen the chart before and discussed it then (I said I could not tell what distinction was meant to be shown between the two figures on the left)ther different member of the other group said that the middle one was the one THEY had seen, but in Texas. Sird witness had said that, I took a strong second look at the illustration, and I made the paste-up below:

This pasteup compared the middle "Gigantopithecus" to the Iceman as represented by Bernard Heuvelmans, and it became apparent that a Gigantopithecus was not represented at all. The two recocnstructions had any number of similarities and the "Gigantopithecus" was far too human-like, especially its head and face. Between the two the browridge, height of the face as proportion to the full height, and form of the mouth were all close, and the noses are actually identical although the drawing styles tend to make that less obvious. The proportionate lengths of the arms and legs, and the shape of the hands and feet, werthe two, but more specifically both had the same oddly thickened forearms and thick wrists and ankles. I'm willing to call that Neanderthaloid from the comparison.

The overall effect is also much like the individual creature known as Mecheny and reported n Siberia. Harry Trumbore has a different drawing of this but I prefer the original art shown here

Commercial Neanderthal Reconstruction Resembles Iceman

http://www.prehistoricstore.com/item.php?item=749

Tyler Stone has recently been running a series of articles on the Minnesota Iceman, Neanderthals and the Eastern Bigfoot, and I came across something else which independantly unites all three once again. This is a half-skull, half-fleshed reconstruction of a Neanderthal's head  which is being offered for sale as a teaching aid through a commercial outlet (The link is provided above) here you can see the face on view of the model and then the views of either side.

The fullfaced version of the reconstruction does have some striking similarities to the "Up the nose" view of the "Minnesota Iceman" as illustrated by Bernard Heuvelmans after he and Sanderson had closely examined it. The full reconstruction is on the left and the Iceman drawing is on the right.

Florida "Skunk Ape" Mockup from The Cryptozoologist's Blog looks pretty close to the Iceman, too.
Below, full-length drawings of the "Minnesota Iceman" by Alika Lindbergh (Bernard Heuvelmans' then-wife and longtime illustrator) based on the series of his photos (Heuvelmans' photo mosaic in Center)

Versions of "Bozo the Iceman" done by Ivan Sanderson and under Bernard Heuvelmans' direction separately for separate publications.

Above, the photo mosaic of Heuvelman's photos in colour, and at right, Alika Lindbergh's reconstruction of what the "Iceman" would have looked like in life.

Two drawings of the more humanlike "Florida Skunk Ape" which resemble the "Minnesota Iceman" and the drawings of Alika Lindbergh quite closely.

http://www.skunkapefiles.com/SkunkApeArt.html

Above, the issue of ARGOSY which originally published the account of the "Minnesota Iceman" with an artist's depiction of it on the cover. And below the cover of Heuvelmans' book, which is quite thorough on the matter and has never been published in English. Boris Porshnev's contribution is a complete rundown on the central-Asiatic Hominins then called "Almases" and which were thought to correspond most closely to Neanderthals at the time. (Heuvelmans gave the name "Homo pongoides" to the Iceman but readily admitted it could be assimilated into Homo (sapiens) neanderthalensis.