The Minnesota Iceman is a purported man-like creature frozen in a block of ice that has been displayed at state fairs and carnivals in and around Minnesota in the late 1960s as a "missing link". Obviously male in anatomy, it was human-like, hairy, with large hands and feet, and a flattened nose. One of its arms appeared to be broken and one of its eyes appeared to have been knocked or plucked out of its socket, allegedly by a bullet that was supposed to have entered the animal's head from behind. If genuine, the specimen would be one of the most significant zoological discoveries of all time, and while some have suggested the creature was a genuine Bigfoot or Minnesota ice creature, others contended that it was a hoax.

Frank Hansen owned the "iceman," and made a number of contradictory statements as to its origin and as to how he obtained it. His statements led to criticism and charges of a hoax which typically comes when one doesn’t stick to the same story. Hansen reportedly claimed he had a real frozen creature and a replica, but that he only exhibited the replica due to the original's value and fragility. While touring with the iceman, Hansen was reportedly detained by Canadian customs officials, who were concerned he was transporting a cadaver, or a possible health risk. Hansen reportedly contacted his senator, Walter Mondale, who was able to "pull the right strings to let the Iceman come back home."

Two cryptozoologists, Ivan Sanderson and Bernard Heuvelmans, examined the "iceman" and concluded it was a genuine creature, noting "putrefaction where some of the flesh had been exposed from the melted ice." Dr. Heuvelmans wrote a scientific paper about the iceman which was published for the Institute of Natural Sciences in Belgium entitled, “Preliminary Note on a Specimen Preserved in Ice; Unknown Living Hominid” and even named it as a new species with Neanderthal affinities, Homo pongoides.

Sanderson wrote an article called “Living Fossil” for Argosy magazine and spoke about the "iceman" on television. The Smithsonian Institution was reportedly briefly interested in the iceman, asking Dr. John Napier to investigate, then suggesting the FBI investigate, due to reports that the creature had been shot and killed. The head of the FBI, then J. Edgar Hoover, declined, pointing out there was no law violated if the beast was indeed a non-human. (The incident did give Hansen the opportunity to add a sign labeled "The near-Man ... Investigated by the FBI" when the exhibit went back on the road.)

An additional twist to the murder story occurred when the tabloid, the National Bulletin, ran a story in which a woman, named Helen Westring, claimed she'd killed the creature. According to the story Westring had been hunting near Bemidji, Minnesota, in 1966 when the thing had attacked her. She had dispatched it with a shot through the right eye.

At about the same time a Hollywood special effects firm claimed that they had made the "Iceman" in 1967. Howard Ball, who made figures for Disneyland with his son, Kenneth, had modeled the fake in rubber trying to make it look like "an artist's conception of Cro-Magnon man" with "a broken skull with one eye popped out."

The bottom line is shortly thereafter, the iceman disappeared from public display, withdrawn, Hansen said, by the California-based owner. It was later replaced by a similar, though different, exhibit which was clearly a model and not as accurate in appearance as the original. In a 1995 interview, Hansen reported that "I never did find out" if the iceman was genuine, though he himself had been rumored to have destroyed it.

The Evidence
If the theory of a "real" and a "mimic" iceman is considered The "real" Minnesota Ice Man either no longer exists because it was destroyed or is now hidden away. There was evidence of some type of hominid body within a block of ice and the description of the evidence is found above.

The Sightings
Being that this is the story of a frozen body or a possible hoax, it hardly makes the "cryptid" standard. No reported sightings have been documented other then the women who came forward named Helen Westring who stated she killed the creature in 1966 after it had attacked her. Numerous other sightings of the creature took place by the general public who claimed to have seen it at state fairs and such.

The Stats – (Where applicable)

• Classification: Hominid
• Size: Compared to the size of bigfoot 6-8 feet
• Weight: upwards of 400+ pounds due to its size
• Diet: unknown
• Location: Minnesota
• Movement: walking
• Environment: Remote area of Minnesota perhaps