Brian Switek brings us the story of the Carson City Giant. In 1882 large footprints were discovered fossilized in the stone at the State Prison quarry. The discovery was publicized by H. W. Harkness of San Francisco, who said that the footprints were unidentifiable and undoubtedly came from a giant prehistoric man wearing a size 19 sandal. This of course drew much national attention, and scrutiny from other scientists revealed the prints to be very similar to those found elsewhere, that had been identified as a giant sloth. Doubtless a sloth had wandered through the springs that sprout up by the prison, and left his soft footprints in the mud, that later fossilized. The Californians were mostly satisfied with this explanation, and went home. But there are still some who believe that a bigfoot walked among us, many thousands of years ago.
