Solid Muldoon

Beulah, 1877. Two men unearth a giant. Seven and a half feet tall, 600 pounds, a petrified humanoid from prehistoric Colorado. They call him the “Solid Muldoon” after a popular Irish tune, and for fifty cents invite anyone to see him. The news spreads, and rumor has it P.T. Barnum is coming, to pay top dollar to claim this “prehistoric marvel." But big money has a way of unlocking secrets, and soon one conspirator reveals the hoax: it’s just clay, ground bones and blood — sculpted by a trickster who tried the same ruse years earlier back east.

Somehow, the giant vanishes. But the story sticks. And a century later folks bury a replica on Muldoon Hill, underneath a sign that reads: “Here lies the / SOLID MULDOON / whose moniker came from a tune. A great / man was he. May / his Spirit roam / free. Long live our / SOLID MULDOON.”

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Colorado Postcards are snapshots of our colorful state in sound. They give brief insights into our people and places, our flora and fauna, and our past and present, from every corner of Colorado. See more postcards.