THE WICHITA DAILY EAGLE — SEPTEMBER 19, 1902
A dispatch from Wagoner, Indian territory, tells this: “Wagoner I. T. Sept. 17,— W. F. Long has been arrested on a charge of obtaining money under false pretenses. Long has been boarding at the Missouri Pacific house here and a few days ago he made a trip to the Verdigris river fishing. He discovered a ‘petrified’ man in the sand and called to his assistance a ferryman who helped to pull the ‘man’ out of the mud. The ‘petrified’ man was brought here. Long obtained a tent and exhibited his ‘man’ charging an admission fee of 10 cents. A Wagoner physician pronounced the rock man a Spaniard. The ‘rock man’ was perfect in form and nothing was lacking except a small piece of the nose and one or two indentations on the body, as though it had been gnawed by some animal. Marks on the side of the head and in the breast indicated bullet holes. Last night when the ‘petrified’ man was put on exhibition a man looking at the uncanny object accidentally broke a piece off of it. The ‘man’ fell over and was found to be made of cement. The whole thing was pronounced to be a ‘fake’ and the officers arrested the man who was exhibiting the ‘petrified man.’ The petrified man now lies in a pile in an alley near a church.”
From—The Wichita Daily Eagle. (Wichita, Kan.), 19 Sept. 1902. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
