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Modern Day Foodie
Sylvester the Arizona Gunslinger Mummy and his connection to Colorado
2024-02-12
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There once lived a desperado named Sylvester. It is thought when he died, he was about 45 years old. In 1895, at his death he was processed as an embalmer's exhibit. After being a sideshow for over a hundred years, he now lives in the Ye Old Curiosity shop in Seattle, Washington as a human mummy on display.
He is so well preserved he looks wooden, and you can still see the pupils of his eyes, he still has his mustache, and his facial features at still intact. But how is he connected to Colorado?
Sylvester the Arizona Gunslinger in the Old Curiosity Shop, Seattle, WA.Photo byMummipedia
How did he become a mummy?
Sylvester was said to have been found dead in the Gila Bend Desert, Arizona in 1895. The legend goes he had been shot in a saloon gunfight over a poker game. After being shot, he stumbled out into the desert wounded and died. The legend goes that he was mummified by the desert sun and was found and taken to Yuma, Arizona.
If he was mummified by the desert, he should look desiccated and shriveled. Sylvester is quite the opposite. All his organs are intact and are beautifully preserved according to experts. If he became a mummy in the desert his organs would have been crumbly and most likely dust.
When he was examined further, modern examiners found embalming injection sites around the groin area. Indicating he was embalmed. Further analysis showed the presence of arsenic. The arsenic is oozing out of his body. Arsenic was a common embalming fluid from about 1880 up to the 1900s.
His hands are positioned perfectly as if he was holding something. The thought is that he was holding some kind of bouquet of flowers. It was not uncommon for a funeral director to use embalmed bodies on display in a coffin holding flowers as a marketing tool. Experts feel he was in a coffin because his elbows are worn.
The thought is, at first, he was embalmed as a funeral parlor display. Then a sideshow purchased his embalmed body. Then made up the legend of Sylvester the Gunslinger. To add to the mystic, they added a gunshot hole by drilling a hole into his body and some red paint. Boom you have the romance of the Wild West and a sideshow mummy.
Have you heard this story before? Let us know in the comments.
On display as a sideshow many years ago. Date unknown.Photo byThe Circus Blog
Sideshow Gunslinger
During the 20th century, his well-preserved body traveled as a sideshow attraction throughout the United States as a curiosity.
The great-grandson of a man named Soapy Smith (a.k.a. Jefferson Randolph Smith) had claimed Sylvester was "manufactured" by 19th-century fabricators. Soapy Smith was an accomplished scam artist in Colorado. He claims his great-grandfather displayed such a mummy called McGinty in Creede, Colorado. A blurred picture handed down through the family shows his great-granddad's mummy in a pose like Sylvester's (arms across the chest). Because of the quality of the picture, it is too hard to tell if they are the same mummies.
Have you heard of Soapy Smith or the mummy McGinty before? Let us know in the comments.
Flyer about the "Petrified Man." in Creede, Colorado in 1892.Photo byDenver Public Library Digital Collection
Soapy Smith was soon run out of the Denver area due to his many cons. He left for the Gold Rush in Alaska and Soapy supposedly sold the mummy in Seattle on his way. Ironically, over 100 years ago Soapy was killed in a legendary Alaskan gunfight.
In death, he was promoted as a "Desperado from the Old West". In 2001 and 2005, studies were conducted that discovered shotgun pellets in his right cheek, neck, and lungs. These injuries were likely obtained years before his death. It is unknown what caused his death, though the 2001 analysis indicated tuberculosis.
When examining the right side of his head, they found several bumps. In medical scans they showed up as metal. They feel these look like shotgun pellets. Pathology feels that these pellets would have not killed him. Because they did not fracture his skull or enter the brain. But was probably very painful for him and in his head for a long time before he died. Because the skin grew around them and even hair was coming out of the bumps.
They saw calcification in his right lung which indicates tuberculosis (TB). TB (aka Consumption) was in epidemic proportions during this time. This was most likely how he met his maker. See Reference below.
Ye Old Curiosity Shop
In 1955, he was purchased by the Ye Old Curiosity Shop in Seattle, Washington. He is owned by Adam James. His father originally purchased Sylvester. According to the owner, he was exhibited at the 1962 Seattle World's fair. Currently, he is still situated in a glass case in the curiosity shop.
According to the shop owners, he was bought from Mrs. Childs, a widow who lived in California. Her father-in-law was one of the guys who discovered Sylvester.
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