MYSTERY WIRE — Prison wardens don’t often hand out shovels to inmates and tell them to start digging, but it happened at a maximum security prison as part of a search for mysteriously large footprints
The mystery started more than half a century ago on the grounds of the Nevada State Prison, when the warden at the time reported finding a cave that contained amazingly large human-like footprints … made by what some suspect was either a sloth or a sasquatch. The cave, however, was covered up after the discovery.
Fifty years later, a new warden asked inmates to help dig it out. Sure enough, they found unusual prints.
Warden Mike Budge describes the prints: “A large human … those are what, about 18-24 inches.”
“They run 19 to 22,” says corrections officer Adolph Stankus. “They have about a 2-and-a-half to 3-foot stride, which would be a proper stride for a man of my height, only with a giant foot.”
The prisoners found other ancient prints as well, made by woolly mammoths. Mark Twain even wrote about the prints.
What large-footed creature made those marks long ago? The exclusive story on mysterywire.com.