The Calaveras Skull Hoax

On Feb. 25, 1866, miners, 130 feet down the Bald Mountain Mine shaft near Angels Camp, removed a well-preserved human skull.

The discovery, dubbed the Calaveras Skull, was proclaimed by some scientists to be the oldest human remains ever found in North America, proving the existence of man during the Pliocene era — 5.3 million to 2.5 million years ago.

Since the skull’s discovery, it has pitted scientists against scientists, evolutionists against creationists, and even drew the interest of Bret Harte, who wrote a satirical poem in 1899 about the relic, titled “To the Pliocene Skull.”
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