Entry No. 8 — the Pueblo file — filed under: roadside-oddity
Grave of the Solid Muldoon
“P.T. Barnum offered $20,000; crowds paid 50 cents a look all the way to New York.”
In 1877 George Hull — the same con man behind the Cardiff Giant — kiln-fired a 7.5-foot petrified man from plaster, clay, ground bones, and actual meat, gave it a tail for missing-link credibility, and buried it in these hills for an accomplice to discover. P.T. Barnum offered $20,000; crowds paid 50 cents a look all the way to New York before the press cracked it. The original vanished, so in 1984 Pueblo buried a 1976 replica under a real tombstone on CO-78. It is still down there.
The move: Pull off at mile 16, read the tombstone aloud to each other, then argue over pie in Beulah about which of you would have paid the 50 cents.
📍 Before you go The grave sits in a small gravel pull-off on the north side of CO-78 near mile marker 16, about 20 miles west of Pueblo and a few minutes east of Beulah — easy to blow past at highway speed, so watch the mile markers. It is a step-out-of-the-car stop on level roadside ground, five minutes tops. Pair it with the village of Beulah just up the road or a hike at Pueblo Mountain Park; from Pueblo, take Northern Avenue west until it becomes CO-78.
- 📍 Beulah
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: Gravel pull-off, north side of CO-78 near mile marker 16, Beulah, CO 81023
Hours: Added 2026-06-11 — confirm current hours before you go.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Proof: source 1 · source 2 · source 3 · source 4
last checked: 2026-06-11