Was Bigfoot’s Body Really Kept In A Minnesota Freezer For Decades?

This is such a bizarre story, I'm not sure where to begin. The Discovery Channel will be featuring an episode of a new monster show that dives into a mystery from Minnesota.

The Lost Monster Files

Discovery has a new show this year called The Lost Monster Files. In the upcoming October 30 episode, the team investigates a stranger-than-fiction murder mystery involving the Wildman of Minnesota. It's also known as The Iceman, and it's a story I actually was told as a kid.

The series involves the lost files of Ivan Sanderson. He's the founder of Cryptozoology and the series investigates his findings using the help of modern technology.

Producers and camera crews were filming at Whiteface Reservoir Campground for about a week in April 2024. I verified this with the campground manager who is a friend of mine.

The Alleged Iceman Incident

The story is pretty long and bizarre, so I'll give you the short version of it. A hunting party was in the woods near Whiteface Reservoir in Northern Minnesota.

The official version of the story comes from American Haunting. Frank Hansen was an Air Force captain and pilot based out of the Duluth airbase. While hunting in 1960, he shot a doe and it ran off. He was tracking the wounded animal when he heard a gurgling noise. Hansen looked up and saw three hairy ape-like creatures eating the deer he had shot. The gurgling was the sound of the creatures drinking the deer's blood.

One of the creatures let out a weird screeching sound and charged at Hansen. He pulled up his rifle and shot the creature right through the eye. Hansen freaked out and ran away and passed out. He was lost for a while but eventually reunited with his hunting party.

Not knowing what he shot, he didn't say anything. He was worried what he shot could have been human.

Get our free mobile app

Did Hansen commit a crime?

This nagged at Hansen for a while, and he realized he needed to return and find out what it was. By this time, the creature's body had frozen to the ground so he had to dig it out. He brought it home and put it in a freezer to preserve the body.

Well, the body still started to stink, so Hansen and his wife poured water into the freezer to encase the body in ice. Still afraid that he would be charged with murder, he kept it a secret and even moved the freezer once when they relocated to a farm.

Read More: 4 Convincing Bigfoot Encounters By Hunters In St. Louis County

Iceman Goes On Display

Years later he was convinced that it could be a money-making sideshow piece. But, Hansen still was worried he would be charged with murder if the "wildman" was deemed to be too human. So the story goes he had Hollywood special effects people helped him create a model he would display of the creature for the first year. That way if someone investigated it, they would clearly see it was a fake and he wouldn't be charged.

After the first year of using the model, Hansen brought out the authentic one to display on the road. However, this back-fired because it got so much attention that scientists and officials started asking questions.

Cryptozoologist Ivan Sanderson even mentioned the iceman on the Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. All the attention spooked Hansen and the iceman was never seen again.