The Mud Springs Angel

The "Mud Springs Angel" was discovered in 1907 when Joe Milan was digging out a foundation for a school about 2 miles from the site of the Mud Springs Massacre. Joe discovered the top part of the skull and went immediately to the nearest police in Sidney, fearing that he had disturbed a grave. It was determined that the "Mud Springs Angel" was not a grave because the bones were fossilized.

The professor of Archeology, Jude Parson, from Lincoln, Nebraska was sent to the site in the summer of 1908 and spent two months excavating the site. Jude was confused by the bone structures above the shoulders. Jude theorized that the man was laying over the bones of another animal. In the brutal winter of 1908 a Biologist, (no name is given in any of the articles or reports), from the Agricultural school in Fort Collins, Colorado (now known as CSU)-collaborated with Jude to discover the origin of the bones. There conclusion was that the bones behind the skeleton were actually wings, they were connected on either side of the spine below the shoulders. When the bones were analyzed they were found to be honey-combed with long oval open pockets in a layered X-Pattern. The bones were similar to a birds, (lightweight), but the X-Pattern is much stronger, similar to pattern in high strength plastics used today.

With this discovery Jude and the Biologist sent for the top Archeological and Zoological scientists at the University of Colorado. With the recommendation of Maximilian Rill (a Priest from Dalton, Nebraska)-religious representative from many churches were bought to the site. Maximilian suggested that it was a fallen angel, and The Sidney Telegraph dubbed the fossil "The Mud Springs Angel".

The religious representatives arrived on April 3rd. Two weeks before the scientists were scheduled to arrive. The religious representatives, left without any comment. The official comment from the various churches was mixed. From the "still under investigation..."comment from the Lutheran Church, to the "...clearly a hoax" release from the Catholic church, nothing was universally decided.

On April 6th 1909 the "Mud Springs Angel" was stolen. It was the Easter Holiday and the only one in camp was Jude Parson. They estimate it would have taken 10 hours or more to remove the fossil with the tools of the time. Jude's naked decapitated body was found face down in the hole that the fossil had been removed from on April 8th. On April 9th his head was found in the same hole buried four feet deeper than the body.

The Sidney Police later claimed it was all a hoax that Jude was involved in, and his partners in crime killed him to protect themselves, his partners were never named. Joe Milan, the man who first discovered the skull, was killed in a mysterious tractor accident on April 8th his body was found on April 9th. The biologist was never found and CSU claims no record of such a person existing on the CSU faculty - though a staff picture from 1906 has a man similar in appearance to the biologist at the camp with Jude. CSU claims the copper plate engraved with the names had fallen off years before.

In 1962 Maximilian Rill died at the age of 87. He willed his possessions to the science department at University of Colorado. In his small apartment a plaster mold (the one from which this model was made) was found wrapped in Burlap, and a bone sample with the X-pattern was found in a locked wooden crate along with an oil painting of an angel. The bone sample was later carbon dated and estimated to be 18,000 years old. The Bone sample was said to have human characteristics but the interior structure had never been seen before. The bone is still, to this day, considered an unclassified life form, and the University says the plaster casting is an interesting mystery and is still under investigation.