S2E55 - The Colorado Martian: The Alien Body Buried in Stone

In 1864, a French newspaper published a stunning report from the American frontier: oil prospectors had drilled into a gigantic meteorite and found a tiny humanoid body sealed inside a stone sarcophagus. Its face was knife-like. Its arms were too long. Its tomb was carved with the planets — and Mars was drawn larger than all the rest.

The story spread across Europe and America, blurring the line between science, journalism, satire, and belief. But was the Colorado Martian a genuine mystery, a forgotten alien encounter, or one of the strangest media hoaxes of the nineteenth century?

In th...