The Malakoff Man

Athens (Texas)Weekly Review Thursday, February 20, 1930

Image Found at Malakoff Thousands of Years Old Austin, Texas, Feb.18--

Scientists are showing great interest in the stone image which was found recently sixteen feet beneath the surface in a gravelpit upon the side of a hill near Malakoff, according to Dr. E. H. Sellards, associate director of the bureau of economic geology at the University of Texas. The image now rest in the museum of the bureau. The fact that the gravelpit is above present flood plane level leads to the belief that the image was carved by a race of people who inhabited Texas prior to the sweep of the ice sheets, the last of which came more than 25,000 years ago, but did not extend as far south as Texas, and marked the end of the Pleistocene Age. The image is definitely of handmade origin. It is carved out of sandstone and weighs seventy-five pounds. In the bottom of the image is a hole which is regarded as evidence that the figure was once placed upon the top of a projection of some kind. Two feet below the spot where the image was found in the early Eocene age or formation, and it was from this formation that the stone on which the carving was done was obtained, according to Dr. Sellards. The age of this representation of the human head may date back to 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, so far as scientific knowledge is now able to judge. The image was presented to the University by T. A. Bartlett, prominent business man of Malakoff. The image is known at the University as "The Malakoff Man."

Read more about "The Malakoff Man" at the Handbook of Texas Online.

A third head was found in November, 1939.