(Historic) Yeti de Bourganeuf
" . . . The corpse appeared on display at a fair in France in March 97. Nobody knew where it came from . . .
" . . . Christian Le Noel investigated and obtained the story about avalanches, China, Eastern Germany. Did not sound true. By insisting, the guy disappeared with the corpse. Due to similarity with humans, a hunter or farmer who killed one, even by accident or fear, is afraid to tell the truth.
" . . . Picture appeared in the local newspaper "Journal du Berry". Bourganeuf is located in centre of France. 45 °57'N 1°45'E, a small town of less than 20,000 inhabitants . . .
" . . . The question remaining is where did it come from. In his investigation, Christian Le Noel had answers like "came from China through Eastern Germany," all replies he qualified as fairy tales . . ."
" . . . The corpse was displayed like the Minnesota wild man, in a freezer, on an ice bed. The story goes as follows. The corpse would have been found by sherpas in an avalanche in Tibet (This version is dismissed by Christian Le Noel, being a former staff member of the French National Park - Les Ecrins -- Alps. He had exposure to such events) and would have been hidden by Tibetan Monks in a water well under ice (But he knows that Monks are afraid of Yeti - brings bad luck, plus risk of polluting the water). Later, the Chinese army would have taken away the corpse, and after several months of display at Shanghai¯, would have been sold to a circus in eastern Germany. This one went bankrupt, and the brother of the stallholder has acquired the display. Christian Le Noel concludes saying that this is the story of Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs . . .
" . . . He had contacted the newspaper reporter who had taken the photos to acquire a high quality picture, but she said that she had given away the negative . . .
" . . . The owner of the display at the fair disappeared, and the corpse was never seen again (at least not in France) . . ."
Even more info thanks to Steven Streufert:
Translated: "Virtual Institute of Cryptozoology Cryptozoological news (19) Bourganeuf's frozen mannequin In 1997, what might seem like a re-edition of the case of the frozen man (this corpse of a hairy man exhibited on the fairgrounds in the USA, which Bernard Heuvelmans was able to study at leisure in 1968) took place. .. in France ! And even in the heart of our country, since it was on the occasion of the Bourganeuf fair, in the Creuse, that this story was revealed: once again, it was apparently the corpse of a sort of hairy man kept in a freezer, and exhibited on the fairgrounds. It was indeed a hoax, and funny thing, our Belgian friends from ABEPAR (which publishes the journal Cryptozoologia) are, very involuntarily, the inspirers. Emmanuel Janssens Casteels, animal sculptor and collaborator of the Belgian review, tells in the June to August 1998 issue of Cryptozoologia that two of his colleagues had advised people wishing to make a giant replica of the frozen man by Bernard Heuvelmans: "It was actually a soft foam sculpture with ponytail hairs glued to it. The eyes were simply purchased from a specialist taxidermy supplier." Obviously, an incredible story accompanied the exhibition of Bourganeuf, whose creator had obviously read the work of Bernard Heuvelmans. To know more : DEVILLETTE, Anita 1997 Bourganeuf: a yeti in the city. Limousin Magazine, n ° 402: 66-68 (May). HEUVELMANS, Bernard 1974 Neanderthal man is still alive. Paris, Plon. JANSSENS CASTEELS, Emmanuel 1998 The frozen man of Bourganeuf: the solution of the enigma. Cryptozoologia, n ° 25-26-27: 40-41 (June-July-August). JEAN, Gérard 1997 The Thing in the Ice. Limousin Magazine, n ° 402: 69-70 (May). 1997 On the trail of the abominable snowman. Anomalies, n ° 3: 17-25 (2nd trimester)."
