Philippi, West Virginia
Brian M. Powel/Wikimedia Commons
Brian M. Powel/Wikimedia Commons
Housed inside the Barbour Country Historical Museum pictured here (which started life as a B&O Railroad Depot in 1911) is a sight that would mystify and unnerve any unprepared visitors to Phillippi, West Virginia. It consists of two human figures known as the “Phillippi mummies.”
After two inmates at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum passed away in 1888, a local farmer took possession of their bodies to test his secret and eventually patented mummification formula. Although The Columbus Dispatch noted that he didn’t sell this formula, he was able to sell the mummies to P.T. Barnum, who toured Europe with them before they finally found their way back to Phillippi.