Here are various and sundry reports of giants and their skeletons as reported in old newspapers.
Bisbee Daily Review, June 21, 1908, SUNDAY EDITION, Page 6
GIANT SKELETON FOUND IN MEXICO Charles C. Clapp a Boston broker of 19 Congress street, who has recently returned from Mexico, tells a remarkable story of the finding of the complete skeleton of a man who in life walked with his head nine feet above the earth. Mr. Clerk said: “Late one night, while we were sitting in the camp, a shot was heard from the distant hills. A party of us started out at once to investigate, for when the sound of a gun is heard in the State of Jalisco it means that a white man is shooting and that he means business. “We finally located the forman of the mines, who said that on going to the window of his hut he had seen two shining eyes below and had fired. We at once started on the hut, with men and torches, and discovered trances of a wounded mountain lion. Following the trial, we came to a cave, the mouth of which was blocked up with stones with the exception of a small hole where the stones had been clawed away, evidently by some wild animal. “We crawled through this hole with our torches and found ourselves in a long cave. We walked along until we came to a spacious apartment. Here strewn about on the floor of the cave were great numbers of human bones. I don’t pretend to have any scientific knowledge of the human frame, but picking over the bones I was able to articulate a complete human skeleton, which measured just 8 feet 11 inches. “The femur measure up to my thigh, the ribs were mare like those of a horse, the molars were big enough to crack a cocoanut, and the head from front to back measured 18 inches. I imagine there were enough of these bones to make 200 complete skeletons. “The cave was evidently the burial place of a race of giants who antedate the Aztecs, and who subsisted upon the abundant game of the locality. Together with the bones, among the various relics found, was a massive stone hatchet, weighing 30 pounds. “The Mexican government holds a jealous guard over its relics and buried treasures so that in order for the bones to be brought from that country for American scientists to study, it will be necessary for some noted archeologist to go down and arrange for their removal. I intend to see Professor Alexander Agassiz in regard to my discovery, and see if some attempt can be made to secure some of the bones to bring here.
“I have already interested Ronald Thomas, the magazine writer in these prehistoric remain, and I expect that he will shortly visit the scene of my discovery, and prepare a report which will be given to the public later on.”
St. Landry Clarion., November 05, 1892:
A giant’s skeleton has been unearthed at Brunswick, Ga, which is nearly nine feet long.
Evening Star., August 21, 1921, Page 16:
FIND GIANT SKELETON While Excavating at Westernport, Md., Bones Are Discovered. WESTERNPORT. Md., August 20.—While excavating for a building in the rear of the Morrison property here yesterday, William A. Eiller, a contractor, unearthed parts of a giant skeleton. The find was under a flat stone that weighed about half ton. The body had evidently been placed in a shallow excavation and this stone put over it. The stone itself had been buried several feet by earth and rocks that had slipped down off the cliff above, but when placed there had evidently been about level with the surrounding ground.
The top and front of the skull are in a fairly good state of preservation. The walls of the skull art thick and the cheek bones high, indicating that of an Indian. There is a large double tooth in the upper jaw near the front.
The Taney County Republican., February 25, 1904:
Giant Skeleton Found. Workman engaged in digging gravel at Winnemucca, Nev., the other day uncovered at a depth of about 12 feet a lot of bones, part of the skeleton of a gigantic human being. Dr. Samuels examined them and pronounced them to be bones of a man who must have been neatly 11 feet in height. The metacarpal bones measure four and a half inches in length and are large in proportion. A part of the ulna was found and in its complete form would have been between 17 and 18 inch ± in length.
The remainder of the skeleton is being searched for.
The Billings Gazette., August 30, 1907, Page 8:
PYGMY SKELETON DUG UP. Prehistoric Cemetery Discovered by South Dakota R. R. Graders. Oacoma, S. D., Aug. 29.—A remarkable prehistoric burying ground has been cut into by railroad graders near here, and the remains of what appears to be a pygmy race have been discovered. The old burying ground is now a great deposit of gravel, and it is in this that the bones are found.
Some 50 skeletons have so far been unearthed. These are all of a race of dwarfs about four feet high, and physicians have pronounced them the remains of adults, not children. The bodies were buried standing or sitting. One of the skeletons, however, is that of a giant more than eight feet high. Near the giant’s skeleton was found a number of copper implements, as well as several of bone. In one of the graves were two copper idols about eight inches tall.
The Butte Daily Post., February 27, 1917, Page 4:
Oakland, Cal.—A skeleton believed to be that of an Indian chief was discovered by workingmen engaged in digging gravel on the Frank Wallace ranch, a mile and a half west of San Leandro. The bones have been taken in charge by Deputy Coroner Morgan, who declares that from the size of the thigh bone it is evident that the skeleton is thaw of a man at least eight feet tall. The skeleton is to be sent to the anthropological department of the University of California.
The Evansville Journal., December 25, 1845:
THE GIANT SKELETON. The Skeleton discovered in Williamson county in this State, and supposed to be that of a human being, has frequently been referred to, within a few days past, in the H. of Representatives. Notwithstanding the description of it, as Wouter Van Twiller would say, “we have our doubts about the matter.” This skeleton was found about sixty feet beneath the surface of the earth, embedded in a stratum of the hardest kind of clay.—The bones are said to be in a perfect state of preservation, and weigh in aggregate 1500 pounds. “All the large and characteristic bones are entire, and the skull, arms, and thigh bones, knee pans, shoulder sockets and collar bones” remove all doubts, and the animal to whom they belonged has been decided to belong to the genus homo.” This gentleman when he walked the earth, was about 18 feet high, and when clothed in flush must have weighed not less than 3000 pounds. “The bones of the thigh and leg measure 6 ft., 6 inches; his skull is said to be about two-thirds the size of a floor barrel and capable of holding in its cavities near two bushels. (He must have had a goodly quantity of brains, and if intellect be in proportion to the size of the brain, he must have possessed extraordinary intellectual powers) The description further states, that “a coffee cup of good size could be put in the eye-sockets.” The jaw teeth weigh from 3± to 6 pounds.
It is stated that an eminent physician and anatomist is engaged in putting the skeleton together, and that it will shortly be ready for public exhibition.
Evening Star., April 03, 1914, Page 12:
GIANT SKELETON FOUND. Two Others Credited to Prehistoric Times Unearthed in Ireland.
LONDON, April 3.—According to a dispatch published here today, the skeleton of a person who had been apparently ten feet in height has been found at Dysart, County Louth, Ireland. The skeleton was unearthed together with that of two others supposed to have been buried in prehistoric times. The three bodies had been interred in separate graves, all incased with stones. The skull of the giant measured eighteen inches from the crown of the head to the chin.
Twice-a-Week Plain Dealer., June 02, 1908:
Giant Skeleton Is Found. Lebanon, O.—When digging into a gravel bank on his farm near Stubbtown, this county, John Watkins discovered the burial ground of Miami Indians. The skeleton of a huge woman was unearthed. It measured seven feet and five inches in length.
About her neck were ropes of pearls and in her tomb other articles of value. Much excitement was aroused among the farmers in the vicinity, and further excavations brought to light many other skeletons of this extinct race. Some were found in sitting positions and some on their faces. Watkins will try to interest the State Archaeological society in his find.
The Newport Plain Talk., February 13, 1913, “UNEARTHS GIANT SKELETON” and also The Pioche Record., February 15, 1913:
UNEARTHS GIANT SKELETON. New Jersey Man Make Discovery While Digging In Garden. Kearny, N. J.—The skeleton of man six feet seven inches tall was dug up here by Samuel Aspinwall. Aspiuwall was digging in the garden at the back of his house at 80 Duke street, intending to transplant a peach tree. He found the bones of a man’s right arm as soon as lie broke the ground. The entire skeleton was buried only a foot and a half below the surface. It was in good condition. Aspinwall, who has lived on the property for more than twenty-five years, said that he was sure the body had not been buried in his garden during his occupancy of the premises.
A horseshoe heel plate was found near the skeleton. Indicating to the police that the body may have been burled fifty years ago, when horseshoe heel plates were worn.
The Daily Gate City., May 16, 1910:
GIANT’S SKELETON POUND OUT WEST Bones Discovered by Bursting Water Pipe, Which Dug Hole in the Ground.
ENCAMPMENT, Wyo., May 16.—That Carbon county, Wyo., was inhabited by a race of men, or at least one man in the prehistoric age, has been proved by the discovery of a human skeleton which indicates that the man in life was nine feet, three inches in height. The bones were disclosed by of preservation, being in a fossiliferous condition.
Austin’s Hawaiian Weekly., October 07, 1899, Page 5:
HERMIT OF THE DEATH CAVE. A Story of Skeletons. BY FRANKLIN AUSTIN. I cannot tell whether this “Story” relates facts or is fiction. In any case, it is of a discussion between “your Majesty” and some someone and relates to “Our Hawaiian philosophy” in part, with reference to burial rites with regards to ghosts, “the ancient Hawaii and waited before burying their dead until the body became so decomposed that all the bones could be easily extracted.” It then claims that “This colloquy took place in the early eighties in the King’s boathouse between King Kalakaua and Ernest Greenwood, a wealthy young New Yorker” named Greenwood whom the King encourages to “investigate this matter for yourself”: As I approached an old man [“The Kahuna” or “Hermit of the Death Cave”] with white hair and whiskers came out to meet me. He was entirely devoid of clothing, with the exception of a breech clout. His skin was dark-brown and shone like polished ebony, only not so dark. He was tall, erect and athletic, and carried himself with extraordinary dignity. The only thing about him that indicated age was his white hair and whiskers and wrinkles under his eyes and around his knees. As he approached he seemed to tower above me like a giant… I entered the hut. The sight that met my eyes made me shudder from head to foot…It seemed as if the room was frescoed and upholstered with skulls and human bones. There were human skulls everywhere. In one corner, on a little shelf, was a particularly large skull, in which a candle burned and the light streamed from its gaunt eye holes in a most uncomfortable way. My ancient host came in…walked over to the corner and made three salaams before the grinning skull, muttering an unintelligible incantation. “‘Skull of my most famous ancestor,’ he said…
At last mine host said it was time we entered the cave…[there] were hundreds of skeletons, that looked ghastly in the feeble light of the torch. The floor of the cave was strewn with loose bones and it was impossible to avoid making foot fall of the skulls as we walked along…as we went, called this or that giant chief’s skeleton by name…my ancient guide stopped and turned around so as to face me. Reaching to the ledge on the left, he selected the shin-bone of one of the largest skeletons in the cave. “‘What a giant this fellow must have been,’ he said. ‘Surely not less than eight feet tall. His name was Kaunakakai…
Arizona Republican., September 10, 1911, Page four:
MARX IS PEEVED AT PEOPLE’S SCOFFING Peter Marx, of Walnut Creek, who is in the city with a loud of fruit, stated yesterday, that his discovery of a giant skeleton of probably Aztec days, seems to be regarded with in credulity by many who have written from all parts of the country, since the account was first given publicity a few weeks ago, says the Journal Miner. Nearly all inquiries appear to view the discovery as worthy of his personal endorsement for veracity and the writers ask for additional information. Mr. Marx states that the frame of the giant is stored away, and as recovered from the ground there is no doubt but what the giant was a monster of the human race. He has but a portion of the frame in his possession, but enough, however, to give accurate dimension of a man who was of freak physical proportions from head to foot, and which can be substantiated by any who care to view the remains. He also states that since making the original discovery, many other articles have been unearthed, convincing him that the race was progressive and well advanced as craftsmen, many crude implements being found and in one instance written slates, that give an intimation of education.
He contemplates bringing what is left of the huge skeleton to the city some time in the near future that all may see for themselves and form their own conclusions.
Warren Sheaf., April 02, 1903:
TALL MEN ARE FREAKS. Learned Authority Upon Giants Says They Have Small Brain Cavities. Prof. Cunningham, who has been appointed to succeed and serve under his old teacher, Sir William Turner, in the hair of anatomy in the University of Edinburgh, is the greatest authority upon giants, says a London paper. He is at present occupied in elaborating the proofs of his belief that a giant is a morbid phenomenon.
A man or woman who is more than six feet five inches, or, at the outside, six feet six inches, cannot be regarded as merely abnormal, the professor thinks. He has shown that the mental characteristics of giants—easy good nature, sloth and poor intelligence—are those shown by victims of a rare disease of overgrowth called acromegaly. This is due to enlargement of an appendage of the brain, and Prof. Cunningham has personally examined every giant skeleton in the British and continental museums, and found that the little cavity in the skull corresponding to this part of the brain is enlarged in all of them.
Grand Forks Daily Herald., June 29, 1915:
GIANT’S SKELETON AT FERGUS FALLS
Fergus Falls, Minn., June 29.—A giant skeleton has been unearthed on the farm of County Commissioner Thore Glende, in the town of Everts. The jaw bones and some of the teeth were in a fair state of preservation, and the teeth were nearly twice the size of an ordinary man’s teeth. Other bones indicated that the man must have been eight feet tall. Tourists from St. Louis secured the hones and sent them to scientists in that city. It is supposed the remains are those of a prehistoric man.
The Wyandot Pioneer., November 29, 1861:
THE WIFE TAMER
Mrs. Morton was a widow a young, pretty, rich widow when Dr. Charles Strahan…gave a wine supper in the room which he dignified by the name of “study,” sort of variety store, in which he kept his library, writing desk and spittoon. There also were two glass cases : one of which contained a giant’s skeleton, hung on wires ; in the other was an Egyptian mummy.
The Sun., September 26, 1883, “MUST HAVE BEEN GOLIATH” also in Fort Worth Daily Gazette., August 15, 1883, Page 7 “A GIANT’S SKELETON” and Democratic Northwest., August 23, 1883:
A BIG MAN OR A BIG LIE. Alleged Skeleton of a Prehistoric Man Twelve Feet High. St. Joseph, Mo.—August 14.—Hon. J. H. Hainly, a well known and reliable citizen of Barnard, Missouri, writes to the Gazette the particulars of the discovery of a giant skeleton four miles south-west of that place. A farmer named John W. Hannon found the bones protruding from the bank of a ravine that has been cut by the action of the rains during the past years. Mr. Hannon worked several days in unearthing the skeleton, which proved to be that of a human being whose height was twelve feet. The head through the temples was twelve inches. From the lower part of the skull at the back to the top was fifteen inches and the circumference forty inches. The ribs were nearly four feet long and three and a fourth Inches wide. The thigh bones were thirty inches long, and the entire foot eighteen inches in length. The skeleton lay on its face twenty feet below the surface of the ground, and the toes were imbedded in the earth, indicating that the body either fell or was placed there when the ground was soft.
The left arm was passed around the back, the hand resting on the spinal column, while the right arm was stretched out to front and right. Some of the bones crumbled on exposure to the air, but many good specimens were preserved and are now exhibition at Barnard. Medical men are much interested. The skeleton is generally pronounced a valuable relic of the prehistoric race.
Western Kansas World., August 22, 1903:
GIANT SKELETON UNEARTHED. Lifted Intact, But Relic Hunters Break It Into Fragments. The complete skeleton of a human giant has been found at Holbeach, a Little Lincolnshire fen town between Lynn and Spalding, during excavations for the foundations of two new houses. Every bone was in perfect condition and not a tooth was missing, but it was soon broken into fragments, and several townspeople seized sections as mementos. The skeleton measured seven feet two inches in length. A curious key, five inches long, with triangular handle, was found near the bones.
Stukeley, the famous antiquary, who was born at Holbeach, records that at the spot where the discovery has just been made a Roman Catholic chapel, dedicated to St. Peter, formerly stood. Other human remains have been previously unearthed on the same spot.
The Coconino Sun, July 11, 1919, Page Eleven:
A GIANT SKELETON EIGHTEENFEET TALL AUSTIN, Tex., June 14.—”If the report that the fossilized skeleton of a giant eighteen feet tall has been found near Seymour, Tex., is true, it is the most important ethnological discovery ever made in the world,” remarked Dr. J. E. Pearce, professor of anthropology of the University of Texas. “It would break all previous records of giants by nearly ten feet, as the tallest man known to anthropological research was only eight feet 5 inches in height.” The skeleton is in possession of W. J. McKinney, Houston, Tex., oil prospector, who found it, and has been seen by a number of people who vouch for the truth of the size of the relic of a heretofore unknown race. Mr. McKinney, while making an excavation on the narrow watershed between the Brazos and Wichita rivers, came upon the fossilized skeleton near the surface. Mr. Kinney writes: “I estimate that this man weighed from two thousand to twenty-five hundred pounds. According to my deductions he lived about twenty-eight hundred years ago. The skull is six times the size of that of an ordinary man.”
Mr. McKinney does not explain how he arrived at the figures as to the probable period of the existence of this remarkable man. It is probable that the bones of the giant will be donated to the Smithsonian Institution which, under the direction of Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, is now conducting anthropological research work in Texas.
The Daily Bulletin., May 22, 1884:
A PRE-HISTORIG CITY. Professor P. W. Norris, Assistant United States Ethnologist, has recently discovered the ruins of ancindent city, five miles in extent, in the Kanacoha valley near the city of Charleston…lying horizontally on its back, was giant skeleton, 7 feet and 6 inches long, and measuring 19 inches througnt [sic.] under the arms. On each wrist were large copper bracelets, four of which had been enclosed in cloth or dressed skin. Under the skull was a stone lance-head. There was a copper gorget upon the breast with two holes in it. This gorget, which was 4 inches square, is regarded as having been a badge of authority. In the right hand was a nematite iron hatchet having 4-inches blade. In the left hand were several lance heads, 6 inches in. length, of flint manufacture. Leaning backwards in a dark coffin, which stood somewhat out of a perpendicular position, was another skeleton, in such a position in relation to the first as to let the left hand extend over its head. On this left hand were two copper bracelets. In the right hand were a bunch of lance-heads, similar to those of the giant. In each corner of this vault was a warrior, enclosed in his dark coffin, and standing nearly erect, with a stone a stone hatchet and lances in or near his hands… In mound the remains of a large sized warrior was found lying flat on his back, with a copper crown covering his head and neck, ornamented with sea shell and bone heads. On one side of this warrior lay five others, with their feet all pointing towards the central warrior. About this skeleton were found various weapons and ornaments… About the centre of the mound were two large skeletons, in a sitting posture, facing each other, and their hands extended, palms upward, towards one another. Resting upon their hands was a curious altar, made of stone, of about 2 feet in diameter, the concave side up, and filled with ashes. On its top was a fiat stone cover with two holes in it, and having on it the ancient totem marks. Down even with the natural surface of the ground in this mound was found an immense slightly concave altar ; the centre of which was field to about the depth of 6 inches with fine ashes. Around farther from the centre, there were ashes and bits of human bones, piled up to the depth of nearly 2 feet. The Professor says there cannot be the lest doubt but that these ashes are the cremated remains human
beings.
Monroe City Democrat., October 25, 1918:
BARNUM NOT FIRST IN FIELD French Surgeon, Centuries Ago, Proved Himself a Genius In the Art of “Humbuggery.” On January 11, 1613, some masons were digging near the ruins of the castle near Dauphine, Upper Burgundy, in a field which by tradition has long been called the Giant’s field. At a depth of 18 feet they discovered a brick tomb, 30 feet long 12 feet broad and 9 feet high, heaping the inscription, “Theutobochus Rex.” Within was a giant skeleton, 25 feet 6 inches in length, 10 feet across the shoulders and 5 feet from the breastbone to the backbone. The teeth were about the size of an ox’s foot, and the shinbone measured 4 feet. Some of the bones were carried to Paris and placed on exhibition. They spoke for themselves, to disastrous result, as will be seen. With regard to the story, Parisians had to depend upon the word of the self-alleged organizer of that party of masons. He was a surgeon named Muzerein. His ingenuity and energy in advertising himself and his giant indicate that he was the Barnum of his day. Both the pleasure-seeking and the scientific world were excited over the wonderful discovery.
Thousands flocked to see the bones. Doctor Muzerein was on the high road to fortune when one day an anatomist announced that the skeleton of King Theutobochus was nothing more than a part of the fossil remains of an elephant…
COLOSSAL ITALIAN COLONEL This massive looking specimen of man is big enough to take one’s breath away. The most recent jibe directed at tall men, “Aw, you’re too big to fit in the trenches,” is smashed to smithereens, as this picture shows.
The “giant” is an Italian colonel, who is paying a visit to the Italian sector in France. The Italians on the western front have been giving a good account of themselves and are cooperating with the French on this front to stop the German drive just started.
Albuquerque Daily Citizen., January 27, 1902, Page 4:
THE GIANT SKELETON. It Will Be Removed to Las Vegas, New Mexico. Don Gregorio Varela and Marcelino Martinez have gone down to El Cuervo. They will go on to the Mesa Rica and endeavor to buy the skeleton of the human giant which was last week unearthed by Luciano Quintana. The giant would pay if brought here. The Smithsonian people would be proud of a giant of the dimensions of this one.
More particulars regarding the giant’s dimensions prove the skeleton to be mastodonic. A leg is well preserved. It is eight feet in length. The skeleton will be on exhibition in the court house yard and anthropologists are especially invited to examine it.
The Benton Weekly Record., September 15, 1883, “Discovery of a Giant Skeleton” and The Butler Weekly Times., October 10, 1883, “A Giant Skeleton”:
George Arnold, a farm hand in the employ of Franklin Boots, who lives about fifteen miles west of this city, made a discovery which has excited wide-spread interest in this country. The object of this interest is the skeleton of what once was a man of gigantic proportions, which was uncovered in a gravel pit on Mr. Boot’s farm. The skeleton was found in a sitting posture facing the east, and about six feet beneath the surface. Some other bones were badly broken by a caving of the bank, but the skull and some of the larger hones were taken out intact, and from them may be easily realized tile gigantic statue of the being to whom they once gave support. A measurement of the skull from front to rear, the rule passing through the eye socket to the back of the head, shows it to have been about sixteen inches, while the inferior maxillary was eight and one half inches, showing that the brain must have weighed tour and one half to five pounds. Careful measurements of the other bones establish the fact that the man when alive was not less than nine feet in height and large in proportion. From the appearance of the teeth, which are very large, and do not show the slightest sign of decay, although wore down almost to the bones of the jaw, the man could not have been less than 100 years old when he died, and of course he might have been much older.
The bones of the lower jaw are very large and thick, showing a strong muscular development in that organ which is far beyond anything of the present day. How long ago the body of this giant was interred where it was unearthed, or to what tribe or nation he belonged when he trod the earth in all the majesty of his strength it is impossible to say, but it must have been ages ago as all the indications show that the soil where the remains was discovered had not been disturbed for many generations. Steps have been taken to have casts made of the bones and they will be placed either in the state collection or some other college museums.
The Bemidji Daily Pioneer., October 03, 1916:
BONES OF ANCIENT PERSON UNEARTHED NEAR SPOONER MAY HAVE BEEN GIANT Skeleton Leads Physicians to Believe Being Was That of Seven-foot Tall Woman. TO BE PRESENTED TO HISTORICAL SOCIETY Large Mounds Found in Territory Pieces of Pottery are Found. An enlightening contribution to historical data concerning the early mound builders of the Rainy Lake region has been made in the finding of a skeleton of a prehistoric being near Spooner. The skeleton was found on a caved in bank of clay off the Rainy river. It is well preserved and is thought to be that of a woman. The bones have been taken to Spooner and placed on exhibition. Prehistoric Person. Physicians who have examined the skeleton declare that it represented a type of early prehistoric persons who were seven feet or more and who possessed an especially large lower jaw. They drew this conclusion because the skeleton found was that of a person of a very large stature. The jaw bone was wide and its construction is said to be a special gift of nature to the early man in order that he could masticate the coarser foods which then made up his subsistence.
The skull is very large. The well rounded forehead gives evidence of considerable development of intelligence among these early inhabitants of the Rainy Lake territory. The fact that the skeleton was found at the base of the mound established the fact that the being once belonged to a race of mound people builders, several persons declare…The mound at the base of which the skeleton was found was opened about three years ago…The skeleton will be sent to the Minnesota Historical society.
The Carrollton Sun., November 28, 1860, “Giants are Short-Lived” this one is about modern day “giants” (modern back in 1860. I will not transcribe the long story but as with all images, you can enlarge it.
The San Juan Islander, 23 Aug. 1912, “REMAINS OF A BIG INDIAN FOUND IN CALIFORNIA – Seven Feet Four Inches Was the Height of Member of Extinct Race Whose Bones Were Dug Up” also East Oregonian, 10 Aug. 1912:
SKELETON OF GIANT INDIAN IS FOUND Seven Feet Four Inches Wan the Height of Member of Extinct Race Whose Bones Were Dug Up by California Scientist. San Francisco, Cal —Up to about 300 years ago a giant race of Indians inhabited the coast regions of California. Remains of these have been discovered In the islands of the Santa Barbara channel. To William Altmann, assistant curator of the Golden Gate Park Memorial museum, belongs the honor of discovering one of the tallest and best preserved skeletons of this extinct tribe. Altmann utilized his vacation in excavating an old Indian burial mound in the nursery of Thomas S Dunne, two miles from Concord, In Contra Costa county. The giant skeleton was found ten feet from the surface, and around it were a large number of mortars and pestles, charm stones and obsidian arrow heads.
The skeleton has not yet been mounted, but the hones were assembled on a table in the curator’s office and placed on private exhibition. The bones are in good state of preservation, being hard and firm, although brown with age. Two or three of the vertebrae are missing, and the skull is broken into three parts. The skeleton measures seven feet four inches. The tibia is seventeen inches in length.
The Daily Ardmoreite., February 04, 1909, City Edition, Page eight:
Find Giant’s Skeleton. New York, Feb. 4.—A skeleton of a prehistoric man of gigantic size has been found at a town ten miles south-east of the City of Mexico according to news received here yesterday. The discovery was made by a peon who unearthed the skeleton, which measured about fifteen feet in height.
It will probably be turned over to the National museum of Mexico. The find has revived the Aztec legend that a giant race occupied n part of the Mexican provinces in past ages.
The Day Book, 19 July 1913:
STORY OF A SKULL, BURIED SIX CENTURIES, TELLS OF THE PERFECT AMERICAN By W. H. Alburn. Denver, Col., July 19.—For six centuries an Indian sphinx sat, buried in the sand on the shores of Catalina island, off the coast of California. He gazed toward the sea and guarded the secret of a vanished race. This mysterious figure has been brought to the light of day by Dr. A. W. Furstenan, world-wanderer and noted naturalist, and his secret is now revealed. “He was the perfect American,” says the scientist, “and he was probably the last of his race.” In Dr. Furstenan’s Denver laboratory and museum, filled with strange specimens of animal life and relics of antique man from far lands and distant ages, are the material remains from which the doctor reads the old Indian’s history as an open book and tells what manner of life he lived and how puny and decadent we modern Americans are in comparison. Since leaving Berlin university Dr. Furstenan has spent most of his time delving with a pick and shovel. During a visit to California an old Mexican Indian told him a tradition of an ancient and noble tribe that dwelt in Catalina island long before the white men came, a tribe that vanished, leaving no trace. The scientist, decided that some trace of them MUST exist. So he went to the island and started digging along Avalon bay. Black, hard sand showed signs of burning. Delving into it, he found it was the site of an ancient sacred fire, kept alive day and night, year after year, perhaps, by a race that worshiped there and used it for a pyre to burn its honored dead. His pick struck a human skull, with a strange conical shell, resting on it. He dug around and under and unearthed the skeleton of a giant, crouching, with his treasures in his lap. These were arrow and spear heads, curious wampum made of carved fish vertebrae, rude knives and needles, mortars, pestles and carved shells, all different from ordinary Indian relics, and a strange, fiat stone, bearing unknown symbols, that may have been a calendar. As the air touched the long-buried bones most of them crumbled to dust. There remained the skull, jaw bone, teeth and bones of one foot, proving the size and strength of the man. And this is his story, as the doctor interprets it: “I was a chief of our island tribe. We were eight feet tall and very strong, but lived in peace, caring not for conquest. Our senses were keen, our nerves were steady. Our food was fish and the fruit, grain and roots that nature gave. Therefore we toiled little. “We were perfectly to our environment. Disease was almost unknown. I lived over 100 years you see how my teeth, still sound, slowly wore down to the bone. Old age came easily, with little pain and death was a kindly friend. But a fierce, bloody race came and destroyed us.” “Such was this prehistoric American,” says Dr. Furstenan. “And WE are decadent. Our eyes and ears are dull.” Our teeth decay, our jaws weak and recede, our chests narrow, our stature dwindles. Colds, headches, rheumatic pains assail us. The pressure and complexity of life wreck our nerves and fill our sanitariums. Canned fruit and much, clothing make us frail. After a fitful, discontented life, disease drives us to a painful and premature death. “We do not fit our environment.
“If we could only get back to nature like that old Indian!”
Public Ledger, 15 April 1868:
An Irish Giant’s Skeleton. The London Examiner, in the course of a literary review, tells this story: Some five and thirty years ago or more, we recollect hearing from the lips of the then curator of Hunter’s noble museum, in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the interesting particular of the war in which Jehu Hunter, not his brother William, became possessed of the body of the celebrated giant, whose skeleton, if our memory does not play us false, was said to be eight feet three inches high. We recollect being strongly impressed with the idea that the skeleton we were approaching to examine was that of a tall man between those of two children, such being the relative proportion between O’Brien and the skeletons right and left of him. Upon taking a nearer view we found those which had appeared to be children, were in fact skeleton of men at least six feet high. But to our story, which Mr. Clift, as distinguished for his love and care of the splendid museum of which he was the honored curator, narrated to us. He was also, we should add, a man full of anecdote, and only too happy when pouring out the stores of an exceedingly retentive memory. He told us that John Hunter had long determined that O’Brien’s skeleton should grace and enrich his museum. The giant became aware, before his death, of Hunter’s design upon his anatomical frame, and with a view to defeat these, left by his will a distinct command that his body should be weighed and cast into the sea. His commands were faithfully fulfilled by his executors, and his body launched into the deep, somewhere about the Nore.
Men were immediately employed by John Hunter to fish for his remains, and within a fortnight the precious prize was hooked and transferred to the museum, which it has ever since enriched.
The Coeur d’Alene Press, 07 Oct. 1905:
GIANTS OF THE PAST. The past was more prolific in the production of giants than the present. In 1830 one of these giants, who was exhibited at Rouen, was ten feet high, and the giant Galabra, brought from Arabia to Rome in the time of Claudius Caesar, was the same height. Pannum, who lived in the time of Eugene II., was eleven and one-half feet in height. The Chevalier Scrog in his journey to the peak Tenerife found in one of the caverns of that mountain the head of a giant who had sixty teeth and who was not less than 11 fifteen feet high. The giant Paragus, slain by Orlando, the nephew of Charlemagne, according to reports, was twenty-eight feet high. In 1814 near St. Gernad was found the tomb of the giant Isolent, who was not less than thirty feet high. In 1500 near Rouen was found a skeleton whose head held a bushel of corn and which was nineteen feet in high. In 1623 near the castle in Dauphine a tomb was found thirty feet long, sixteen feet wide and eight feet high on which were cut in graystone the words “Kentolochus Rex.” The skeleton was found entire and measured twenty-five and one-fourth feet high, ten feet across the shoulders and five feet from breastbone to the bark.
But France is not the only country where giant skeletons have been unearthed. Near Palermo, Sicily. In 1516, was found the skeleton of a giant thirty feet high and in 1559 another forty-four feet high. Near Magrino, on the same island. In 1816, was found the skeleton of a giant of thirty feet whose head was the size of a hogshead and each tooth weighed five ounce.
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