In 1819, a group of soldiers was digging a pit in Lompock Rancho,
California to search for a powder magazine. Working their way through layers of hard,
compact gravel, the soldiers found something out of place: a 12-foot sarcophagus. While
this in itself was already a strange on its own, something even more shocking was hidden inside it:
a skeleton of a giant human, measuring around 12 foot tall as well, or about 5 meters.
In the same area, the soldiers found artifacts that may have been buried along with the giant
skeleton. Weaponry, semi-precious minerals, and shells, on which strange symbols were engraved.
To top it off, they found that the skull has two rows of upper and lower teeth.
Not knowing what to do, the soldiers approached a local Native American tribe for assistance.
Declaring it to be a remnant of a deity, the wary tribe asked them to bury the remains again
and never to disturb it once more. True enough, once the authorities caught wind of the situation,
they indeed re-interred the bones secretly. Nothing was heard of about it ever since.
This story was told by a woman in 1862. Her husband was one of the soldiers who
unearthed the strange sarcophagus with a giant skeleton. The area has since then been turned
into a military facility. Nowadays, it hosts the Vandenberg Space Force Base.
The 1819 story was just one of the many accounts of the supposed giant
skeleton discoveries all across United States.
Giant stories are abound in many mythologies and cultures around the world.
Wherever you go, there’s almost always a tale about a giant or giants:
larger or taller than normal humanoids with immense strength and power. In these stories,
they usually play antagonistic roles, hostile and even openly violent to the
humans they encounter. From Goliath of the Bible, to Ymir of the Norse,
and to the Gigantes of the Greece, there’s no shortage of these larger than life stories.
The Americas is also no stranger to stories of gigantic humans. From Paul Bunyan to the Paiute
legends of red-haired giants, there is no shortage of giant stories, each as bizarre as the other.
Nowadays, we look back at these stories as nothing more than myths and legends. After all,
it’s hard to imagine that such creatures of colossal size once
roamed the Earth. There is also no solid and verifiable proof that they did.
Or was there?
Archaeological Findings of Gigantic Proportions: The Mystery of America’s Giant Skeletons
Since the early 1800s, sightings of giant skeletons have popped up every now and then
all over the country, with some, even earning a space in newspapers. Dozens
of articles regarding giant skeletons were in newspaper archives, town history records,
and journals of important people. Some of them, you can even find online.
In just a span of 200 years, over a thousand reports of skeletons with a height measuring
at least seven foot or 2 meters up to 18 feet or 5.4 meters tall have been found.
As you can see in this map, some states in the country have higher concentrations
of giant skeleton accounts than others, with Ohio, in the lead.
An anonymous internet user also collected newspaper clippings and reports of supposed
giant skeletons in a publicly available spreadsheet. Based on their collected data,
here’s a chart that shows the states and some countries with the most giant skeleton sightings:
You can check out the links to the spreadsheet and the map in the video’s description.
While most of these have been chalked up to hoaxes,
exaggerations, or misidentifications, others can’t be so easily dismissed.
Among these, are the few accounts that stood above the rest. Some,
for its believability, while others for its eerie similarity
to old Native American legends. Then there are those that combine both.
A 1947 newspaper also reported a strange account of a retired Ohio physician by the
name of Dr. F. Bruce Russel. According to the article, Dr. Russel, alongside his colleague
Dr. Daniel S. Bovee, was prospecting an area in Death Valley, California to look for mining
opportunities in 1931, when he fell into an underground cave when the ground beneath him
gave away. What he stumbled upon in that place was something he never would have imagined finding.
Because underneath that seemingly ordinary area was a complex network of catacombs and tunnels.
Bovee joined Russel in exploring the caverns, only to find even more mysterious artifacts,
bones of extinct animals, and mummified remains of giants measuring 8 to 9 feet tall.
Naturally, when Russel and Bovee told this story to others, nobody believed them. Russel,
however, was persistent at first and even formed a corporation with the goal of exploring the said
cavern network even further and profitting off from it. Unfortunately, they never found it again.
But the story didn’t end there. Only a short while after that, Russel disappeared. His
car and suitcase was found abandoned in a far flung area in Death Valley. Meanwhile,
his companion Bovee wasn’t heard of since the incident, as if he vanished into thin air.
Russel and Bovee weren’t even the only ones to tell such tale. In the 1920s,
there was also another prospector, only known as White, who fell into a cavern and discovered
evidence of civilization in the place. Later on, a Paiute native named Tom Wilson,
was fascinated by White’s tale as it’s similar to his grandfather’s story. Wilson accompanied
White to find the mysterious caverns but they weren’t able to locate it anymore.
A book published in 1932 titled Death Valley Men by a prospector named Bourke Lee also
recounted the same story. Like the others, the men who visited the underground city vanished.
Interestingly, 577 miles away from Death valley, a similar story happened in 1904 to a
British prospector only known as J.C. Brown. Like Russel, Bovee, White, and Wilson’s grandfather,
J.C. Brown accidentally discovered a cave where he found not only treasures and artifacts,
but also mummies of giants measuring up to 10 feet or 3 meters tall. Strangely, Brown
also vanished on the day he and an exploration team was about to set out to return to the area.
Stories of underground cities and giants actually have their roots in Native American legends. The
Paiute people even have a legend about a chief who, grieving for the death of his beloved wife,
wandered to the Death Valley and stumbled upon an underground city called Shin-Au-Av.
While this tale from the Paiute people don’t have giants on the surface,
another one has a more direct mention of beings who are larger than normal humans.
According to a story told to mining engineer John T. Reid in 1886, the Paiute people once
fought a war against a tribe they called the Si-Teh-Cah. The Si-Teh-Cah, or the S’ai,
are a tribe of red-haired cannibalistic giants who terrorized the area. The Paiute people eventually
emerged victorious and drove them away to a cave, burying its entrance to prevent the giants escape.
That place is now known as the Lovelock Cave.
A link to a detailed video about the Giants of the Lovelock Cave can be found in the description.
Unlike our previous stories, though,
there might be some veracity to the story of the Si-Teh-Cah people.
You see, in 1911, two bat guano miners, David Pugh and James Hart stumbled upon
the remains of the tribe. Beneath the layer of bat guano measuring 3 to 6
feet were thousands of artifacts and remains that was clearly left there by
a sizeable settlement. One sandal was even estimated to be 10,000 years old,
which was even older than the recognized most ancient civilizations in the world.
And while there is unfortunately scant evidence that the tribe who used to live
there were actual giants, one of the remains discovered in 1911 was that of
a 6 foot 6 inches tall human. Not exactly a giant, but a little taller than average.
However, there was a catch. Not all artifacts and remains of that cave were preserved. The problem
started when during the first exploration of the miners, only the objects they deemed interesting
were saved. So, as misfortune would have it, long before any systematized digging was done, there
may have been many valuable artifacts that were irreversibly damaged and forever lost to time.
It turns out that cases similar to this isn’t exactly uncommon. A lot
of reported discoveries of giant skeletons all across the country mysteriously ran into
an issue and were declared to be hoaxes. Granted that many might have been a hoax,
there are others that makes you question whether there’s a deliberate cover up.
Mounds and Giants
Mounds are a sizeable pile of earth artificially constructed as either a burial or ceremonial
site. A mysterious earthwork that confounded the ordinary folks and archeologists alike,
mounds have existed in North America for thousands of years. According to estimates, there were 1
million mounds all over the United States, but only a hundred thousand of them remain nowadays.
Even in the 1800s, there were many people who believed that a race of giants have
actually built these mounts. Among these was Abraham Lincoln, who famously wrote:
But still there is more. It calls up the indefinite past. When Columbus first sought
this continent – when Christ suffered on the cross – when Moses led Israel through the Red-Sea – nay,
even, when Adam first came from the hand of his Maker – then as now, Niagara was
roaring here. The eyes of that species of extinct giants, whose bones fill the mounds of America,
have gazed on Niagara, as ours do now. Co[n]temporary with the whole race of men,
and older than the first man, Niagara is strong, and fresh to-day as ten thousand years ago. The
Mammoth and Mastodon – now so long dead, that fragments of their monstrous bones,
alone testify, that they ever lived, have gazed on Niagara. In that long – long time,
never still for a single moment. Never dried, never froze, never slept, never rested.
Interestingly, it was also during this time that
accounts of giant skeleton discoveries were reported in various newspapers.
More intriguingly, two of them came from New York Times.
According to these two articles dating back 1886 and 1897, skeletons attributed to a giant
human-like creature were found in Cartersville, Georgia and Wisconsin, respectively. The Georgia
skeleton measured 14 feet or 4.3 meters, while the Wisconsin one was around 9 feet or 2.7 meters.
While you can still read these newspaper articles in the New York Times website,
strangely, there were no updates since of what happened to the two reported giant skeletons.
It was as if the newspaper mentioned it once then decided not to talk about it anymore.
One of the most fascinating mound sites in the country, the Great Serpent Mound, also has its
share of giant skeleton story. In the 1890s, Professor Frederic Ward Putnam found 6 feet tall
skeletons near the area. While that’s not gigantic by any means, another researcher named Jeffrey
Wilson rediscovered and photographed a 7 foot skeleton. Weirdly enough, the said skeleton had
its lower leg and feet missing, which led some to speculate that it may have been taller than that.
More and more giant skeletons were found in various mound sites all over the United States.
One, in West Virginia, a 7 feet 2 inches tall skeleton.
Another, in Miamisburg, Ohio, which was a skeleton of 8 feet and 1.5 inches in height.
Then, one in Iowa, measuring 7 feet and 6 inches.
The last one had reportedly crumbled to dust after exposure to air.
Don't miss the second part of this video where we'll go From the mysterious finds
in Missouri to the skeletons purchased by the Smithsonian Institution and explore the
mysteries behind these huge remains. Are they proof of the existence of ancient giant races,
or are they simply the product of myths and hoaxes? You'll find out more about
the controversies and theories that divide scientists and enthusiasts. Get ready for
a journey into the past that promises to reveal secrets long kept in the silence
of history. The next episode will present new views and revelations
that may change the way we see our distant past. Deepen your adventure by watching our playlists!
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