Illustration by Rev. Swope
Sometimes while doing research you find a little tidbit that throws you off topic and down a path you never though you would find yourself wandering on. While investigating the topic of lost graveyards in Erie I stumbled upon this curiosity:
“…when the roadway of the Philadelphia & Erie road, where it passes through the Warfel farm, was being widened, another deposit of bones was dug up and summarily deposed of as before (Thrown in a neighboring ditch). Among the skeletons was one of a giant, side by side with a smaller one, probably that of his wife. The arm and leg bones of this native American Goliath were about one-half longer than those of the tallest man among the laborers; the skull was immensely large; the lower jawbone easily slipped over the face and whiskers of a full faced man, and the teeth were in a perfect state of preservation. Another skeleton was dug up in Conneaut Township a few years ago which was quite as remarkable in its dimensions. As in the other instance, a comparison was made with the largest man in the neighborhood , and the jawbone readily covered his face, while the lower bone of the leg was nearly a foot longer than the one with which it was measured, indicating that the man must have been eight to ten feet in height. The bones of a flathead were turned up in the same township some two years ago with a skull of unusual size. Relics of a former time have been gathered in that section by the pailful, and among other curiosities a brass watch was found that was as big as a common saucer.
An ancient graveyard was discovered in 1820, on the land now known as Dr. Carter and Dr. Dickinson places in Erie, which created quite a sensation at the time. Dr. Albert Thayer dug up some of the bones, and all indicated a race of beings of immense size.” (History of Erie County Volume 1; Warner, Beers and Co., 1884, pp. 166-169)
I was a bit flabbergasted.
As an enthusiast of the unexplained I was well aware of the legend of the mound building giants of ancient Northeast. Attributed to the Hopewell Indians, an unknown race of Native Americans, these mounds litter the Northeast tp the Midwest. They vary in size from a small two foot knoll to the hundred foot Monks Mound in Collinsville, Illinois. There were old legends that when the early European settlers established homesteads on these lands near the mounds they uncovered huge bones of archaic Indians. The circle was complete as I read on in “The History of Erie County”;
“Equally curious are the pre-historic mounds and circles found in Wayne, Harborcreek, Conneaut, Girard, Springfield, LeBoef, Venango and Fairfield Townships. The principle one in Wayne Township, which is still in a fair state of preservation, is in the south branch of French Creek, near the road from Corry to Elgin…It consists of a vast circle of raised earth, surrounded by a trench, from which the earth was unquestionably dug, the whole enclosing about three acres of unbroken ground…Half a mile to the west, a little north of the road, on a slight eminence, was another and smaller circle, which has been plowed down, leaving no vestige behind.
The circles in other portions of the county are or were similar in their general features, with one exception, to the above. Those in Harbor Creek Township were situated on each side of Four Mile Creek…on points overlooking and commanding the deep gulf of that stream.” (History of Erie County Volume 1; Warner, Beers and Co., 1884, p.169)
During the Colonial Era in the Great Lakes, Northeast and Midwest territories, whenever there were mounds, there were accounts of the discovery of giant Indian bones.
Ross Hamilton in his article“Holocaust of Giants: The Great Smithsonian Cover-up”
Uncovers several incidents of giant bones found in or near local mounds in 19th Century Ohio. All of these incidents are documented in digests of local history. The jist of Mr. Hamilton’s article is that the Smithsonian actively covered up the discoveries of giant bones in the 19th Century in order to produce a preferred history of ancient America. In other words, the Smithsonian was a conspirator in 19th Century political correctness.
There are a few things that I find fascinating about these historical reports listed by Mr. Ross and “The History of Erie County”.
First, most of these reports do not seem to be sensational. They just simply report the discoveries as odd curiosities. Most historians discredit these alleged discoveries as local folk tales that have no basis in reality. In fact they are the fabrication of a bigoted worldview in which the pioneering white man could not conceive that the savage Indians could have constructed such edifices. It had to be another ancient race that was here before the Indians; since many times the mounds were very big they attributed them to the giants from the Bible. Allen Quinn, professor of Archaeology at Mercyhurst College here in Erie is one of the scholars who holds this position. He has personally excavated a mound and found only normal remains. He regulates these stories to fanciful lore, although he did relate that there was a tale another discovery of a giant near North East Pennsylvania as well.
But my problem with this explanation is the familiarity of most of these reports. They point to the discovery of these giant skeletons at a specific place by specific people. People who were well known in small communities. When you live in a small community, you tend to get to know everyone exceptionally well, especially in the pioneer days of the 19th Century. It would soon be known if the person is an honest man, a thief, drunkard or a huckster. That the discoveries were documented in detail with the finders names and the location of the find noted is noteworthy. It speaks volumes to the veracity of the find. I think our problem is that in our 21st Century worldview we tend to look at those who lived before our modern era of technology as ignorant, uneducated and superstitious. We forget that many of these early archaeologists were not just ignorant farmers, they were educated and honest men. They found something spectacular. But what did they do with the bones? Many were too fragile to be rescued and crumbled when the finders tried to excavate them. Others were haphazardly discarded by workers along with the normal sized Indian remains they found. They too seem lost to history. But many accounts do not relate to us as to the deposition of these remains. Were they given to the local government for historical value or did they remain in the family of the discoverer over the years? Further investigation is evidently needed. Be that as it may, the stories of the giants and the mound builders passed from generation to generation as truth, as is evident in these history cartoons “History Profiles” published in the 60s and 70s.
Secondly, it must be noted that these discoveries never exceeded but a few giant skeletons. Many mixed with normal sized remains. Usually there was only one giant, but many times up to three or four were discovered together. To my knowledge there was never an entire village of giant skeletons found. What does this mean? Were these giants merely genetic abnormalities living within their average sized community? Or were these giants a different race entirely? If so why did they dwell among the other Indians and were buried alongside them as kin? Perhaps they were some sort of guardian that watched over the tribe? Or were they the honored envoy of an ancient race that is now long forgotten?
Across America there are many mounds of the Hopewell and Adena that still litter the landscape. Many have been overgrown or neglected over the centuries. Perhaps there still remains evidence of the giant Indians to be found, if they were Indians at all. Let us hope that they do not become prey to vandals or amateur archaeologists who might damage the evidence and rather be painstakingly documented by professional archaeologists in the near future.
Then perhaps the mystery of the giant mound builders will be answered.
Comments
While going on about the Mound Builders, please remember one reason the Lost Mound Builders was such a big topic in 19th century archeology was that the Victorians could not reconcile the architecture of the Mounds with the 'primitive' Amerindians present in American at the time. Bottom line, they were racists and wanted to believe in a lost ancient race (one that was NOT dark in color.)
Mystery mongering is, alas, one way people justify the unjust: the crime of Amerindians having their land stolen from them was OK because they did in the noble Mound Builders.
Not to say there were not big guys back then, but there are big folk now, and an overactive thyroid is uncommon but if it got a person status to be big in a certain area he'd go there.
The photo is an obvious fake.
Lighting is completely different on the skull. Yup, its fake.
Didn't you see the caption of the photo? "ILLUSTRATION by Rev. Swope." It is an intentional fake.
thats why its called an illistration
Thats why this whole generation is going down the tubes. Especially kids these days; they dont have the patience to stop and read one word such as "illistration".
I seem to remember that there was a graveyard with Native indian skeletons of extra ordinary seize in the Niagara region.
I find it funny that we dismiss the hundreds of tales like these from the 18th and 19th century. If you look further back DeSoto told tales of the Alabama indians whose leader was close to 8 feet tall and his son was just as big. When the spanish first mapped the California coast they supposedly caught an 8 foot indian and held him on their ship tied to the mast for 2 days then he escaped and swam back to shore. Both of the accounts were recorded by catholic priest traveling with them. Plus almost every native tribe has legands of giants living here and fighting with them. Just food for thought. Too bad we could not have had most of these mounds preserved for real discovery through proper exploration.
photoshopped
Just a point of history. I have lived in Conneaut, Ohio all my life. My father reported farmers pulling arrowheads from their fields by the bushelful. He had several dozens in his youth. This was a place of native American warfare.
It has long been reported that when our town was first settled in the early 1800's; skulls were unearthed that easily fit over a normal head like a football helmet!
Of course it's a photoshop, as an illustration for the story like all my articles.
Why use photoshop tricks? It makes your whole topic suspect. A real skeleton on display would be much better evidence. Must be one in somebodies closet. Oh, thats right, the elites don't want us to know the truth.
There is a fair amount of evidence to support the idea of giant humans from the past. Just search for it.
Anecdotal evidence? Somebody saw something, etc. How about some skeletons we can actually examine.
The whole North East, the great Lakes, down into the Ohio was once a vast network of civilizations. Among them were races of giants 7 to 10 feet tall. The Smithsonian actively sought evidence of them and has collected a vast cache of their skeletons. This also includes discoveries in the mid west, and west coast, down into Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia.
A lot of giants have also been uncovered in Europe. 7 to 9 foot giants found in mass burials under dolmens near Paris, and Gap France with oval skulls and teeth like horses. Bones of a race of 10 to 12 foot Neolithic giants with skulls 28 to 32 inches in circumference found in cemeteries at Montpellier, and Castelnau le-Lez, 1890 to 1895. 7 to 8 foot Bronze age giants found in County Meath Ireland in 1950 in a massive burial chamber. 40 skeletons of 7 foot giants found near Munich,Germany 1934. Giant skeletons of men 10 and 12 feet high with skulls 33 inches around, and shin bones over 30 inches long found by Soviets in the Tien
There are numerous Mayan paintings extant in which giant warriors are depicted although they really stand out they were certainly not the norm maybe remants of a vanishing race of giants.
Haven't you ever heard of acromegaly? It's a far more likely explanation for isolated instances of gigantism in normal populations. Skull shaping practices (flathead mentioned) may even have caused the disease by exerting pressure on the pituitary, as tumors sometimes do, causing acromegaly. Just a hypothesis, I know a lot of us coasties would rather believe it's fallen angels or aliens. Dig up Andre the Giant and try his skull on for size.
Acromegalic childhood Gigantism is exceedingly rare, with perhaps one case per 1 to 2 million. To find burials containing several skeletons well in excess of 7 feet would be mathematically improbable and most likely indicates a familial trait, and probably an ethnic or racial one. To thus use the term, "giant race" is by no means an exaggeration.
I do find it interesting that anthropologists can reconstruct an entire human tree based on, in some cases, very scant physical evidence. There are likely far more skeletons of giants in museums than all the fossil Hominids ever discovered.
Another possibility - and one that I read some time ago - is that the bones really were discovered, but that the sort of measurement being conducted here (eyeballing comparisons of bones to living bodies) causes people to overestimate the size of the individuals with those bones.
Overestimated measurements of elongated skeletons in situ certainly could give rise to exaggerations, and a certain number of these reports can be regarded as such. The problem is, by how much did they over estimate?
Some of the reports give actual bone measurements of length and girth; femurs well in excess of 20 inches, and exceeding even 30 have been reported.
maybe bigfoot or family units that were killed by native americans -possibly they lived with the tribe.
Real unbiased history shows giants were on every continent, Rockwall Texas has a history of giant remains found there
The Book of Mormon, highly ridiculed in it's day, was translated over 170 years ago and speaks of great ancient civilizations here in America and specifically in the Great Lakes region where Joseph Smith unearthed the records. Now will people finally take Joseph Smith and his records seriously, or will they continue to deny it when so much evidence is uncovered? And if the record is true, will they take seriously it's message and the LDS Church and it's missionaries which carry the record to this generation? We will see. The dire warnings in the Book of Mormon is that our civilization will itself vanish as did these ancient ones if we don't repent and accept it's message!
You're pulling our legs, right?
If there was ever a man-made religion that could be more easily disproved than the fairy-tales the came from Joe Smith, I've never seen it.
PROOF: "DNA Evidence and Molecular Genetics Disprove the Book of Mormon"
by Rich Deem
The Book of Mormon makes several scientific claims that can be tested. The chief claim, and the premise of the entire book, is that Hebrews carried the message of the coming Messiah on a voyage across the Atlantic. These Hebrews multiplied and were to eventually become the Native Americans found throughout the North and South American continents. Can this claim be established or falsified? Until recently, there was no answer. However, the Deoxyribonucleic acid: the chemical inside the nucleus of a cell that carries the genetic instructions for making living organisms.DNA technology that has been used in courts of law can be used to test this claim directly.
http://www.godandscience.org/cults/dna.html
I wouldn't trust a "professional" archaeologist to dig my back yard for a 20 year old buried tire. I'd rather have a well read or well trained amateur that has a passion for historical truth, than a brain numbed, mindless drone spouting whatever the establishment wants us to think and believe. It's time we wake up and realize that all mainstream science is nothing but a propaganda wing of the governing bodies and corporations of the world. Any truth they actually do tell you, is only to get you to believe the next two lies following it. So essentially, If their lips are moving, they're lying. Do your own research folks! There is truth out there to be had. But you're gonna have to dig for it(pun intended). I'm an old guy, and I've spent a good portion of my life researching all sides of the story on many historical and contemporary issues. There are a lot of epiphanies and revelations awaiting you, if you'll just open your eyes and look.
Have to be careful with what you find though. You could be enlightened and realize the truth but could be condemned by those who will label you schizophrenic. Just another way of hiding the ugly truth.
The book of Mormon does not ever say or imply Israelites became native americans. Read the book for yourself and not the baised commentaries from others who have not read it. The book is about a very distinct group of gods people, most of whom became extinct. The book does however testify that Jesus is the christ. "We talk of Christ, and we prophecy of Christ, that our children may know who to look for a remission of their sins"
Hey Idiots, the picture at the top isn't a photograph.
"Illustration by Rev. Swope" That means it isn't meant to be passed off as a photo.
Fotojerry tries to come off as an intellect, however he's only but a mere blow-hard fool. Thus, I should ask fotojerry for real evidence that he's not a moron. Not just words, but show credentials to prove once and for all why anyone with half a brain should listen to anything you say.
A lot of things are hard to believe. Just because you don't beleive in something, it doesn't mean its not true. Scientists keep coming up with their ideas of who we are and where we came from. The truth is that there is an intelligence in every cell of our body. It seems highly unlikely that our bodies just evolved and were not designed and engineered by someone or something. You may call it evolution, but even evolution has to be piloted by some type of intelligence. God does exist. You and I were created by him, in his image. Someday you will die and meet your maker. You don't have to believe, but it will still happen. I choose to believe in a God, a master creater. There is a reason why everyone has hardships in their lives. There is a reason why there is good and bad. For every action there is a consequence. You can't control it. Your individual spirit and intelligence existed before this world was created, and it will continue to exist long after this world passes away. Something can't come from nothing, and something can't turn into nothing, it can only change forms. You don't have to believe it, but it is true. To remain in a state of denial can only impede your eternal progression.
There is much of interest at S8int.com as well about this topic. The interior of America was seemingly full of artifacts and remnants of previous settlement and development with many strange finds. After the late 1870's this information becomes disregarded due to conflicts with Darwin.
I have done some things on the giants at http://www.burlingtonnews.net/giants
have you researched the discoveries made in michigan,ohio and other n.e. states of artifacts found showing drawings of stories from the old testament all the way to a personage appearing looking alot like that jesus christ guy.
I believe they were nephillim and thus aquired vast knowledge through (500+) lifespans and could travel overseas and propregate in many nations. They must have come from the middle east mesopotamia pre deluge era, so they were neither white nor indian. People were not dumb neanderthals, the bible is real, evolutionists are full of bs. How would anyone know what jesus looked lik? all I can say is he must have been very very dark walking all day without sunscreen.
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