Friday, March 7, 2014

Your Daily Giant 3/22/2013

Today's Daily Giant comes from Stonebuilder friend Amanda, who sent it my way. Amanda just listened to the Red Ice interview with Ross Hamilton, Hugh Newman and myself and is visiting family in Florida. While searching for information on mounds she uncovered the following account. Once again a find reported skulls so large they could be fit over the head of the finder like a helmet. I have attached pics of a few of the many other giant skeleton finds in the sunshine state also. Giants Turned Up Near Cypress Lake: Some Tales Lead Down Strange Trails. June 22, 1997 Orlando Sentinel |By Jim Robison of The Sentinel Staff This one comes by way of my writing partner, Mark Andrews. And he takes complete responsibility for its authenticity. Says he, ''this story is absolute truth - or not. Whatever, we got us a story. ''With that disclaimer, here's a tale from a June 1876 newspaper that would fit right in with the tabloid journalism of today: ''THE GIANT BONES IN FLORIDA.'' Well, before we get much further into this story about the bones of ancient giants uncovered in a burial mound, let's get this stated right out front: The reporter for this tale was not a nut. (But he was a lawyer and a newspaperman, so you can make your own choice about whether you believe any of this.) Will Wallace Harney, a former teacher, lawyer and newspaper editor from Kentucky, moved to Florida in 1869. He used his monthly Letter from Florida column in the Cincinnati Commercial to lure settlers to Florida's frontier. (Lake Mary, the lake and Seminole County's youngest city, took its name from Harney's wife.) He also owned his own Central Florida newspaper, Bitter Sweet, named for the sour bite of wild oranges from the old Spanish groves.) So, here's the story. The wife of rancher William Johnson ''got lonesome'' during one of her husband's long cattle drives. She decided to explore an ancient mound at Cypress Lake, a wide spot in the Kissimmee River. (It's one of the spots where Gen. Thomas S. Jesup, who took over command of the U.S. Army in the fall of 1836, ran into trouble with Seminoles.) The wife couldn't wait for the cattleman's return to show him her discovery, ''gigantic human bones,'' Harney writes. Others, including legendary cattle king Jacob Summerlin, would uncover large forearms and skulls as ''large as a water bucket,'' Harney writes. One was so big, he reports, one digger lowered it over his head, ''like a mask.'' Harney concludes that these bones from a ''race of gigantic stature'' belonged to ''the royal race, which stood like Saul among the prophets.'' Harney estimated the early Floridians were 8 feet tall.
 
 
 

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