Your Daily Giant 5/26/2013

 

 

 

Today's Daily Giant comes from the Evening Tribune, July 7, 1897 pg 3. An account of what is described as bones of a giant race on San Nicolas Island California is reported. From the article, "After nearly three weeks sojourn on the barren island of San Nicolas a party of relic hunters reached Long Beach, Cal. loaded with skeletons, skulls and ancient implements and ornaments of Indian tribes...There were 11 in the party which left Long Beach in the gasoline schooner San Clemente for San Nicolas Island, which lies 65 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara...The party found 87 skulls buried in the sand of the island but were only able to secure three entire...Positive evidence was found that the island was inhabited by two or more different races in the dim past, one of which was of great size, a peculiar characteristic being gigantic jawbones. Some of the specimens of the latter brought by the party are almost large enough to slip over the head of an ordinary man...Mr. Longfellow, one of the party, speaking of the trip said, "I am sure that two different races fought and died on the island, as most of the bodies were of moderate size while some were almost giants. The later were always in isolated graves. We found many stone implements and weapons of stone but all are very crude and show almost no ornamentation." In the same year of 1897, on the other side of the country, on Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts, the following was reported in the New England Magazine, Volume 16, page 546. "“The spot where the village of Edgartown stands today was at that time an ancient Indian burial ground. In one case, a huge jawbone of a man was dug up out from the ground, larger than that of any man at the present time, so large that it could be placed against the face of an ordinary man and entirely surround his jaw.” Also, in The Story of Martha's Vineyard, by Charles Gilbert Hine, 1908, pg. 136, is reported a seven foot skeleton with double rows of teeth being unearthed. These were some of the first accounts I ran across as I read through historical literature in my home state. Little did I know that I would find the same accounts in every corner of the country.