Your Daily Giant 6/26/2013

 

 

 

 

Today's Daily Giant comes from the New York Times, February 11, 1902. A flurry of articles about this story happened in January and February of 1902. From the article, "Owing to the discovery of the remains of a race of giants in Guadalupe, N. M., antiquarians and archaeologists are preparing an expedition further to explore that region. This determination is based on the excitement that exists among the people of a scope of country near Mesa Rica, about 200 miles southeast of Las Vegas, where an old burial ground has been discovered that has yielded skeletons of enormous size. Luciana Quintana, on whose ranch the ancient burial plot is located, discovered two stones that bore curious inscriptions and beneath these were found in shallow excavations the bones of a frame that could not have been less than 12 feet in length. The men who opened the grave say the forearm was 4 feet long and that in a well preserved jaw the lower teeth ranged from the size of a hickory nut to that of the largest walnut in size. The chest of the being is reported as having a circumference of seven feet. Quintana, who has uncovered many other burial places, expresses the opinion that perhaps thousands of skeletons of a race of giants long extinct will be found. This supposition is based on the traditions handed down from the early Spanish invasion that have detailed knowledge of the existence of a race of giants that inhabited the plains of what now is Eastern New Mexico. Indian legends and carvings also in the same section indicate the existence of such a race." A couple other excerpts from other reports of the find are as follows, from the Deseret News, January 30, 1902 pg 8, "Santos Lopez came in from Chaperito today amid reports the country on the Mesa Rica wild with excitement over the unearthing of the well preserved skeleton of a human giant in that vicinity. Tradition had long whispered of the burial of such a human monster in that country and Luciano Quintana organized a party of five persons to locate it." From the Albuquerque Daily Citizen, January 27, 1902, pg 4, "Don Gregorio and Marcelino Martinez have gone down to El nervo. They will go out to the Mesa Rico 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. A leg is well preserved. It is eight feet in length. The skeleton will be on exhibition in the court yard and anthropologists are especially invited to examine it" Finally from the Albuquerque Daily Citizen, February 6, 1902, pg 3, "La Voz del Pueblo of Las Vegas has received a letter from Luciano Quintana, on the Mesa Rica, confirming the story of a human giant's skeleton on his premises and says he will bring it to Las Vegas for inspection and sale as soon as he has wired it together. He says the newspapers have not exaggerated the skeleton in any particular" I guess what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. If just a few of these several thousand accounts are true, then there is alot of explaining to do.