Imagine a dusty, old road map of America. Instead of cities and highways, this map is marked with thousands of ancient earth mounds. Now, imagine a different kind of map, one where red markers pinpoint places where something extraordinary was found inside those mounds.
We’re talking about bones, not just any bones, but giant human skeletons, reported over and over for more than a hundred years. This is a tour of that forgotten map, a journey through brittle newspaper clippings that smell of dust and ink, revealing a pattern that has been hidden in plain sight.
From river valleys to desert caves, the reports are scattered, but the story they tell together is the same: giants once walked this land.
How to Read These Old Reports
For this kind of research, a report is any written account that describes a discovery, usually in a newspaper, a journal, or an official letter. The most important details in these old clippings are the specific dates, the names of witnesses, and any measurements of the bones.
These details make the stories more concrete and harder to dismiss as pure fiction. You will often see descriptions of the mounds themselves, their county or town names, and sometimes even a note that the bones were shipped away to a museum or university. The more specific the report, the more powerful it becomes. These details are the breadcrumbs that lead to a larger, forgotten history.
Midwest Rivers and Mound Country
The Midwest is the heart of mound country, especially the fertile lands around the Ohio Valley, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri. For more than a century, farmers, construction workers, and archaeologists have stumbled upon incredible finds here. Reports from these areas often describe exceptionally tall skeletons, sometimes found in strange stone vaults or coffins.
For example, in the late 1800s, a report from the town of Miamisburg, Ohio, mentioned the discovery of a giant skeleton nearly eight feet tall inside a large mound. Another report from Wisconsin described a burial site with over a dozen skeletons, all with unusual skulls and one measuring over seven feet. These repeating details—the large skulls, the stone vaults, and the incredible height—suggest a shared, forgotten past.
Appalachia to the Atlantic
The trail of giant skeletons doesn’t stop in the Midwest. It extends east, following the mountain ranges and river systems all the way to the Atlantic coast. Reports from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and the Carolinas tell similar stories.
Here, the finds often happened during major earth-moving projects, like digging for new railroad tracks, plowing new farmland, or excavating foundations for a town building. In 1883, a newspaper in Pennsylvania reported the discovery of a nine-foot skeleton found by railroad workers near a small town. Later, in the Carolinas, farmers plowing a field unearthed a massive skeleton.
These discoveries, often accidental, point to a widespread phenomenon that was part of the common lore of the time, not just isolated tales.
The Far West and Desert Outliers
The stories even reach the far western United States, a land known for its vast deserts and ancient geological formations. Reports from Arizona, Nevada, and California hint at similar finds, though they often come from different settings than the eastern mounds.
Here, the discoveries are more likely to be made in dry caves, along coastal bluffs, or deep in mining cuts. For instance, an 1891 report from a mining journal detailed the discovery of a ten-foot skeleton in a cave near a town in California. These stories show that the phenomenon was not limited to one geographic area or one type of burial site.
Patterns We Keep Seeing
Looking at the map of reports, from the Ohio Valley to the West Coast, reveals striking patterns. The proximity to major rivers, consistent reports of oversized measurements, mentions of local officials documenting the finds, and frequent notes about the remains being shipped to major museums create a compelling narrative.
Skeptics might dismiss these reports as hoaxes, but the sheer number of them and the similar details across vast distances make that explanation seem unlikely. A hoax in Ohio wouldn’t explain a similar discovery in California years later. Instead, the repetition appears less like random occurrences and more like a map, a map of something real.
The story of these shipments and the institutions that received them is another mystery, shrouded in lost shipments and misplaced evidence.
Start Your Own Archive Hunt
The map of giants is not finished. Anyone can become a historical detective and help fill in the blanks. The key is knowing where to look and what to look for.
- Search Chronicling America: This is a vast database of old newspapers. Search by state and county for keywords like “giant skeleton,” “mound builders,” or “large bones.”
- Combine Keywords with Dates: Try searching for terms like “giant” and a specific year or decade, which can help narrow your results.
- Check State Historical Society Catalogs: Look for catalogs from state historical societies and universities. They might have digitized field notes or other records from old expeditions.
- Look for Accession Hints: If a report mentions a museum or university, look for clues about accession numbers or shipment records.
- Save PDFs: Always download and save a copy of any interesting article you find. These are your most valuable clues.
- Log Exact Citations: Note the exact newspaper name, date, and page number for every report you find. This helps others verify your finds.
- Check out our main post: For a deeper dive into the overall mystery of these lost skeletons, start with our main article here about lost giant skeletons.
The stories of giants in the mounds are more than just old tales. They are a collection of clues, a mosaic of reports that, when put together, create a hidden map of America’s past. This map is waiting for more explorers, for people who are willing to look beyond the official history and see what was reported long ago.
If you find an old clipping, a photo of a historical marker, or a mention in a local museum catalog, share it. By working together, we can finish the map and reveal a secret history that has been buried for far too long.