Prehistoric Axes Hint of a Giant Race

Prehistoric Axes Hint of a Giant Race

Was New Jersey the Home of a Race of Giants?

Alton Evening Telegraph, May 3, 1934

Jersey Farmer Plows up Prehistoric Giant's Axe

JERSEYVILLE, May 3,    (Special) One of the largest axes of prehistoric origin in the memory of residents here was uncovered the past week by Louis Houseman on the farm where he resides, seven miles northwest of Jerseyville.

   The ax was weighed at the post office and lacked but several ounces of 10 pounds. The field where the ax was uncovered had been in cultivation for a number of years, but Housman has a reputation for plowing several inches deeper than the average farmer, and it was to his practice in this respect that the ax was brought to the surface. Houseman recently began farming the place where the find was made.

   The ax had been scratched on a former occasion by a plowshare, a mark on one of its sides showed. The relic was brought to Jerseyville by Houseman and left at the Munsterman filling station on South State Street. He has received several offers for his find but has refused them.

   Much speculation has arisen relative to the physique of the man who carried such a heavy weapon or implements. Such a tool corresponds to some of the unusually large skeletons of prehistoric men that have been unearthed in western and southwestern Jersey county.