Eight Foot Giants Discovered Within a Stone Arched Tomb in Burlington, Iowa

Eight Foot Giants Discovered Within a Stone Arched Tomb in Burlington, Iowa

The Grand River Times (Grand Haven, Michigan) May 21, 1856

Western Giants in Their Slumber

      The Burlington Iowa Gazette says that while workmen were engaged in excavating for the cellar of Gov. Grimes new building on the corner of Main and Valley Street, they came upon an arched vault some ten feet square, which, on being opened, was found to contain eight human skeletons of gigantic proportions.  The walls of the vault were about fourteen inches thick, well laid up with cement or indestructible mortar.  The vault is about six feet deep from the base to the arch.  The skeletons are in a good state of preservation, and we adventure to say are the largest human remains ever found, being over eight feet long.

8 Foot Giant Uncovered in Iowa: Sioux Indian Legend of Giants Cursed by the Great Spirit

8 Foot Giant Uncovered in Iowa: Sioux Indian Legend of Giants Cursed by the Great Spirit

History of Fremont County, Iowa - 1881

     In 1875 a huge human skeleton was unearthed at a brick-yard about one mile east of Hamburg at a depth of fourteen feet from the surface of the earth. The bones were for the most part in an advanced state of decay but the teeth were well preserved. The remains are believed to be those of a giant at least eight feet in height. The teeth were worn down almost to the jaw-bone, which fact indicated that the "mighty men of renown" must have lived in the days mentioned by the old Indians who formerly lived in the vicinity of Hamburg. "Long ago," said they, "our fathers used to ride across the Missouri river here on their ponies, for the water was very shallow. The eastern margin of the river then was at the foot of the high bluff (at Hamburg) and the river itself was very wide. But there were so many bad men among our fathers in those days and they engaged in so many wars that the Great Spirit cursed the waters of the river (the Missouri) and caused it to run in a narrower and deeper channel, so that the tribes, could not cross and fight and kill one another. After that our fathers lived till their feet were worn off with walking and their teeth worn down with eating." Many other bones of extinct giant animals and men have been found in the same locality where the skeleton before was described."