SAN DIEGO UNION" NEWS ARTICLE (1947)







Ancient Civilization Beneath Death Valley?
EXPEDITION REPORTS NINE-FOOT SKELETONS
August 4, 1947 edition of the San Diego Union.

According to the clipping, explorers had unearthed, near the Arizona-Nevada-California line, the mummified remains of strangely costumed giants which the discoverers dated to around 80,000 years ago.

The Union reported that a Howard E. Hill of Los Angeles was recounting the work of Dr. F. Bruce Russell, a retired Cincinnati physician who had originally located the first of several tunnels near Death Valley in 1931, but had not been able to return to the area until 1947.

With the help of Dr. Daniel S. Bovee, who with Hill's father had once helped open up New Mexico's cliff dwellings, Russell had recovered the remains of several men of 8 to 9 feet in height.

"These giants," said Hill, "are clothed in garments consisting of a medium length jacket and trouser extending slightly below the knees. The texture of the material is said to resemble gray dyed sheepskin, but obviously it was taken from an animal unknown today."

Hill also said, according to the Union, that in another cavern was found the ritual hall of the ancient people, together with devices and markings similar to those now used by the Masonic order. In a long tunnel were well-preserved remains of animals, including elephants and tigers. So far, Hill added, no women have been found.

He said the explorers believe that what they found was the burial place of the tribe's hierarchy. Hieroglyphics, he added, bear a resemblance to what is known of those from the lost continent of Atlantis. They are chiseled, he added, on carefully polished granite.

Ancient Civilizations, Giants, Tunnels Beneath Southern California? - OOPARTS

According to Paiute oral history, the Si-Te-Cah are a legendary tribe whose mummified remains were discovered (under four feet of guano) by miners in what is now known as “Lovelock Cave” in Lovelock, Nevada, United States. Although the cave had been mined since 1911, it was not until 1912 when miners notified authorities. An archeological excavation ensued producing 10,000 artifacts. "Si-Te-Cah" literally means “tule-eaters” in the language of the Paiute Indians. Tule is a fibrous water plant. In order to escape harassment from the Paiutes, the Si-Te-Cahs were said to have lived on rafts made of tule on the lake.

According to the Paiutes, the Si-Te-Cah were a hostile and warlike tribe who practiced cannibalism. The Si-Te-Cah and the Paiutes were at war, and after a long struggle a coalition of tribes trapped the remaining Si-Te-Cah in Lovelock Cave. When they refused to come out, the Indians piled brush before the cave mouth and set it aflame. The Si-Te-Cah were annihilated.

Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, daughter of Paiute Chief Winnemucca, related many stories about the Si-Te-Cah in her book Life Among the Paiutes. "My people say that the tribe we exterminated had reddish hair. I have some of their hair, which has been handed down from father to son. I have a dress which has been in our family a great many years, trimmed with the reddish hair. I am going to wear it some time when I lecture. It is called a mourning dress, and no one has such a dress but my family." (Hopkins, page 75).

Adrienne Mayor writes about the Si-Te-Cah in her book Fossil Legends of the First Americans. She suggests that the 'giant' interpretation of the skeletons from Lovelock Cave and other dry caves in Nevada was started by entrepreneurs setting up tourist displays and that the skeletons themselves were of normal size. However, about a hundred miles north of Lovelock there are plentiful fossils of mammoths and cave bears, and their large limb bones could easily be thought to be those of giants by an untrained observer. 

She also discusses the reddish hair, pointing out that hair pigment is not stable after death and that various factors such as temperature, soil, etc. can turn ancient very dark hair rusty red or orange, though it may not account for the Paiute tradition of red-haired people existing here before the cave was excavated. Another explanation for the 'giant' interpretation of the skeletons may also come from the fact that some of the first remains unearthed by the guano miners in 1911-12 were described as “giant". A written report by James H. Hart, the first of two miners to excavate the cave in the fall of 1911, recalls that in the north-central part of the cave, about four feet deep, "was a striking looking body of a man “six feet six inches tall.” His body was mummified and his hair distinctly red." (Loud & Harrington, page 87). Unfortunately in the first year of mining, some of the human remains and artifacts were lost and destroyed. "The best specimen of the adult mummies was boiled and destroyed by a local fraternal lodge, which wanted the skeleton for initiation purposes." (Loud & Harrington, page 5). Also, several of the fiber sandals found in the cave were remarkably large, and one reported at over 15 inches (38 cm) in length was said to be on display at the Nevada Historical Society's museum in Reno in 1952. The Paiute tradition asserts that the Si-Te-Cah people practiced cannibalism, and this may have had some basis in fact. During the 1924 excavation of the cave, a series of three human bones were found near the surface towards the mouth of the cave. "These had been split to extract the marrow, as animal bones were split, and probably indicate cannibalism during a famine." (Loud & Harrington, page 13).

Si-Te-Cah - Wikipedia

Fossil Legends of the First Americans
Adrienne Mayor

'Weird Tales #1 Death Valley's Ancient Underground' DVD

Ted Faye Pictures

We are proud to announce the launching of a new series from Gold Greek Films and East Creek Productions, "Weird Tales." The first episode premiered with 5 Special Screenings in Death Valley National Park. There was no better place to begin the series than in the place whose name and reputation has created more weird and strange tales than any other geographical location in the United States.

This anthology series tells in a dramatic and entertaining format weird tales Both Historical and Contemporary. The concept of 'weird' is open enough to include past and present and open to a wide variety of locations.

And what a cool way to get young folks interested in history. We come at old stories from a 'weird' perspective. There are thousands of tales of lost gold mines, lost treasures and strange events in the California, Nevada and Arizona Deserts.

Episode 2 - "Into Death Valley's Underground"- This episode explores the concept of "The Hollow Earth" which may have had its beginnings in Death Valley. We follow Charles Manson and his quest for the underground city. We see how the belief in an underground civilization grew into the concept of an underground alien base. Are there really reptilian aliens under Death Valley's mountains. To find out we asked a UFO expert, heard from some abductees and finally went deep into Death Valley's Underground on our own expedition!

Episode 3: "The Pioneer's Lost Trunk"- In December of 1849 a group of pioneers set out from the settlement at Salt Lake, Utah on their way to California. Most were gold-seekers, some Mormon missionaries, others looking for a better way of life but all seemed impatient. When some of them took a shortcut it got them "into the jaws of hell" as was predicted, leading them into the place they later named Death Valley. In December of 1998 an expedition set out to retrace the route of those lost pioneers. In a cave along the trail the team made an astounding discovery: a trunk containing valuables and a letter from one of the 1849 pioneers! For days, national and international media were drawn to this Death Valley discovery. It was one of the most extraordinary western artifacts ever found. ...or was it?

Weird Tales 3: The Pioneer's Lost Trunk 

YOUTUBE LINK

Episode 4: "The Ghosts of Death Valley Junction"- Just outside the border of Death Valley National park a lonely group of buildings stands in the desert. Bleached white from the searing sun alone and abandoned it is all that remains of a thriving mining operation from the 1906 through 1931. Today dancer Marta Becket lives and performs here. Caretakers Rich and Mary Lee watch over the hotel and famed Amargosa Opera House. But there are other residents: ghosts from the mining days. Rated as one of the most haunted places in America, Death Valley Junction has gained much attention. But who are these ghosts? Are they leftover from the history of this place?

Uploaded on Dec 31, 2010
A clip from the film Weird Tales III - The Pioneers Lost Trunk. This clip is from the famed Lost 49er's Expedition where an expedition team came together to retrace the footsteps of the Lost Pioneers that entered Death Valley in the winter of 1850. The discovery of a trunk in a cave led to worldwide discussion on it's origin and contents. Footage shot by Allan R. Smith

• Death Valley’s Lost City
• Death Valley Mummies, Underground City
• Does Death Valley hide an underground civilization?
• Mysterious 1947 news Report of Giant Desert Mummies Surfaces

Zhan Shi Chai - Chang the Chinese Giant


1880 cabinet card of Chang the Chinese Giant.

Zhan Shichai ((1840s - 5 November 1893), was a Chinese giant who toured the world as "Chang the Chinese Giant" in the 19th century, the stage name is "Chang Woo Gow".

Zhan was born in Fuzhou in what is now Fujian Province in the 1840s, though reports of the year vary from 1841 to 1847. His height was claimed to be over 8 feet (2.4 m), but there are no authoritative records. He left China in 1865 to travel to London where he appeared on stage, later travelling around Europe, and to the US and Australia as "Chang the Chinese Giant". Zhan received a good education in various countries, and developed a good understanding of ten languages. In America, he earned a salary of $500 a month.

Kin Foo, the Chinese wife who accompanied Zhan from China, died in 1871, and Zhan later married Catherine Santley, a Liverpudlian whom he met in Sydney, Australia. They had two children: Edwin, born in 1877 in Shanghai, and Ernest, born in 1879 in Paris.

In 1878, Zhan retired from the stage and settled in Bournemouth, where he opened a Chinese teahouse and a store selling Chinese imports.

Zhan died in Bournemouth in 1893, four months after his wife, aged around 50. His coffin was 8 feet 6 inches (2.6 m) long.

Zhan Shi Chai - Wikipedia

CHANG – The Chinese Giant - Human Marvels

Zhan Shichai, the tallest person. Wikimedia

Source - Steven Quayle

In the old days, a huge giant appeared among the Truku. The stride of his feet was so gigantic that he could step from one mountain right onto the next, and his stomp was so enormous that with just two trampling footsteps he created the Puluo Wan (or Truku) and the Hsila An terraces, now both settlements of the Truku tribe. Legend even has it that the entire Huatung Valley running in a north-south direction from Hualien to Taitung is the result of the giant’s stomping and pounding!

This incredibly tall and strong giant lived in the areas surrounding the Truku settlements, and one might have thought that he would become a good friend and helper of the tribe. But in fact, his greatest skill became a source of much trouble and nuisance for the Truku.

With his fast pace and wide stride, he would take almost every opportunity to intercept the prey of the Truku hunters. Whenever the hunters were chasing some game, he’d simply come up and put his head flat on the ground in exactly the direction into which the fleeing animals were running. He would open his enormous mouth, and the game would barge helter-skelter into his maw. While he thus enjoyed one free meal after the other, the Truku living around him were suffering from hunger. Soon, the situation became unbearable.

So the Truku of the various settlements decided to join forces and fight the giant together. Although everybody was afraid of the giant’s great strength, they also believed that by putting their heads together they would be able to come up with a way to defeat him. After much deliberation, the Truku devised a plan. It was somewhat risky, but they went straight ahead with it anyway.

On the next hunting day, all the Truku warriors gathered in the mountains and pretended to go hunting. When the giant saw this, he anticipated another generous meal, and he hid behind the next mountain to wait for the animals to come running by.

Now the Truku had prepared a large round mountain crystal, and when they saw that the giant had assumed his position behind the next mountain, they made a fire and put the big crystal rock into it until it was glowing with a bright red sheen. Seeing that the time was ripe, the warriors began pushing the crystal rock down the mountain. As they kept shoving and rolling it forward with their united strength, they were shouting, “Quickly, move it! After it, after it!” to give the impression that they were really on a hunt.

As he heard the shouts of the warriors and the sound of the huge crystal rock rolling downhill, the giant quickly stuck out his tongue and opened his mouth as wide as he could, getting ready to devour all the animals that he thought came stampeding down the mountainside. Image his surprise when the red-hot crystal rock suddenly rolled right into his throat! The giant was rolling about on the ground, writhing in agony, until at last he fell into the ocean off Hualien and sank to the bottom of the sea. Only his two feet remained above the water’s surface – today we call the feet Orchid Island

Taipei Multicultural Arts Group

Fossilized Irish Giant



12? 2? Irish Giant

This photo of a ‘fossilized Irish giant’ was taken at a London rail depot, and appeared in the December 1895 issue of Strand Magazine. The giant was allegedly dug up by a Mr Dyer while prospecting for iron ore in County Antrim (Ireland).

It was 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m) tall, weighed 2 tonnes, and had 6 toes on its right foot. After being exhibited in Dublin, it was brought to England and exhibited in Liverpool and Manchester at sixpence a head, ‘attracting scientific men as well as gaping sightseers’. After a legal dispute over ownership, nothing more appears to have been heard or seen of the exhibit.

Irish Giant - World Museum

An article from Strand magazine (December,1895) reprinted in “Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland” by W.G. Wood-Martin mentions this fossilized giant discovered during mining operations in County Antrim, Ireland: “Pre-eminent among the most extraordinary articles ever held by a railway company is the fossilized Irish giant, which is at this moment lying at the London and North-Western Railway Company’s Broad street goods depot, and a photograph of which is reproduced here. . . This monstrous figure is reputed to have been dug up by a Mr. Dyer whilst prospecting for iron ore in County Antrim. The principal measurements are: entire length, 12ft. 2in.; girth of chest, 6ft. 6in.; and length of arms, 4ft. 6in. There are six toes on the right foot. The gross weight is 2 tons 15cwt.; so that it took half a dozen men and a powerful crane to place this article of lost property in position for the Strand magazine artist. Dyer, after showing the giant in Dublin, came to England with his queer find and exhibited it in Liverpool and Manchester at sixpence, sixpence a head, attracting scientific men as well as gaping sightseers”.

http://thecryptozoologist.webs.com/apps/blog

the Cardiff giant

Unfortunately, no scientist ever managed to examine this particular "fossil" before it was "lost." As a result, there are still those today who use the Irish Giant as clear and convincing evidence of the literal truth of Genesis 6:4 (Just do a web search on Fossilized Irish Giant.)

Three things to note:

    Look at the similarities of pose between the proven fake Cardiff Giant and the mysteriously missing Irish Giant. Does this not suggest that someone copied PT Barnum's idea of copying the Cardiff Giant?
    Does the perspective look right in this photograph? Is the "giant" really taller than that freight car in the background. Or is this a carefully selected camera angle to make a much smaller statue look immense? Is the photograph of the fake itself a fake?
    The Strand[1] was primarily a fiction magazine. It also published puzzles and brain-teasers.

And yet today there are those who believe the Irish Giant was real.

Reposted from;
The Universal Church Triumphant of the Apathetic Agnostic & John Tyrrell

Standing Tall in the Land of Genghis Khan

During the first of five expeditions to Mongolia, Roy Chapman Andrews photographed this seven-foot-five-inch (2m 13cm) man in 1922 in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar—but that wasn’t the explorer’s biggest find. In an automobile caravan following the ancient routes of Genghis through the Gobi desert, Andrew’s party discovered one of the world’s richest dinosaur fossil fields, featured in the June 1933 and July 1996 issue of the GEOGRAPHIC.

“We ourselves are the ‘trail-breakers’ of motor transportation,” wrote Andrews. “Instead of thrilling with pride at the thought, I reflected sadly that we were violating the sanctity of the desert and destroying the mystery of Mongolia.”

This photograph was never published in the magazine.

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/flashback/9612.htm

Feodor Machnow, (Fyodor Makhnov) was born in 1878 at the village of Kasciuki near Viciebsk (now Belarus). Though exact details concerning his birth and real height are uncertain, Machnow eventually grew to a stature of 7-ft-10 inches (2.39m) and a weight of 365 lbs.

As a young man in his twenties he toured Europe to exhibit his great height. After having spent time in Berlin he visited London in 1905 where he joined the Hippodrome accompanied by his wife and young child. He then toured the United States in 1906 where he met President Roosevelt. Throughout his tour his promoters exaggerated his height, and he is usually accredited with a stature of 9-feet-3 inches (2.82m) and billed as "The Russian Giant." On the obelisk it is still possible to read: "Feodor Machnow. Born June 6, 1878. Died August 28, 1912. Tallest man in the world. He was 254 centimetres tall". This index was taken from a 16-year old Feodor contract. But after 16 years of Feodor Machnow continued to grow, and added 31 cm, reaching 282 cm. Giant's wife, Efrosinja wanted to correct the incorrect figure on the monument, but was prevented from doing so because of the beginning of the First World War and then the Revolution. Unfortunately Machnow's wife could not verify this version. This exaggeration may have been because he wore a huge Cossack fur hat, and tall boots which added a foot to his height. Although, if this was accurate, he would have been taller than Robert Wadlow.

Machnow died in the year 1912 due to pneumonia and likely complications of Acromegaly although there are other versions of the story. Some believed he had been poisoned by rivals or envious competitors (Machnow was a rather well known wrestler), but no evidence for this is available. He was the father of four children none of whom reached a height greater than two meters.

Feodor Machnow - Wikipedia

Ella Kate Ewing - "The Missouri Giantess"


This is an image of a turn of the 20th century circus flyer used to promote Ella Ewing, considered the worlds tallest woman of her era.
She died in 1913

Ella Kate Ewing (March 9, 1872 - January 10, 1913) was a Missouri woman considered the worlds tallest female of her era. She would use her great height to earn a living as a sideshow attraction, popularly known as "The Missouri Giantess."

Ella Ewing was born in La Grange, Missouri, the only child of Benjamin F. and Anna Eliza (Herring) Ewing. While a toddler, Ella's family moved to the small Scotland County community of Rainbow, southeast of Gorin, Missouri. She was of normal size while a baby and young child, with the first signs of any abnormality appearing shortly after her seventh birthday. At age fourteen she towered over not only other children but her parents and other adults, measuring 6 feet 10 inches. The people of the Rainbow and Gorin area were used to her fast growth and met it with compassion, however in 1885 Ella learned that would not always be the case in the world at large. Asked to read the Declaration of Independence at a July 4 celebration in Wyaconda, Missouri, Ella was met with shocked gasps, snickers and laughter when she stood to read. Led away in tears, the incident would have a profound effect on her life.

Ewing's maximum height is a matter of dispute, but in several accounts she was claimed to be over eight feet tall. Her mothers journal indicated that Ella's growth finally stopped when she was age twenty-two, at 8 feet, 4 inches tall. However, this is not well documented, and as such she is not mentioned in Guinness World Records. The Guinness Book of Records has stated she measured 7 feet 4 and a half inches tall, and may have reached 7 feet 6 inches by the time she died. As typical of many people afflicted with pituitary gigantism Ella's arms were very long, with her hands and feet exceptionally big. She wore a custom-made size 24 US shoe and often wore multiple rings on her fingers to mask their unusual length.

Ella Ewing - Wikipedia

Photo of Ella Ewing and her parents. Miss Ewing was considered the worlds tallest woman of her era.


Photo of Ella Ewing and her family outside her special-built home near Gorin, Missouri.

Giantess en:Anna Swan with her parents Image online from Collections Canada

Anna Swan and her husband, Martin van Buren Bates with a man of average height,
between 1878 and 1888 - Collections Canada

While crossing the Atlantic Ocean for a European tour, Anna met Kentucky giant Martin Van Buren Bates. They married in England on June 17, 1871 and toured together as the world's largest married couple, giving command performances for Queen Victoria and the then Prince of Wales. Returning to North America, Anna's husband built them a house in Ohio with 14-foot ceilings and furniture made to measure. Though the couple had a daughter, and later a son, both children were abnormally large and neither infant survived. Anna died of tuberculosis in 1888.

Collections Canada