Giant Human Skeletons Unearthed at Monongahela City, Pennsylvania
McKee’s rocks, burial mound where large skeletons were unearthed
Smithsonian Institution’s Bureau of Ethnology 1898-99
On the upper terrace, within the corporate limits of Monongahela City, are situated the garden and greenhouse of Mr. I. S. Crall. Two ravines on the east and west sides open directly south into Pigeon Creek, and their erosion has lowered the ground until it is surrounded by higher land on every side except along the bluff next to the creek. The further side of the creek being bounded by a high hill, the pass looking up the river, thus the tract is surrounded on every side by hills close at hand, ranging from 40 to 250 feet above its level. In excavating for foundation walls and other purposes, Mr. Crall has, at different times, unearthed skeletons of large size: the ground is strewn with mussel shells, flint chips etc.
On the eastern side of this levee, near the break of the ravine, and close to a never- failing spring, stands the largest mound above the one at McKee’s rocks, measuring
9 feet in height by 60 feet in diameter … at the center a hole measuring 3 feet across the top and 2 feet into the original soil. In this were fragments of human bones too soft to be preserved. They indicated an adult of large size. The gray clay was unbroken over this hole. Directly over this, above the clay and resting upon it, were portions of another large skeleton, with which was found part of an unburned clay tube or pipe.
9 feet in height by 60 feet in diameter … at the center a hole measuring 3 feet across the top and 2 feet into the original soil. In this were fragments of human bones too soft to be preserved. They indicated an adult of large size. The gray clay was unbroken over this hole. Directly over this, above the clay and resting upon it, were portions of another large skeleton, with which was found part of an unburned clay tube or pipe.
