12 Foot Prehistoric Giant Human Discovered in Missouri
Providence Evening Press- September 13, 1883
Must Have Been Goliath
Hon. J.H. Hainly, a well known and reliable citizen of Barnard, Mo., writes for the St. Joseph Gazette the particulars of the discovery of a giant skeletons four miles southwest of that place. A farmer named John W.Hannon found the bones protruding from the bank of a ravine that has been cut by the action of the rains during the past years. Mr Hannon worked several days in unearthing the skeleton, which proved to be that of a human being, whose height was twelve feet. The head through the temple was twelve inches, and the circumference forty inches, The ribs were being nearly four feet long and one and three quarter inches wide. The thigh bones were more than thirty inches long, and large in proportion. When the earth was removed from the ribs stood up high enough to enable a man to crawl in and explore the interior skeleton, turn around and come Some of the bones out with ease. The first Joint of the great toe, above the nail, was three inches long, and the entire foot eighteen inches in length. The skeleton lay on its face, twenty feet below the surface of the ground and the toes imbedded in the earth, indicating that the body either fell or was placed there when the ground was soft. The left arm passed around backward, the hand resting on the spinal column, while the right arm was stretched out to the front and right. Some of the bones crumbled on exposure to the air, but many good specimens were preserved and are now on exhibition at Barnard. Medical men are much interested. The skeleton is generally pronounced as a valuable relic of the prehistoric race
