Ancient 12 Foot Giant Sioux Indian Skeleton Discovered in Missouri
Galveston Daily News, August 15, 1883
A GIANT'S SKELETON
Hon J. H. Hainly, a well known and reliable citizen of Barnard Mo. writes to the Gazette the particulars of the discovery of a giant skeleton four miles southwest of that place. A farmer named John W. Haunon found the bones protruding from the bank of a ravine that had been cut by the action of the rains during the past years. Mr. Haunon worked several days in unearthing the skeletons, which proved to be that of a human being whose height was 12 feet. The head through the temples was 12 inches; from the lower part of the skull at the back to the top was 15 inches. The ribs were nearly four feet long, 1 3/4 inches wide.
The thigh bones were 30 inches long and of large proportion. When the earth was removed the ribs stood up high enough to enable a man to crawl in and explore the interior of the skeleton, turn around and come out with ease.
The skeleton lay on its face, twenty feet feet below the surface of the ground, and the toes embedded in the earth, indicating that the body either fell or was placed there when the ground was soft. The left arm was passed around backward, the head resting on the spinal column, while the right was streth3d out to the front and right. Some of the bones crumbled upon exposure to the air, but many good specimens were preserved and are now on exhibition at Barnerd. Medical men are much interested. The skeleton is generally pronounced a valuable relic of the prehistoric race.
