Conneaut Giants
One place I visited was Indian Mound Metropark in Conneaut, Ohio. The park is heavily-wooded. A trail cuts through the forest as it follows parts of Conneaut Creek. Being a pet-friendly park, and I took my dogs along with me to explore. We had the place to ourselves and it was a great visit on a beautiful 73-degree autumn day.
Nothing to See!
I have to say, the park was a little disappointing. Given the name of the park, Indian Mound Metropark, one might expect to see a mound or perhaps several mounds on the grounds. This was not the case. Though site is an archaeological treasure trove and an enormous earth work once stood here—you will not find mounds and earthworks here.
Although it was disappointing to not be able to see any mounds or earthworks during my visit (except for maybe a remnant of an old embankment), the fact of the matter is, at many mound sites, what you are seeing is a reconstruction of what once stood there.
The Conneaut Giants
This site, though there isn’t a lot to see, is an interesting place. In addition to the ancient earthworks, it also served a burial site for giants. In fact, mounds and earthworks and stories of giant bones run the length of Conneaut Creek, a tributary of Lake Erie.
A historical marker at the park entrance mentions the Conneaut Giants. Of course, it is dismissive of the idea. The plaque says:
Euro-American farmers had no qualms about disturbing Native American graves and burial mounds, and reported finding numerous bones “belonging to men of large stature” in Wright’s graveyard. Over time, as published accounts of these finds were repeated, the details were embellished. By 1844, for instance, the prehistoric inhabitants of Conneaut were described as “nearly allied to a race of giants,” and in 1847 as “men of gigantic structure.”
…The belief that burial mounds, ceremonial earthworks, and even natural features such as the hill known as Conneaut Fort had been built by an ancient population of giants unrelated to modern native American was a common myth in the 19th century. In fact, such accounts of the “Conneaut Giants” and other “vanished civilizations” were based on poorly recorded data and a lack of understanding of how to calculate living human proportions from fractured, incomplete remains.
Not So Fast...
Allow me to interject something here. Yes, there probably were some faulty calculations and improper measurement that went on in those days. However, in many cases, it was Smithsonian field agents who performed such measurements and calculations! The Smithsonian’s 5th and 12th Annual Report (which you can downloaded on the Smithsonian website or Internet archive) includes accounts of excavators unearthing skeletons seven feet or more in length. Moreover, there are accounts of farmers, relic hunters, and others finding enormous thighbones. When men of average height held those bones against their hips the bones hung well past their knees.
In my own collection of news clippings and articles, I have many in which a man of average or above average stature placed a recovered jawbone overtop his own face. It does not take a genius accompanied by an anatomist and a forensics expert to know that a jawbone of that size would have belonged to a person of extraordinary size.
Continuing with the words on the historical marker:
Locally, however, there are some residents and amateur archaeologists who claim to have seen large bones and skulls in the Conneaut area as described in the 19th century and believe in the legend of the “Conneaut Giants.” Learn more and draw your own conclusions.
I agree. Learn more and judge for yourself whether or not ancient giants walked modern-day northeast Ohio and beyond.
Reports from the Area
In the paragraphs below, I have included a few reports of giant discoveries in and around Conneaut, Ohio. There are more, but in my mind, these are enough to cast doubt on the official narrative.
The following piece is a Conneaut Giants account from History of Erie County, Pennsylvania:
On the John Pomeroy place, upon the second flat of Conneaut Creek, are the traces of an ancient mound, such as exist in Girard, Springfield, Harbor Creek, Fairview, Wayne, and other townships of the county. It is circular in form, inclosing about three-fourths of an acre. The embankment, when the country was cleared up, was about three feet high by six feet thick at the base, with large trees growing upon it. One of these trees, a mammoth oak, when cut down, indicated by its rings an age of five hundred years. Beneath the tree the skeleton of a human being was taken up which showed to a verity that giants lived in those remote ages. The bones measured eleven feet from head to foot, the jawbone easily covered that of a man who weighed over 200 pounds, and the lower bone of the leg, being compared with that of a person who was six feet four inches in height, was found to be nearly a foot longer.
—Ellicott, A., History of Erie County, Pennsylvania, Warner, Beers, and Co. 1884
Harvey Nettleton wrote a series of articles for the Geneva Times, a newspaper in Ashtabula County, Ohio that appeared in the 1860s such as this:
The mounds that were situated in the eastern part of what is now the village of Conneaut and the extensive burying ground near the Presbyterian Church, appear to have had no connection with the burying places of the Indians. They doubtless refer to a more remote period and are the relics of an extinct race, of whom the Indians had no knowledge. These mounds were of comparatively small size, and of the same general character of those that are widely scattered over the country. What is most remarkable concerning them is that among the quantity of human bones they contain, there are found specimens belonging to men of large stature, and who must have been nearly allied to a race of giants. Skulls were taken from these mounds, the cavities of which were of sufficient capacity to admit the head of an ordinary man, and jaw-bones that might be fitted on over the face with equal facility. The bones of the arms and lower limbs were of the same proportions, exhibiting ocular proof of the degeneracy of the human race since the period in which these men occupied the soil which we now inhabit.
Further reading: http://solomonspalding.com/SRP/saga2/Ashtab1.htm#1844genev1
The Jefferson Gazette, an Ashtabula County, Ohio newspaper, ran excerpts from a talk that the editor of the paper gave to school students on May 15, 1924. He recounted much of the local history, discussed various mound sites and graveyards, which naturally, led to the ancient giants that inhabited prehistoric Ohio:
It is probable that this mound was not built by Indians any more than were the great cemeteries found in Ashtabula and Conneaut, or the earth forts, traces of which existed within my own lifetime in Chestnut Grove cemetery and across the gulf and in Hubbard Run. I am not able to definitely state but I think a certain odd appearing hill of earth in the valley of Hubbard Run is a mound. It is partially the work of nature and the work of human hands. See it you can find this particular spot. Then write to me at Jefferson what you think of it. The early settlers of Ashtabula have gone on record that where the east side cemetery is there were over 1,000 graves when they came here, laid out with some evidence of mathematical skill. A few graves were opened and in some were found skulls and jaw bones of men whose size dwarfed the men who found the graves. The graves were not those of the Indian of the last or the previous century. The Indians who were here in the early nineteenth century know nothing of the origin of the graveyards or the mounds. Their legends did not fit in with those ancient places.
… In the early days settlers in Conneaut found a number of mounds. On the west side along the creek there was a great burial ground. It is said there were about 3,000 graves there, laid out in some design and like the cemetery at Ashtabula the bones of the adults were exceptionally large.
This account comes from south of the town of Conneaut within the Conneaut Creek Valley:
There are quite a number of mounds, in the township, where the bones, and sometimes the whole skeleton of the human race have been found. The bones and skeletons found are very large, and some of the inhabitants think they must have belonged to a race of beings much larger in size than the Indians found here by the first settlers.
The Firelands Pioneer Memoirs of Townships, November, 1858 Vermillion—S.E. Quarter by Wm. H. Crane
So, what do you think of the Conneaut Giants?
If you would like to read more about the giants of prehistory, consider picking up a copy of my book Giants: Men of Renown.
I also recommend Giants on Record: America's Hidden History, Secrets in the Mounds and the Smithsonian Files by Jim Vieira and Hugh Newman and The Ancient Giants Who Ruled America: The Missing Skeletons and the Great Smithsonian Cover-Up by Richard Dewhurst.
