Giant Florida Men

Some call Florida Man the world’s worst superhero. And judging by the kooky headlines I've seen over the years, rightfully so. But there was a time when Florida Man at least had the physical makings of a superhero. In days gone by, there were giant Florida men. These fellows were tall and robust and stood over seven feet tall. If the stories are true, there may have been giant Florida men as tall as twelve feet.

Newspaper stories from the 1800s and early 1900s told the story of giant skeletons in Florida. A piece in the Palm Beach Post from October 2, 1934, had this to say:

The continual wash of the Atlantic Ocean cutting through a narrow coastal island about one mile south of the St Lucie Inlet has exposed the bones of men evidently laid to rest 100 years ago says the Fort Pierce News Tribune. Skeletons of nine individuals were discovered some in the shallow waters of the inlet and others beneath the nearby sand. All of the men were unusually tall and must have been sturdy giants in their day. One jawbone taken from the site measured eight and a half inches from the joint of the jaw to where it hinged on the skull. One shin bone was almost twice the length of an ordinary shin bone today.

A St. Petersburg newspaper, ran an article titled “Skull Found Indicates Previous Floridians were Sizable,” on February 14, 1925:

…length of a bone was 63 centimeters—one fourth larger than that of a normal modern man, together with bones indicating a probable height of not less than seven feet today led to speculation over theories of a giant race believed to have inhabited Florida before the coming of the Spaniard.

The Evening Independent, February 14, 1925

The Advertiser a newspaper from Adelaide, South Australia, wrote this follow-up piece on May 18, 1925:

Discovery of a skull, one forth larger than that of the normal modern, together with bones indicating a probable height of not less than seven feet, leads to speculation over theories of a giant race believed to have once inhabited Florida. huge skeleton found

The portions of the skeletons were found by workmen grading a road near Charlotte and Lee county lines. The bones are believed to be those of a male.

The article concluded with the following statement: "The specimens are to be shipped to the Smithsonian Institution." The Smithsonian at one time had a vast collection of giant skeletons. What happened to them?

The New Smyrna Daily News told of an enormous thigh bone in their August 29, 1913 issue:

Who were the men of stature so great that a thigh bone measured 38 inches in length? Men who once roamed through the everglades of Florida? And how many years ago did people of such great size become extinct? J.F. Carlisle and J.T. Brown. of this city, were struggling around in the glades the first of the week, noticing the effect of the unusual dry season and essaying to locate a special tract of land. They were some eight miles west of this city and a little north.

Suddenly they noticed upon a pine that was about three feet through an indication of a blaze and investigation showed that at one time it was heavily and well defined. But time had healed so much of it that less than two inches remained – and its height from the base of the tree was unusual its slowest portion was about eight feet from the ground its upper commencement between ten and eleven—showing that it must have been made from a boat when three or four feet of water covered that spot, by a person standing upon some object, or by a person of unusual size.

Hardly had the two ceased wondering at the almost covered blaze when, a little way from the base of the tree, was found what bore every indication of being a thigh bone of a human being – except that its length was abnormal it measured as it lay upon the ground 38 inches long,  but every effort to preserve it intact proved of no use, it crumbled at every touch. Both Mr. Brown and Mr. Carlisle are ready to make affidavit as to the length—and believe it to be the bone of a human leg from the thigh to the knee.

On November 20, 1938, the Palm Beach Post reported a mass giant burial inside a mound. The article said: "One of these Indian mounds not far from Jensen yielded nearly 50 skeletons of seven foot men and it was estimated that nearly a thousand bodies were buried here..."

giant skeletons in Florida
The Lawrence World Journal told of giant skeletons in Florida on August 5, 1927.

Ocala Star-Banner ran this story of giant skeletons in Florida on October 19, 1959:

Tampa (AP)—Discovery of a burial mound containing a skeleton seven feet long was reported today by a Tampa policeman.

Richard Del Valle said his cousin, Larry Lopez 16, found several of the mounds on a deserted island off the Florida West Coast north of Ft. Meyers.

There is a legend, Del Valle said, that a race of tall people occupied Florida before the Indians, Lopez, a resident of Pine Island, found several mounds on a nearby island. He dug through a layer of conch shells to uncover one of the mounds and found the skeleton. He did not disturb the bones because they were in fragile condition.

De Valle said the University of Florida would be asked to send an anthropologist to look at the skeletons.

These are but a handful of examples of giant skeletons in Florida. I discuss this further in my book Adventures as a Florida Man: Searching for Skunk Apes, Water Monsters, Lost Treasure and More. In my book Giants: Men of Renown, I take a deep dive into the legends of giants from around the world.



My Most Popular Posts

Giant Bones in West Virginia

Image
When the Bible famously declared that “there were giants on the earth in those days,” in Genesis 6:4, the writer wasn’t kidding—especially when it comes to West Virginia. In the early days of our nation, people routinely unearthed giant bones in the Mountain State. Giant Bones Countless newspapers and county histories in the 1800s told the story of giant bones. Stories such as these were commonplace: “It is said that a jawbone was plowed up near Moorefield which would pass over the outside of a common man's lower jaw; that it contained eight jaw teeth on either side, and that they sat transversely in their sockets. A bone of that size would have belonged to a man eight or nine feet high… Another jawbone of enormous size is recorded as having been discovered near Martinsburg.” Hu Maxwell and H. L. Swisher,  History of Hampshire County West Virginia from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present  (Morgantown, WV: A. Brown Boughner, 1897) “While digging a grave on Trace Fork, Lincoln
Read more

The Giants from the West

Image
The ethnologist James Mooney (1861–1921) wrote of ancient giants in his 1902 book, Myths of the Cherokee . The section titled "The Giants from the West" is an intriguing account. I have reprinted it below: THE GIANTS FROM THE WEST James Wafford, of the western Cherokee, who was born in Georgia in 1806, says that his grandmother, who must have been born about the middle of the last century, told him that she had heard from the old people that long before her time a party of giants had come once to visit the Cherokee. They were nearly twice as tall as common men, and had their eyes set slanting in their heads, so that the Cherokee called them Tsunil' kalu', "The Slant-eyed people," because they looked like the giant hunter Tsul'kalu' (see the story). They said that these giants lived very far away in the direction in which the sun goes down. The Cherokee received them as friends, and they stayed some time, and then returned to their home in the we
Read more

The Giants of Ancient Tennessee

Image
John Haywood (1753-1826) was a historian known as the "father of Tennessee history." These days, he might be best known for documenting giant skeletons found in Tennessee, as well as popularizing the "Tennessee Pygmies." In Haywood's 1823 work, The Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee , he documented several unique discoveries. These include giant skeletons found in Tennessee, particularly in and around White County. Haywood devoted a section to the giant skeletons found in Tennessee in his book. The entire section (Chapter VIII, section 1) is printed below: First, then—Of their Size. This is ascertained by the length and dimensions of the skeletons which are found in East and West Tennessee. These will prove demonstratively, that the ancient inhabitants of this country, either the primitive or secondary settlers, were of gigantic stature , compared with the present races of Indians.  On the farm of Mr. John Miller, of White county, are a numbe
Read more

Pensacola Sea Monster Attacks Teenage Boys

Image
On March 26, 1962, the Ocala Star-Banner ran an article about a Pensacola sea monster that attacked five teenage boys. The piece was titled “4 Teenage Skindivers Still Missing After Raft is Abandoned.” The text of the story is as follows: Four teenaged skindivers remained missing today after abandoning their tide-swept rubber raft in the Gulf of Mexico Saturday. A fifth youth swam two miles to shore about dark Saturday. The four were Bradford Rice, 14, Warren Felley, 16, Eric Ruyle, 16, and Larry Stuart Bill, 17. The fifth youth was Brian McCleary, 16 found sleeping on a beach near Fort McRae early Sunday. McCleary said he and the other four were skindiving in the gulf when the tide began carrying them to sea. Swells broke over their raft. He said they tried to move to a buoy but missed. Then, he said, they abandoned the raft to swim ashore. The raft washed ashore on Gulf Beach. Face masks, shoes, and fins were inside. McCleary said he, Bill and Ruyle developed cra
Read more

The Wa-gas

Image
In her book To the American Indian, Lucy Thompson (1856–1932), a member of the Yurok tribe whose Yurok name was Che-na-wah Weitch-ah-wah, recorded many of the tales of her people. One of the most interesting stories in the book is that of the Wa-gas. According to Thompson, the Wa-gas were an ancient race of white people that lived in North America many thousands of years ago. However, these folks were much different than Europeans who colonized the Americas in recent times. The following excerpt comes from Thompson’s book in a section titled “ Traditions of the Ancient White People” :
Read more

A Large Turtle

Image
Large turtle tales are among my favorite types of cryptid encounters . Perhaps that is why I spent over a week on the outskirts of Roswell, New Mexico in 2022. I had hoped to catch a glimpse of the fabled large turtles the "size of a Volkswagen." (I did not.) Maybe the best turtle tale is the story of Oscar, the Beast of Busco. This enormous turtle, with a shell as big as "the top of a car" caused a ruckus in an Indiana town in 1949. In 1883, the Scientific American published a blurb about a large turtle—large is an understatement!—spotted at sea. I reprinted the entire text below: A Large Turtle "Captain Augustus G. Hall and the crew of the schooner Annie L. Hall vouch for the following: On March 30, while on the Grand Bank, in latitude 40° 10’, longitude 33°, they discovered an immense live trunk turtle, which was at first thought to be a Reptiles and Amphibians 535 vessel bottom up. The schooner passed within twenty-five feet of the monster, and those on bo
Read more

Paw Paw Tunnel

Image
The Paw Paw Tunnel in Oldtown, Maryland goes back to the days of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, better known as the C&O Canal. The C&O Canal operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Maryland. The canal was primarily used to transport coal from the Allegheny Mountains. Building the 184-mile canal was a huge undertaking at the time; the lands to the west were remote and mountainous. A section of the canal, in Allegany County, Maryland, just across the river from present-day Paw Paw, West Virginia had to be bored through a mountain in order to bypass the Paw Paw bends, a 6-mile section of the Potomac with several horseshoe bends. Work on the tunnel began in 1836 and was completed in 1850. However, the tunnel was initially estimated to be complete in 1838. The work was slow-going and hazardous; using only hand tools and dynamite, works were only able to tunnel about 12 feet per day. Cave-ins were commonplace, as were injuries and
Read more

The "Mystery Noises" in Moodus

Image
When I arrived in Moodus, Connecticut in early-May 2022, I was surprised when a friend texted me an article from the New England Historical Society. The piece was titled “The Mysterious Moodus Noises of Connecticut,” and recounted the history of strange, unexplained noises that occur around the village of Moodus. The Moodus Noises I read the article at once. I couldn't believe that I had stumbled upon a place renowned for strange activity. According to the article: The Wangunk Indians had told the colonists of the fearful noises that they tried to appease. In fact, the Indians called the land around Mt. Tom “Machemoodus,” meaning place of bad noises. The settlers shortened the name to Moodus, now a village in East Haddam. Once Puritans moved to the area in the early-1700s, they heard the noises, too. And they, too, attributed the sounds to a supernatural source. The superstitious Puritans believed God was angry with them for their sins. Meanwhile, the local Indians believed the
Read more

Bigfoot Musings From the Lowcountry

Image
The Lowcountry of South Carolina is a great destination. The food and the beaches are amazing. Cities such as Beaufort and Charleston are full of history, stunning architecture, and antebellum homes with manicured lawns that embody the deep South. Large oak trees draped with Spanish moss form canopies along narrow streets and side roads. And of course, there is Bigfoot. Visits to Lowcountry I spent a week in the Lowcountry in the summer of 2020 and again in January 2022. But I was a good hour’s drive from Hilton Head; thirty minutes away from Beaufort; and around forty-five minutes from Charleston. I stayed at a campground “in the middle of nowhere.” The nearest town was Yemassee—a small community whose roads leading in were riddled with potholes the size of kitchen sinks. The point of this post is not potholes, Spanish moss, or antebellum homes—Bigfoot is the star here. As I usually do when I arrive in a new place, I began thinking of the elusive beast. I checked the Bigfoot Field Re
Read more