Author Denver Michaels

Most are familiar with the story of David and Goliath, found in the Old Testament, but most do not know Goliath had a counterpart of sorts in Mesoamerica named Tzilacatzin. In this post I will discuss the two stories . David and Goliath, one of the first Bible stories taught to young children in Sunday school, is a timeless tale that has permeated our culture. It is spoken of metaphorically—how many motivational speeches have referred to the hero David rising to the challenge and confronting the evil giant ?    Let’s take a look at the David and Goliath story as recounted in the Old Testament in 1 Samuel 17:   4 And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.   5 And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.   6 And he had greaves of brass upon...

Virginia was arguably the most important Confederate state. It was the most populous with over 1.5 million residents. Virginia was also the wealthiest state, thanks in large part to its industrial base. Virginia was the industrial hub of the Confederacy and it equaled the output of all other Confederate states combined. Being the northernmost Confederate state, and a state of such importance to the South’s war effort, the majority of the Civil War was fought on Virginia soil. The Civil War Sites Advisory Commission classified 384 Civil War engagements as “principal battles.” Of those battles, 123 occurred in Virginia. Tennessee comes in a distant second with 38 principal battles. Some of the most fierce fighting in Virginia occurred in the Shenandoah Valley. For this reason, the valley attracts history buffs from far and wide who visit the battlefields scattered throughout the region. The Breadbasket of the Confederacy Favorable growing conditions made the Shenandoah Valley vital to th...

When wading through the historical accounts from the early days of the United States of the recovery of giant skeletons from burial mounds , especially those considered to be of Adena construction, a recurring theme presents itself—strange tablets inscribed with hieroglyphs were often found among the remains of the dead. This curious phenomenon opens up a Pandora’s box of questions about the ancient Mound Builders! In Fauquier County, Virginia, two giant skeletons were unearthed from a mound in 1866. The excavators also recovered typical artifacts such as spearheads; however, a tablet containing “hieroglyphics of a very curious character” was also present. 1 Mounds that held the remains of eleven-foot-tall men were opened in Michigan. One of the tombs contained a strange tablet inscribed with “curious characters.” The  St. Joseph Weekly  reported on the event in their September 21, 1847 issue: A Carson City, Mich., correspondent of the Detroit News writes that the remains of...

One of the most intriguing legends from ancient America is that of the "moon-eyed people." The legend takes us to West Virginia. Most of present-day West Virginia was void of permanent Native American settlements when European colonists began their westward push. Why? The area is rich in game and other resources; why not live there? Legend holds that in 1773, at the behest of Virginia Governor Lord Dunmore , Thomas Bullit travelled to present-day southwestern Ohio to seek permission from the Shawnee to establish settlements in the Can-tuc-kee lands (which included large portions of modern-day West Virginia). Shawnee chief Black Fish was unable to grant permission; he did not feel it was his to give, the land belonged to the ghosts of the Azgen, a tribe of moon-eyed people who were murdered by the ancestors of the Shawnee. Because of the ghosts, the Shawnee refused to settle on the land and only used it—respectfully—as hunting grounds. Who were these moon-eyed people? Accordin...

I have devoted much of my attention to the discoveries of diminutive skeletons in and around White County, Tennessee during the 1800s. Collectively known as the "Tennessee Pygmies," the tiny finds have their share of detractors, as well as a few folks such as myself that believe the mystery warrants a closer look. What most folks familiar with the subject may not realize is that small, or "pygmy skeletons," have been recovered elsewhere such as Kentucky and Ohio . Case in point, The Gentlemen’s Magazine ran this piece about a pygmy graveyard in the Antiquarian news section of their August 1837 issue: A short distance from Cochocton [sic], Ohio, U.S., a singular ancient burying ground has lately been discovered. “It is situated,” says a writer in Silliman’s Journal, “On one of those elevated, gravelly alluvions, so common on the rivers of the West. From some remains of wood, still apparent in the earth around the bones, the bodies seem all to have been deposited i...

Rumor has long held that a lost city lays in a cave in one of today’s most often visited national parks . On April 5, 1909, the Arizona Gazette ran a piece which told of the incredible discovery of a lost city in the Grand Canyon. This story is covered in depth in my book Detours Into The Paranormal: Canyon Country and is reprinted below in its entirety: EXPLORATIONS IN GRAND CANYON Mysteries of Immense Rich Cavern Being Brought to Light JORDAN IS ENTHUSED Remarkable Finds Indicate Ancient People Migrated From Orient The latest news of the progress of the explorations of what is now regarded by scientists as not only the oldest archeological discovery in the United States, but one of the most valuable in the world, which was mentioned some time ago in the Gazette, was brought to the city yesterday by G.E. Kinkaid, the explorer who found the great underground citadel of the Grand Canyon during a trip from Green River, Wyoming, down the Colorado, in a wooden boat, to ...

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...

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 gia...

There is a historical marker just off I-64 at Exit 156 near Sam Black Church, WV that tells of the Greenbrier Ghost: Interred in nearby cemetery is Zona Heaster Shue. Her death in 1897 was presumed natural until her spirit appeared to her mother to describe how she was killed by her husband Edward. Autopsy on the exhumed body verified the apparition's account. Edward, found guilty of murder, was sentenced to the state prison. Only known case in which testimony from a ghost helped convict a murderer. Indeed, I’m not sure that I have read another ghost story in which the ghost of the deceased secured a murder conviction! The story began in the fall of 1896 when a young Zona Heaster met E. S. “Trout” Shue. Unfortunately for Zona, it would not come out until later—after it was too late—that Shue had been married twice. His second wife died under mysterious circumstances and his first marriage ended in divorce. Shue's first wife accused him of “great cruelty.” Shue was a drifter ...