Author Denver Michaels

My latest book,  California (Lucid!) Dreaming: Water Dragons, Lemurians, Bigfoot and More  is now available for  preorder on Amazon . Full-time traveler Denver Michaels navigates torrential rains in Santa Barbara, the blazing sun in Blythe, mudslides along the Pacific Coast Highway, swollen creeks in Yosemite, knee-deep snow in Lake Tahoe and other obstacles while seeking out water monsters, giants, megaliths, Bigfoot and other mysteries in the Golden State. In the eighth installment of his popular Detours Into the Paranormal series, Michaels investigates the Winchester Mystery House, rumors of ancient nuclear war in Death Valley, sky gods over the Colorado Desert, Bigfoot sightings beneath the giant redwoods, thunderbird reports, lucid dreams, strange stone walls, the Lemurian civilization and much more. What will he uncover in his never-ending search for truth? Over 80 photographs chronicle this epic seven-month tour.

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...

In 1937, a site along Potomac Creek in Stafford County, Virginia yielded a skull “which far exceeds in brain capacity any skull previously recorded.” The Washington Post reported:  A primitive Algonquin Indian who hunted and fished along the Potomac River 300 years ago and was probably a friend of the princess Pocahontas, probably was the brainiest man the world has ever seen. The skull of this man, which far exceeds in brain capacity any skull previously recorded, was found in Stafford County, Va., by presiding judge W. J. Graham, of the United States Count of Customs and Patent Appeals, a prominent amateur archaeologist. He announced his discovery yesterday. Judge Graham found the skull about two weeks ago. It was in several pieces, and he sent it, as he has his other archaeological finds, to the Smithsonian Institution. There it was assembled and officials were astounded to find that it exceeds the brain capacity of any skull on record. Judge Graham said when he saw the...

In 1885, the American Antiquarian ran an article discussing a mound which had been opened in Pennsylvania. The mound yielded several interesting finds, chief among them the large skeleton of a Pennsylvania giant who wore a copper crown: " A large Indian mound near the town of Gasterville, Pa., has recently been opened and examined by a committee of scientists sent out from the Smithsonian Institute. At some depth from the surface a kind of vault was found in which was discovered the skeleton of a giant measuring seven feet two inches. His hair was course and jet-black, and hung to the waist, the brow being ornamented with a copper crown. The skeleton was remarkably well preserved. Near it were also found the bodies of several children of various sizes, the remains being covered with beads made of bone of some kind. Upon removing these, the bodies were seen to be enclosed in a network of straw or reeds, and beneath this was a covering of the skin of some animal. On the stones whi...

On December 17, 1891, Nature ran an interesting piece about the discovery of an enormous skeleton clad in copper armor in a mound in Ohio. The following article describes the Ohio giant: "According to the “World's Fair Notes,” sent to us from Chicago, the party which, under the direction of Mr. Putnam, has been making excavations in the mounds of Ohio, made an important discovery on November 14. While at work on a mound 500 feet long, 200 feet wide, and 28 feet high, the excavators found near the centre of the mound, at a depth of 14 feet, the massive skeleton of a man incased in copper armour. The head was covered by an oval-shaped copper cap; the jaws had copper mouldings; the arms were dressed in copper, while copper plates covered the chest and stomach, and on each side of the head, on protruding sticks, were wooden antlers ornamented with copper. The mouth was stuffed with genuine pearls of immense size, but much decayed. Around the neck was a necklace of bears’ teeth, s...

George Bird Grinnell (1849–1938) spent decades recording the histories, legends, and cultural practices of the Plains Indians. According to a Pawnee narrative recounted to Grinnell, the first people to inhabit the earth were giants. These mighty men of old were so powerful that they hunted buffalo on foot. The giant buffalo hunters ran fast enough to catch buffalo and were strong enough to kill them with only clubs and flint knives. So powerful were these giants, and of such enormous stature, that they carried slain buffalo upon their shoulders. These giant buffalo hunters of the Plains were also arrogant and haughty, and they refused to honor their creator, Tirawa. The giants believed themselves to be invincible; as time went on, they grew in their arrogance and their behavior became completely unacceptable to their creator.  Like so many other deities spanning a myriad of unrelated cultures, Tirawa also decided to rid the earth of the arrogant giant buffalo hunters. He turned th...

The audio version of my latest travel book just went live. My buddy  @uncleperry  narrated the book and did an excellent job, I know you'll be impressed with his work. You can find the audio version of Detours Into the Paranormal: Big Bend on Amazon by clicking here. Or go directly to Audible. If you want a free promo code, go to the contact area of this site and send me an email. This is a description of the book from Amazon: Did ancient astronauts visit Big Bend? Are the Chisos Mountains haunted by the spirits of a vanished and forgotten people? Is Bigfoot lurking in the shadows of the Davis Mountains? What are the Marfa Mystery Lights? Is a pterosaur hiding in a cave in Mexico? Is a six-foot-tall bipedal lizard roaming the Chihuahuan Desert? Were Zoroastrians—practitioners of an ancient Iranian religion—living in West Texas more than 1,000 years before Christopher Columbus set sail? In this installment of his Detours Into the Paranormal series, author Denver Michaels ...

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...

In today’s blog post, I thought I would share this account from 1880 of nine-foot giants in Ohio. Of equal interest to the giant discoveries is a sandstone tablet found among the burials with “two lines of hieroglyphs” inscribed upon it. I have written at length in the past of excavators finding strange tablets inside of mounds containing giant bones. The Marion Daily Star told the story of the tablet and enormous skeletal remains found in a mound in Ohio : MARION DAILY STAR , JULY 14, 1880 REMAINS OF NINE-FOOT GIANTS IN OHIO A correspondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer, writing about the remains of a giant race found in Muskingum County, Ohio, says: The mound in which these remarkable discoveries were made was about sixty-four feet long and thirty-five feet wide top measurement and gently sloped down to the hill where it was situated. A number of stumps of trees were found on the slope standing in two rows, and on the top of the mound were an oak and a hickory stump, all of...

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...