Author Denver Michaels

The following is an excerpt from my book Giants: Men of Renown , published by Adventures Unlimited Press in which I discuss the giants in the Book of Moses:

There have long been wild rumors of a powerful, advanced underworld kingdom. Much of the literature on the topic indicates this mysterious civilization is headquartered somewhere beneath central Asia led by the "King of the World." A leading proponent of this idea was Dr. Ferdinand Ossendowski, a Polish explorer who wrote of this kingdom—dubbing it the “Mystery of Mysteries”—in his 1923 book  Beasts, Men and Gods.   He wrote: On my journey into Central Asia I came to know for the first time about “the Mystery of Mysteries,” which I can call by no other name…The old people on the shore of the River Amyl related to me an ancient legend to the effect that a certain Mongolian tribe in their escape from the demands of Jenghiz Khan hid themselves in a subterranean country. Afterwards a Soyot from near the Lake of Nogan Kul showed me the smoking gate that serves as the entrance to the “Kingdom of Agharti.” Through this gate a hunter formerly entered into the Kingdom and, after his...

Christopher Columbus gets the credit for discovering the New World, but it was another Italian, Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512) that proved the Americas were a large and separate land mass—not the outer fringes of Asia. The Americas, as they came to be known, were named after Amerigo Vespucci. During Vespucci’s second voyage, he landed on an island that would become known as the Isla de los Gigantes, or Island of the Giants . Vespucci recorded the following in his letters: …We found that this other island was inhabited by very tall people . We landed to see whether there was any fresh water, and not thinking it was inhabited, as we had not seen anyone, we came upon very large footprints in the sand, as we were walking along the beach. We judged that if the other measurements were in proportion to those of their feet, they must be very tall. Going in search, we came into a road which led inland. There were nine of us. Judging that there could not be many inhabitants, as the island was sma...

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...

An intriguing report of the discovery of giant mummies in Death Valley appeared in newspapers across the nation on August 5, 1947. The article titled "Trace of Giants Found in Desert" is reprinted below: TRACE OF GIANTS FOUND IN DESERT LOS ANGELES, Aug 4. (AP)-- A retired Ohio doctor has discovered relics of an ancient civilization, whose men were 8 or 9 feet tall in the Colorado desert near the Arizona-Nevada-California line, an associate said today. Howard E. Hill. of Los Angeles speaking before the Transportation Club, disclosed that several well-preserved mummies were taken yesterday from caverns in an area roughly 180 miles square, extending through much of southern Nevada from Death Valley, Calif. across the Colorado River into Arizona. Hill said the discoverer is Dr. F. Bruce Russell, retired Cincinnati physician, who stumbled on the first of several tunnels in 1931, soon after coming West and deciding to try mining for his health. MUMMIES FOUND Not until this year, ...

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 ...

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...

In today's post, I wanted to share an excerpt from my book Giants: Men of Renown, published by Adventures Unlimited Press. This is the tale of a red-haired giant king, named Datha, that ruled in the present-day southeastern United States: Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón (1475–1526) set up the first Spanish colony on the North American mainland. The location of the colony is disputed; some believe that from his starting point in present-day South Carolina, Ayllón headed north and possibly went as far as Virginia. Others think that Ayllón may have headed southwest into Georgia to establish the colony. Regardless of its location, the colony, named San Miguel de Guadalupe, became the site of the first slave rebellion in North America. The slaves that were brought to the colony and forced to clear land for crops and housing rose up and revolted against their cruel taskmasters. San Miguel de Guadalupe ended up a complete failure and lasted only three months. A harsh winter, lack of suppli...

I first learned of the East Bay Walls by watching an episode of America Unearthed on History Channel. The episode is titled “Marco Polo Discovers America” just in case you would like to watch it. At any rate, the show introduced me to a series of mysterious walls, called  the East Bay Walls, and alternately called the California Mystery Walls and Berkeley Mystery Walls. These stacked stone walls stretch from San Jose in the southern Bay Area fifty miles north to Berkeley. At first glance the East Bay Walls do not look all that mysterious. Back on the East Coast, where I’m from, there are tons of stone walls. In my home state of Virginia, especially in the piedmont’s horse country, mortarless stacked stone walls—built in the same fashion as those in California—run for miles on end. There are tons of similar walls in the Northeast, too. Farms and wooded areas in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York have stone walls running in various directions almost as far as the eye can see. ...

Who was Quetzalcoatl? In Mesoamerican myth , Quetzalcoatl is the "feathered serpent" or "plumed serpent" deity. He is also described as a culture hero who taught the ancient Mesoamerican people the arts, sciences, farming, and more. I think that not just in the case of Quetzalcoatl, but as far as all of the ancient “gods” are concerned, it is fair to wonder if many of these deities were not gods at all, but rather, men —men who possessed extraordinary knowledge and, in some cases, advanced technology. Some years ago, I read the book Lost Cities of North & Central America by David Hatcher Childress. In the book, Childress presents several ideas for the identity of the Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcoatl. One of those theories is that the Quetzalcoatl “myth” is a hazy memory of a charismatic Christian missionary who sailed from Ireland to the New World between 500 CE and 800 CE. The Irish were accomplished sailors and it is an intriguing thought that perhaps their le...