Archaeologists are investigating claims about a long-lost group of giant humans who could grow up to 10 feet tall and lived in caves in the southwestern US.
Since 1912, excavations in a cave in Lovelock, Nevada have uncovered supersized human skulls, 18-inch sandals and enormous handprints, which have continued to pique the curiosity of scientists and the public for more than a century.
The stories of these ‘Giants of Lovelock’ came from the Native Americas who told tales of a ruthless tribe of red-haired, pale-skinned invaders who waged war against the local tribes before eventually being trapped in a cave and exterminated.
Archaeologists say the story is likely an exaggeration of the facts or even an outright fabrication, but some evidence continues to encourage believers.
The entrance to Nevada’s Lovelock Cave, where two miners accidentally encountered the remains of dozens of ancient people, some of whom were said to be abnormally tall.
These shoe remains were found during excavations of Lovelock Cave. They are made for feet that would have been the equivalent of a size 29 in the US.
It all started when a few miners first discovered the gigantic remains in 1911.
They were there looking for guano, the droppings of birds or bats, which have long been a valuable source of fertilizer and an ingredient in gunpowder.
But when they dug deep into the guano, these prospectors found more than they bargained for: more than sixty human skeletons.
And some of them were reportedly extremely large: between two and eight feet tall.
“One of his largest finds was a skeleton, found about twenty miles south of Lovelock, Nevada, which shows that the body of which it was a frame was exactly seven feet long,” the statement said. Biography from 1935 from John T. Reid, a mining engineer who worked in Lovelock.
“It is one of the ‘giant men’ of an ancient race whose skeletons have been unearthed in Central Nevada.”
There is no evidence for this find, but excavations of the cave in 1912 and 1924 uncovered thousands of artifacts.
Many of these finds were as expected: baskets, duck calls, arrowheads, and ceremonial objects carved in the shapes of animals.
But there were also some extremely strange findings, including giant sandals that appeared to have been worn.
These shoes, about 6 inches tall, would roughly translate to a US size 29 shoe.
Radiocarbon dating later showed that human remains and plant material in the cave were located between 2030 BC and 1218 BC.
Another strange find was a handprint apparently etched into the stone that appeared to be twice the size of an average human hand.
Reports of these excavations seemed to increase the size of the giants: as of 1931 they were reported to be 8 to 10 feet (2.5 to 3 meters) tall.
Remarkably, some of them had red hair, a stark contrast to the local Paiute tribe of Native Americans.
While their existence may remain a mystery, oral tradition may provide some clues.
Paiute tribes native to the area tell stories of a barbarian group called the Si-Te-Cah, a group that is said to have moved into the area 3,000 years ago.
According to Paiute mythology, the Si-Te-Cah then began waging war against them and their neighbors – and they also had red hair.
Reports from 16th-century Spanish conquistador Pedro Cieza de León seemed to confirm the existence of a fierce and mysterious group of red-haired barbarians.
He picked up a story in Peru about a race of gigantic men who “came across the sea in rafts of reeds, like great boats; some of the men were so tall that from the knee down they were as tall as the height of an ordinary man of reasonable size.”
This story is similar to the Peruvian natives who crossed Lake Titicaca in boats made of woven reeds.
According to Paiute legend, the tribes eventually banded together to fight the Si-Te-Cah.
They chased them into a cave, pelted them with arrows and lit a fire at the mouth.
Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, a member of the Paiute, was a historian. In 1883 she wrote a book about the Paiute that did not mention giants, but did mention barbarians.
Chief Poito Winnemucca of the Paiute tribe was the father of Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins. Their tribe came from the area where Lovelock Cave was discovered.
Some invaders were killed by arrows, some by fire, and some by asphyxiation from smoke.
According to stories, all the Si-Te-Cah were killed in that skirmish.
And there is indeed archaeological evidence of a large fire at the mouth of the cave.
But some historians have different explanations for the evidence.
First of all, the “giant” remains could only have been tall people, according to a University of Nevada study that found they were only about 6 feet tall – not 8 or 10 feet.
A history book by Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, entitled Life Among the Paiutes: Their Mistakes and Claims makes no mention of giants – but of barbarians.
And historians have pointed out that aging in dry desert conditions can turn dark hair red, possibly explaining the redheaded remains.
Moreover, historian Adrienne Mayor wrote in her book Fossil legends of the first Americans that local entrepreneurs have simply exaggerated the size of the human remains to boost tourism in the region.
The history museum in Winnemucca, Nevada currently houses many of the artifacts found in Lovelock Cave.
A 2014 crowdfunding effort to further explore the caves netted only $10.