Lake Delevan Giant Skeletons

• This is a news paper from 1912.
• A book that mentions the skelotons on page 33.
• Not much connection to these skelotons. There used as evidence of find of giant remains (page 34)

Lake Delavan Giant Skeletons Excavation

Physical Description of Skeletons

News of Lake Delavan Giant Skeletons first appeared on May 3rd, 1912 in The La Crosse Tribune, a local newspaper from La Crosse, Wisconsin. This article stated that the skeletons provided evidence for Darwin's theory of evolution. They believed that these skeletons could be the species that humans descended from. The article claims that some of the skulls that they found were abnormally large and had abnormal physical characteristics when compared to a modern human skull. They said that the skulls would "slope straight back and the nasal bones protrude far above the cheek bones". The article also remarks that the jaw bones of the skulls are long and pointed and that some people who examined them were reminded of the heads of monkeys. Further information about these skeletons was published on May 4th, 1912 in the New York Times. The New York Times article is very similar to The La Crosse Tribune article. It differs in that the New York Times does not mention Darwin's theory of evolution but instead chooses to say that the skeletons belong to "an unknown race of men". The New York Times article goes into more detail about the skeletons. It describes them as having rectangular molars in the front of the jaw. The article also described smaller skeletons that were found. The smaller skeletons were assumed to be female skeletons and "were embedded in charcoal clay to shed water from sepulchre". Although this information is all that can be found today describing the physical characteristics of the skeletons, several articles further describe their physical attributes. They say that the skeletons ranged in height from 7.6 feet to 10 feet tall, often had a double row of teeth, 6 fingers, 6 toes and came in different races. It was also believed that the elongated skull was a result of a life span greater than the average human.

Location of Excavation

Lake Delavan is located in Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. The skeletons were not found in the lake. According to the articles written by The New York Times and The La Crosse Tribune, the skeletons were found inside a large mound on Lake Lawn farm by the Phillips brothers. The skeletons are called Lake Delavan Giant Skeletons because Lake Lawn farm was close to Lake Delavan. As of 2021, Lake Lawn farm is Lake Lawn resort and it is on the shoreline of Lake Delavan. Many articles written in the twenty first century about the Lake Delavan Giant Skeletons references Kristan Harris’s blog post that states, “The dig site at Lake Delavan was overseen by BeloitCollege and it included more than 200 effigy mounds that proved to be classic examples of 8th century Woodland Culture.”

Context

Burial Mounds

Although neither news article in 1912 that reported on the skeletons found specified that the mounds the skeletons were found inside were burial mounds, given current knowledge of burial mounds in that region of the United States, that indicates that the mounds were burial mounds. Burial mounds were used by some Native Americans as a custom to bury their dead. A burial mound would rarely exceed 10 feet in height and would usually be around 3 feet to 6 feet in height. Burial Mounds often contained more than one skeleton. The skeletons were found in positions indicating that the people were buried in a “sitting or partly kneeling posture facing the east, with the legs placed under them.” The bodies would have a roof built over them out of bark or log before the rest of the mound was built. The Lake Delavan Giant Skeletons were found in Southern Wisconsin which is in the area known as Effigy Mound Region. Effigy mounds are mounds built in the shapes of animals such as birds, bears and panthers. There were also many burial mounds in Wisconsin. Many of the burial mounds have been destroyed by excavation, by the flattening of land for buildings or roads, and by the work of natural weather and time. Today, most burial mounds can be found in National Parks and State Park and are protected from unauthorized disturbances by Wisconsin State Law.

Other Skeletons

The Lake Delavan Giant Skeletons found in 1912 were not the first skeletons to be found in Wisconsin. In 1897, 15 years before the Lake Delavan Giant Skeletons were discovered, The New York Times published a very brief section in their newspaper released on December 20th about a large skeleton found in a mound. The New York Times wrote that the skeleton of a man slightly taller than 9 feet was found when a large mound was opened in Maple Creek, Wisconsin. The article also stated that, “The skull was as large as a half bushel measure. Some finely tempered rods of copper and other relics were lying near the bones.” In 1916, four years after Lake Delavan Giant Skeletons were discovered, The New York Times reported the discovery of different giant skeletons in Pennsylvania. On July 14th, 1916, The New York Times published an article about bones discovered by Professor A. B. Skinner of the American Indian Museum, Professor W. K. Morehead of Phillips Andover Academy, and Dr. George Donohue from Pennsylvania University. They found the bones of sixty eight people that they believed were buried around the year 1200. The height of these skeletons was said to be, on average, seven feet tall with some skeletons being taller than seven feet. The article also states that, “Further evidence of their gigantic size was found in large celts or axes hewed from stones and buries in the grave.”