Clark County Gigantic Stature
Clark County is located in southern Indiana and named after William Clark. William Clark was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. Along with Meriwether Lewis, Clark helped lead the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803 to 1806 across the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean, and claimed the Pacific Northwest for the United States. Clark County was established in 1801 and is strategically positioned across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky.
St. Louis Globe Democrat – The other cemetery contains the bones of 50 dead Kings. The tombs are made of rough hewn stone and the occupants were all men, not one of whom was less than six and one half feet high. They were buried in sitting posture, with their feces turned toward the rising sun and their weapons must have been buried with them, evidently placed in their laps. But the peculiar coincidence is that the left temple of each had been crushed in by some blunt instrument. Whether it was as religious rite or a precaution against burying them alive is a matter of surmise. The writer, who opened one of the graves of Prof. Green, the eminent geologist and at one time State Geologist of Indiana, believes it was a religious rite. The school history of Kentucky says when the first white settlers arrived at Louisville they found piles of human skeletons on Corn Island and some are found there now. To the early settlers it had appeared that there have been a great battle fought and that one tribe had been entirely wiped out. All of the skeletons were those of people of medium stature, save one, that of a man, and he must have been seven feet high. On the banks of the fall to this day are found thousands of Indian arrows andspear heads, with an occasional battle ax, and once a stone owl was found that had probably been fashioned by one of the prehistoric people. This description represents the concrete facts and is the corroborative evidence of the weird tale told by Mrs. Kelly and her ancestors in their mystic chant of the vanishing of a strange race of people. The story had better be given in her own words to the writer of this narrative.
Valentine Kelly, who was a spritualist, told the writer that he was once standing in the shed near the royal tombs when a gigantic white man with yellow hair peered in at the window. He said he saw him, as clearly as could be, for it was broad daylight and he could not have made a mistake. However Mr. Kelly was a firm believer in ghost and hobgoblins, and it may be that he did not actually see Yellow Hair, but he believed to the time of his death that he had seen him. He permitted prof’ Green and the writer to open two of the graves on his farm, but stopped further excavating, as he said the scientist would soon dig up the best part of his farm if he permitted him to do so. But there were originally 50 of the tombs and now more than 40 remain. The high water washed away some of them, and two were opened by man.
One of the best known archaeologists of Indiana, Dr. W. F. Work, of Charlestown, Ind., found seven similar stone tombs 13 miles from the scene, and he noticed that the left temple of each dead man was crushed in and that the bones were those of men of gigantic stature. Dr. Work spent much time in exploring the inhabitants of the cliff dwellers of Arizona and has written much on the subject. He believes Yellow Hair’s people were the Mandan Indians. Orlando Hobbs, also an archeological authority of Indiana and a man known widely for his learning and research, holds this opinion.
- Washington Post, October 27, 1912, 50 Giant Tombs Discovered in Jeffersonville, Indiana believed to be Kings Tombs. “not one less than six and one half feet high.”