El Paso Jawbone x2, extremely large vertebrae

SCIENTISTS IN TEXAS

Searching for Fossil Traces of a Giant Race

Special to the Gazette

El Paso, Tex., Dec. 30 – W. B. McDowell of San Francisco and Dr. Jacob Wortman of Washington City, representatives of Hemingway’s Southwestern Archaeological Expedition, who under the guidance of Lieutenant Cushing, have been prosecuting archaeological researches among the Zuni and Pueblo Indians in Arizona, where they have partially explored the ruins of a city that now lies beneath the sands of a desert, arrived in the city today. Mr. McDowell is an attaché of the San Francisco Examiner and is a son of General McDowell of Bull Run fame. Dr. Wortman, pathologist and comparative anatomist of the United States Army Medical Museum, has been detailed by the Surgeon General to assist in preserving skeletons, etc., and to pass upon all questions of paleontology that may arise. He is the author of several important publications on paleontology and comparative anatomy and is making a representative collection of fossils for the Army Medical Museum to be studied there with regard to their physical characteristics. These gentlemen left last evening for Carrizo station in the lower part of this county, where a discovery has been made of fossil remains of a human being of giant stature. The skull is about the size of an ordinary human skull, but the jawbone is twice the ordinary size and the vertebrae are also extremely large. They were discovered in a natural tunnel or cave in Diablo Mountain, 700 feet above the level of the plain. Bone needles six inches long, fragments of pottery, and cooking utensils were also found. This is the first systematic archaeological expedition in the United States, and these gentlemen think from discoveries already made that subsequent explorers will develop the fact that all the valleys of the south have been densely populated by a people who have mysteriously disappeared.

1. Fort Worth daily gazette., December 31, 1887, Image 1