Lee County 7 Footers

Skeleton Seven Feet Long Reported Found in Burial Mound

Pine Island is the largest island in the state of Florida in the United States. The island is located in Lee County, on the Gulf of Mexico coast of southwest Florida, it is also the 118th largest island in the United States. The Intracoastal Waterway passes through Pine Island Sound, to the west of the island. Matlacha Pass runs between Pine Island and the mainland. Pine Island lies west of Cape Coral. For many years Pine Island was a major commercial fishing community and many of its full-time residents still commercial fish today.

Tampa (AP) – Discovery of a burial mound containing a skeleton seven feet long was reported today by a Tampa policeman.

Richard Del Valle said his cousin, Larry Lopez 16, found several of the mounds on a deserted island off the Florida West Coast north of Ft. Meyers.

There is a legend, Del Valle siad, that a race of tall people occupied Florida before the Indians, Lopez, a resident of Pine Island, found several mounds on a nearby island. He dug through a layer of conch shells to uncover one of the mounds and found the skeleton. He did not disturb the bones because they were in fragile condition.

De Valle said the University of Florida would be asked to send an anthropologist to look at the skeletons.

Ocala Star – Banner, Oct 19, 1959