Washburn County – 7 Feet Tall
BONES OF ANCIENT PERSON UNEARTHED NEAR SPOONER; MAY HAVE BEEN GIANT
Skeleton Leads Physicians to Believe Being Was That of Seven-foot Tall Woman.
TO BE PRESENTED TO HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Large Mounds Found in Territory; Pieces of Pottery are Found.
An enlightening contribution to historical data concerning the early mound builders of the Rainy Lake region has been made in the finding of a skeleton of a prehistoric being near Spooner.
The skeleton was found on a caved-in bank of clay off the Rainy River. It is well preserved and is thought to be that of a woman. The bones have been taken to Spooner and will be placed on exhibition.
Physicians who have examined the skeleton declare that it represented a type of early prehistoric person who were seven feet or more and who possessed an especially large lower jaw. They drew this conclusion because the skeleton found was that of a person of a very large stature. The jawbone was wide and its construction is said to be a special gift of nature to the early man in order that he could masticate the coarser foods which then made up his subsistence. The skull is very large. The well-rounded forehead gives evidence of considerable development of intelligence among these early inhabitants of the Rainy Lake territory. The fact that the skeleton was found at the base of the mound established the fact that the being once belonged to a race of mound people builders, several persons declare.
Some large mounds have been found in this territory. In some places, a number of pieces of pottery have been unearthed. It will be remembered that when the dam at International Falls was under construction several hundred pieces of tempered copper were unearthed from a depth of 15 feet. The articles consisted of fish hooks, knives, spears, and arrows. The art of tempering copper, which was known to early mound builders, is now a lost art. At the time of the discovery of these articles, it was estimated that the mound dwellers lived in Spooner territory between 1,000 and 1,200 years ago.
The mound at the base of which the skeleton was found was opened about three years ago. At that time, several pieces of pottery were found. There is no question in the minds of the people in the Spooner district but what the skeleton unearthed represents intelligent, industrious mound dwellers who lived before the days of the red men.
The skeleton will be sent to the Minnesota Historical Society.
- The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume], October 03, 1916, Image 1