Palm Beach County 38″ thigh bone

Relics of Men of Huge Size discovered in the Glades

Named after one of its oldest settlements, Palm Beach, the county was established in 1909, after being split from Dade County. The county’s modern-day boundaries were established in 1963.

Who were the men of stature so great that a thigh bone measured 38 inches in length? Men who once roamed through the everglades of Florida? And how many years ago did people of such great size become extinct? J.F. Carlisle and J.T. Brown. of this city, were struggling around in the glades the first of the week, noticing the effect of the unusual dry season and essaying to locate a special tract of land. They were some eight miles west of this city and a little north.

Suddenly they noticed upon a pine that was about three feet through an indication of a blaze and investigation showed that at one time it was heavily and well defined. But time had healed so much of it that less than two inches remained – and its height from the base of the tree was unusual its slowest portion was about eight feet from the ground its upper commencement between ten and eleven – showing that it must have been made from a boat when three or four feet of water covered that spot, by a person standing upon some object, or by a person of unusual size.

Hardly had the two ceased wondering at the almost covered blaze whe, a little way from the base of the tree, was found what bore every indication of being a thigh bone of a human being – except that its length was abnormal it measured as it lay upon the ground 38 inches long,  but every effort to preserve it intact proved of no use, it crumbled at every touch. Both Mr. Brown and Mr. Carlisle are ready to make affidavit as to the length – and believe it to be the bone of a human leg from the thigh to the knee.

New Smyrna Daily News (New Smyrna, Florida) August 29, 1913.

Thigh Bone Found Indicates early residents of swamps Were Magnificent Proportions