Pike County Nine Feet Long

It is very evident that at an early day in the history of this country this section of ohio was an important camping ground for the American Indian. There are in this country several burying grounds, and two of them are located five miles west of this city, near Jasper, one on the farm of Mr. William Bush and one on the Mr. Matthew Marks farm. These burying places are both in gravel banks and were discovered when the banks were opened for the purpose of hauling out gravel.

In a conversation with a gentlemen who has seen a number of skeletonsunearthed at the Mark Bank was first opened. Some of these skeletons have been measured and the largest have been found to be nine feet long and over. At one time ten skeletons were exhumed. They had buried in a circle, standing in an erect position, and were in a comparatively well-preserved condition. One remarkable fact about all the skeletons unearthed at these places is the perfect state of preservation in which the teeth are found to be. Not a decayed tooth been discovered. and this would seem to indicate that these people naturally had excellent teeth or some extraordinary manner of preserving them.

The last skeleton taken up was of ordinary length but the bones were wonderfully large, and a gentleman who examined them says that the backbone was as large as the backbone of a cow. Some thnk that this may have been a young fellow who had not yet lengthened out. The opinion is held by not a few that these are not the remains of the common Indian, but that they are the last vestiges of a prehistoric race and extinct race as there are several mounds that are undoubtedly constructed by the mound-builders located in this and adjoining counties. The writer, in digging one of these mounds discovered a portion of a crumbling crock, flint spearheads, ashes, etc. In the bush gravel bank trinkets and weapons of warfare of various kinds were discovered lying about the skeletons.

The Stevens Point Journal, May 1, 1886

Prehistoric Skeletons An Ohio County Full of Valuable Relics of the Mound Builders