Ventura County – Rancho Cunajo Pit – 7 Foot Giant
FIND SKELETON OF PREHISTORIC LOS ANGELES.
March 28 – Discovery of a new skeleton in the Rancho Cunajo pit late Thursday and measurement revelations of one of those found previously indicating that its owner was a giant of probably seven feet or more, injected new interest into the excavations that are believed by the experts in charge to have turned up a civilization from 10,000 to 25,000 years old. The femur or thigh bone of the largest skeleton found so far, according to J. W Lytle, bone preparatory expert of the Southwest museum here, measures 182 inches in length, indicating that its owner was at least seven feet tall. The femur of a large man of today runs about 16 inches, Lytle said. This supposed prehistoric giant’s jawbone was much deeper than that of the different modern characteristics mortal and from those of the Californian Indians. Thus, declared Lytle, completely answering the theory that the bones of Rancho Cunajo were merely those of modern Indians. Circumstances lent a weird touch to today’s discovery, according to excavators. As the veil of water-soaked clay concealing the fossil find fell away under their cautious attack, the fifth skeleton was revealed before them, embedded in an upright posture in the wall of the pit. From the skull, which stared northeastward toward Los Angeles, trickled thin streams of water, as if the prehistoric man were weeping. This one-eyed skeleton, whose apparent tears were due to yesterday’s rainstorm rather than grief, is the best-preserved and most complete of any of the specimens yet unearthed at Rancho Cunajo, according to Dr. Wm A Bryan, director of the Los Angeles museum of history, science, and art, where the prehistoric bones are being cleansed and reassembled. The fifth giant skeleton, Dr. Bryan said, was found virtually intact, making an almost perfect restoration possible.
- Ogden Standard-Examiner 1924-03-28 Page 4 Find Skeleton of Prehistoric Giant