Williamson County – 18′ Feet High
THE GIANT SKELETON
The skeleton discovered in Williamson County in this state, and supposed to be that of a human being, has frequently been referred to within a few days past, in the House of Representatives. Notwithstanding the description of it, as Wouter Van Twiller would say, “we have our doubts about the matter.”
This skeleton was found about sixty feet beneath the surface of the earth, embedded in a stratum of the hardest kind of clay. The bones are said to be in a perfect state of preservation and weigh, in the aggregate, about 1500 pounds.
It is stated that an eminent physician and anatomist is engaged in putting the skeleton together, and that it will shortly be ready for public exhibition. Nashville Orthopolis.
“All the large and characteristic bones are entire, and the skull, arms, and thigh bones, knee pans, shoulder sockets, and collar bones remove all doubts, and the animal to whom they belonged has been decided to belong to the genus homo.” This gentleman, when he walked the earth, was about 18 feet high, and when clothed in flesh must have weighed not less than 3000 pounds. The bones of the thigh and leg measure 6 ft., 6 inches. His skull is said to be about two-thirds the size of a flour barrel and capable of holding in its cavities near two bushels. (He must have had a goodly quantity of brains, and if intellect be in proportion to the size of the brain, he must have possessed extraordinary intellectual powers.) The description further states that a coffee cup of good size could be put in the eye-sockets. The jaw teeth weigh from 34 to 6 pounds.
- Tennessee, Williamson County, The Evansville Journal, 1845