"Does anybody believe that a race of gigantic men, who were 12 to 30 feet high, ever lived in these United States of America?"

While the following article from the May 16, 1900 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which was repinted from the Prescott Prospect, doesn’t prove that a race of 20-foot giants once roamed America, it is conclusive evidence that the newspaper’s editors had been drinking heavily. An excerpt:

“Does anybody believe that there ever has been a race of giants in the world? Does anybody believe that a race of gigantic men, who were 12 to 20 feet high, ever lived in these United States of America? And yet the proof that such a race of people did live in this country is to be found in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in northern Arizona. This proof consists of, first, footprints in the red sandstone, footprints that appear to have been made by the moccasined feet of gigantic men, men whose tracks measured twenty inches in length and who stepped five feet at a stride.

The second proof is that there is the petrified body of such a man likewise in the red sandstone of the Grand Canyon district. This body was of a living, breathing man, but after death the flesh was replaced by lime or silica, held in solution in the water. There is ample evidence that nature was able to perform this feat, as the petrifying process is being carried on in the canyon to this day. The third fact is that there is and was a strong and almost universal tradition among the ancient people of Mexico and Peru that such a race of giants lived in their country.

Perhaps it is almost too much to call this proof, but it is at least corroborative testimony. Last June I visited the Grand Canyon as a tourist. There I met Mr. Hull, who was acting as a guide into the canyon and who was a pioneer of northern Arizona. He told me the following story, and with apologies for my credulity, I believe him.

"Outstretched on this slab was the body of a gigantic man turned into stone."

Three years ago he and a companion named Jim Lavelle had been prospecting in this part of the country. They found a ledge which they thought was valuable and had started out of the canyon with samples of the ore, expecting to return in a few days. One of the Indians was with them. Mr. Hull speaks the Indian language fluently, and the Indians have a great admiration for him. The Indian said, ‘Have you ever seen the big Indian up here?’ volunteering to show it. They followed him up a foot trail, which led through a crevice in the red wall, thence on to the bench like formation above but still in the midst of the red sandstone.

They came to a place where a projecting rock formed a shelter over a sloping table like slab of stone which was covered with a white incrustation of lime. Outstretched on this slab was the body of a gigantic man turned into stone. The body was entirely nude and lay face downward. They estimated his height at 18 or 20 feet. They looked at it 10 or 20 minutes and then continued their journey, intending to return and make a more complete investiagtion. Plans changed and they failed to return.

This was startling information, but I had been in a measure prepared for it. It had always seemed reasonable to me that the prehistoric, primeval hunting savages should have been of large stature.”