Mason County's Mysterious Skeletons

The idea that giants once roamed the Kanawha and Ohio Valleys is always a fascinating and popular topic within the mysterious history of West Virginia.  Time and time again, we hear stories of Adena burial mounds throughout the state and surrounding areas having once held the skeletal remains of a people who averaged over 7 feet in height. 

Source

Today, the area of West Virginia where I live is still dotted with some of the larger burial mounds, such as the Criel Mound in South Charleston and the Shawnee Mound in Dunbar.  The May Moore Mound, located on private property in Mason County, WV is another large mound, but it is believed to be largely intact---never properly excavated.  What many don't realize, though, is that at one time, there were many, many more (usually much smaller) mounds throughout this area!  I've always heard stories that farmers along the Ohio River in what is now Mason County, WV would constantly come across small burial mounds in their fields, and simply plow them over.  Supporting that claim is an old newspaper article I ran across from the Niles Register (Ohio paper), dated October 20, 1821.  I haven't been able to locate a copy of the original article, but the text can be found in West Virginia Heritage: Volume One, a collection of books compiled and edited in the late 1960's by the West Virginia Heritage Foundation.  The article is as follows:

Mason County's Mysterious Skeletons
From Niles Register
October 21, 1821

From the Kenhawa Spectator.  A gentleman from Mason County, Va. has very obligingly furnished the following singular facts:  On the 19th ult. four very large skeletons were found in a field which had for twenty-four years past been cultivated in corn. They were deposited in a mound apparently very ancient.  The first was discovered by the owner of the field, having ploughed it up, which induced him to make a further examination, when three others were found.  The bones are perfectly sound, and much larger than common, and more especially the skulls, which can be very easily slipped over the largest man's head.  The upper jaw bone has one row of double teeth all round, and the under jaw two teeth only on the left side, and no sockets whatever in the rest of the bone were provided by nature for more.  Considerable quantities of broken crockery ware, with buck horns and bones, bear's bones and muscle (mussel?) shells, etc. were found with the skeletons, and the whole buried in line two feet deep.

It is hoped that the curiosity of the intelligent public may excite them to examine the skeletons, and furnish us with some interesting speculations on the subject. 

May Moore Mound. Image from Todd Bledsoe

I've seen this particular case mentioned on a few websites, mostly in passing, but haven't been able to really find any more substantial information about who the farmer was, where the property is located, and just what the heck happened to these giant skeletons with their strange double row of teeth.  However, with stories such as these, it makes me wonder why the nearby May Moore Mound was never excavated...and if it ever is, just what will we find inside?

Craving MORE Giant Skeletons in Burial Mounds stories?  Check out my post about another small mound, complete with giant skeleton found in the Central City area of Huntington, WV.  People drive over the site every day, and very few realize that the road was once blocked off by an ancient burial mound!