Have you heard the seemingly persistent rumor that Ohio was once home to a race of giants? They say that giant skeletons were uncovered in various archeological sites throughout the state of Ohio, including some discovered at the Great Serpent Mound. They say that most of the native tribes that once lived in what would become Ohio often talked about giants. Or, you might hear about a giant that lived during more modern times in Seville, Ohio, which is where his grave is and where The Guiness Book of World Records went to give him his “award”.
But, before we get too far astray, we need to slow down for a bit.
Do “Giants” even exist?
“Do Giants Exist?” seems like such an easy question, but it all depends on what you mean by the word giants.
There is, of course, a professional football team that plays out of The Met Life Stadium in New York City, so yes – case closed. Giants exist.
There’s a story in the bible about this guy named David who brought down a giant named Goliath by hitting him in the center of his head with a projectile from a slingshot, then cutting off his head and then touring around the countryside showing it off.
If you go to the town of Seville in Ohio, you can visit the grave of seven foot nine inches tall Martin Van Buren Bates, who was a giant, and is even in the Guiness Book of World Records, listed as part of the tallest married couple (with his seven foot eleven inches tall wife Anna).
If you were alive during the 1980s and were aware of professional wrestling, or watched movies such as The Princess Bride, you would be familiar with a guy named Andre the Giant.
Today, we know that Giantism is usually (if not always) caused by an overproduction of somatotropin, a peptide hormone that facilitates growth. It has been documented that in exceptionally tall people, the pituitary gland tended to produce way too much of the stuff during childhood. Scientists have even created a synthetic version of somatropin which has been used as a treatment for really short people.
So, yes … we can definitively say that Giants have, and continue to exist.
The Myths of Giants
Part of the problem, in my opinion, is that we’ve let religion, mythology, and popular culture redefine what is meant by the word “Giant”. For example, sometimes giants are considered human, while other times they are clearly humanoid (and clearly another type of being).
The bible likes to talk about the Nephilim, which may have been a group of oversized humans, or they might be a mysterious race that’s half angelic, half human. Or, possibly entirely fallen angel.
Aztec mythology talks about how the Quinametzin were a giant race of men who constructed the city of Teotihuacan. Greek Mythology has numerous examples of giants, from one Hercules needed to fight as part of his “Labors”, to the Cyclop or a giant one-eyed man creature that was quite possibly a god. Not to mention it is from the Greek that we even get the word for Giant.
Hindu legends talk of how humans grew to the size of giants during the Satya Yuga. Norse mythology seems to have the jötnar, which may be human sized giants, somehow.
Old English stories tell of giants building walls as well as the Giant’s Causeway of Northern Ireland. Further tales of giants appear in populat stories like Jack The Giant Killer (Jack and the Beanstalk) or in stories like Cervantes’ Don Quixote.
It seems as if the idea that a race of giants has existed for a long time, although outside of stories there is little evidence anywhere that supports that these people did exist – at least the way they have been depicted.
Giantism does appear, however, to be a normal aspect of human biology, rare but perfectly natural.
What About The Ohio Giants?
On December 3, 2011, the World News Daily Report published an article saying that The Smithsonian had been ordered by the United States Supreme Court to destroy thousands of historical giant skeletons because they were inconsistent with the theory of evolution that American institutions were teaching. (Among other things.)
The World News Daily Report is, of course, a satirical website and not an actual newspaper. They claimed to be an American Jewish Zionist newspaper based in Tel Aviv, but no – we can blame a couple of Canadians for this one.
The article contained a photograph which, they claimed, was taken in Ohio in 2011, even though that particular photo had been making its way across the internet for at least five or six years (sometimes it was from Ohio, other times it was apparently taken in Turkey … so you can never fully believe what you see on the internet).
The idea that Giant skeletons had been uncovered in Ohio is nothing new – those rumors have been around for as long as anyone can remember.
Giants have long been blamed for all sorts of natural geological features (the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland is a prime example) as well as human made structures that aren’t easily explained with known primitive technology. The giant (underground) wall of Wall, Texas was once explained away by giants, although now it’s known to be a natural tectonic feature.
The giants also were an early attempt at explaining the large mounds left over from the Hopewell culture, suggesting that the giant mounds were the final resting places of some really big people. This does include The Great Serpent Mound; however modern technology has since proven that idea false.
A Giant Hoax
The myth that a race of giants once lived in Ohio (or, what would someday become Ohio) has been debunked by groups far more reputable than me. Yet, every few years, something new pops up … and by “new” I mean the same old argument, the same old debunked evidence, nothing new. Right now, belief in conspiracy theories are getting more common every day. People mistrust things they either don’t fully understand or they look for the simplest solution to any issue, even if doing so is counter productive.
Sadly, we don’t understand the ancient native culture or their customs, so when we see something (such as the large mounds they’ve left behind) we try to come up with an explanation that sounds cool and fits what limited resources we have … even if that means completely ignoring evidence that goes against the conclusions. I hate to make it sound like people keep saying that those large mounds are really burial mounds for giants because that’s what they want them to be, but that’s kind of how it is to a certain extent.
We did see an uptick in talk about giants between the year 2000 (or, you can also argue it began in 1997) and 2011 (or thereabouts) and much of that probably comes from one thing. Personally, I place the blame squarely on the late, great Robbie Coltrane, although for me it was also the incomparable Frances de la Tour … who played the lovable half-giant Hagrid (and the fully giant Madame Olympe Maxime) in those Harry Potter movies. Once the Potter Craze began, it was just a matter of time before interest in anything even remotely associated with the stories, no matter how large or trivial, suddenly became international sensations – giants included.
We’re also currently living in a time where conspiracy theories have become more mainstream – not just in political arenas, but pretty close to everywhere. Not even proving a conspiracy theory false does much good these days, as some who subscribe to the theory will just add the debunking to the conspiracy, if not try to justify it to their favor. (That’s what “they” want you to believe, they have a fondness for saying.)
The reality of the situation, however, is that while there has never been a race of giants roaming the hills that would someday be called Ohio – giantism is something that happens naturally from time to time, so occasionally digging up a seven foot tall skeleton is to be expected.
Stories of giants can be fun … and I really wish that Francis de la Tour would get to … um … what’s that? … wait a second … she only stands five foot seven inches tall? Are you kidding me? Never mind, I stand corrected.
