Approximately twenty miles south of the town of Lovelock, Nevada, near the top of a high hill, there’s a cave known now as Lovelock cave. But in the 1800s, the cave was known as Horseshoe Cave, probaby because of the shape of the interior. The cave is about forty feet deep and one hundred and sixty feet wide, with the sides curving around like a horseshoe. The cave was probably formed by the collapse of a limestone dome and wave action during the time it was under Lake Lahontan, a prehistoric lake which covered most of western Nevada. Emigrants traveling the trail to California, known as the Humboldt Trail, referred to the cave on a hill overlooking the Humboldt Sink in their memoirs.
The cave was pointed out to early Nevadans by the Piutes, who told stories about their battles with the white giants with the red hair and were living in the area where the Piutes first arrived. They claimed to have ambushed and fought the white giants until they had killed all but a few who had retreated to the cave. According to Piute legend, after they had cornered all the remaining giants in the cave, they piled sagebrush in the cave entrance and set it on fire. The Piutes said they killed any who tried to escape. They kept the fire up until all the giants had been smothered.
In 1911, a company was formed to mine the bat guano in the cave for fertilizer. The guano was in layers four to six feet deep. After about four feet of the guano was removed, artifacts started showing up Before archaeologists were brought in, many of the findings were discarded or damaged. But what was then found was staggering. The history in the cave goes back over four thousand years and yes, they found red haired giants.
In fact, they found that what the Piutes had told them was true. There was a layer of burned material and there were broken arrows that had been shot into the cave. The dryness of the climate plus othr factors had indeed turned many of the giants to mummies. Among the many beautiful artifacts was a donut shaped stone that has 365 notches on the outside rim and 52 notches on the inside rim. Many of these artifacts now reside in the museum at Winnemucca, Nevada.
While searching for a lost gold mine in Nevada, for a documentary film that I was making, I took the opportunity to explore the Lovelock Cave and visit the quaint, little, but very interesting museum at Lovelock, Nevada. The curator told me about a skull from one of the “giants” that was in the Winnemucca museum.
Prior to a subsequent trip to the area, I borrowed a full sized plaster dental model of the lower teeth of a normal modern adult from a friend, who was also my dentist. I took the plaster model with me when I next visited the area, in the hopes that I would be able to compare it with the jaw from one of the “giants.”
As I had hoped, the curator at the Winnemucca museum graciously allowed me to comparre the plaster model with the jaw from the skull of one of the “giants” in the museum’s collection. She placed the jaw down on her desk. I was allowed to place my plaster adult jaw next to the jaw from the skull for purposes of comparison. The plaster model was much smaller than the jaw from the skull. In fact, the teeth of the jaw from the skull were almost twice the size of those of my plaster model. There were other factors, too, that distinguised it from today’s humans.
On your treasure hunting expeditions, always keep in mind that some of the most fascinating artifacts are to be found in smaller museums because they are inclined to display everything in their collections and not hide artifacts away in a dusty closet.
___________
Brian Scott was contacted by giant red haired alien beings!
No comments:
Post a Comment