There is actual historic documentation of giants living in America. The journal of Captain John Smith describes a 1608 incident when he and his crew encountered 60 eight-foot-tall giants of the Susquehannock tribe while traveling up the tributaries on the Chesapeake Bay. The Susquehannocks populated much of Pennsylvania at the time:
". . . 60 of those Susquehannocks came to us . . . such great and well-proportioned men are seldome seene, for they seemed like giants to the English . . . these are the strangest people of all those countries both in language and attire; for their language it may well beseeme their proportions, sounding from them as a voyce in a vault. Their attire is the skinnes of beares and woolves, some have cassocks made of beares heades and skinnes . . . The half sleeves coming to the elbows were the heads of beares and the arms through the open mouth . . . one had a head of a Woolf hanging from a chain for a jewell . . . with a club suitable to his greatness sufficient to beat out one's brains. Five of their chiefs wereowances came aboard us . . . (of) the greatest of them his hayre, the one side was long and the other shorn close with a ridge over his crowne like a rooster's combe . . . The calfe of whose leg was 3/4 of a yard around and all the rest of his limbes so answerable to that proportion that he seemed the goodliest man we ever beheld! " - From the voyages of Captain John Smith (of Jamestown, Va) - 1607 - 1609
In later years, when roads were being built and farmer's fields tilled, giant bones would occasionally be discovered. Then there were stories about the afterlives of these ancient giants...and it would appear that their spirits took exception to their graves being disturbed.
One of the early ghostly giants occurred in 1900...and was witnessed by several residents of the village of Mordansville, in Columbia County. The Bloomsburg Columbian published the following story on September 13, 1900:
While two young men were driving across the bridge a few evenings ago (Ed. Note: this would most likely have been the site of the bridge on Robbins Road that once crossed Little Fishing Creek) their horse suddenly stopped, refusing to go forward, and showing every evidence of fright, although they could see nothing... Becoming alarmed they called loudly for assistance and when some of the villagers arrived, carrying lanterns, they declare they saw a large skeleton standing directly in front of the animal... The ghostly visitor was distinctly visible to both the young men in the buggy as well as to the villagers... Since that evening the apparition has been seen by several people, its latest visit being Sunday night, when it appeared to two young girls who... assert positively that they saw the skeleton, which they declare was at least eight feet in height.
One week later, the newspaper continued reporting on this phenomenon in the September 20, 1900 edition of the Bloomsburg Columbian:
Mordansville still has its ghost. A resident of that village informs us that it appears almost nightly at one end of the bridge, looks to be about ten feet tall, is clothed in flimsy material of immaculate white, and makes a noise similar to a big wagon. He also says that travel over the bridge after nightfall has greatly decreased.
An excavated burial mound in western Pennsylvania seemed to be haunted by another giant. Apparently, the apparition was witnessed by the archaeologists themselves who were working at the burial site, which was located in South Huntingdon Township. After the local police were called to the location, word of the local haunting spread throughout the state and nation. The El Paso Herald published the following story on December 28, 1920:
Greensburg, Pa., Dec. 28-- The famous mound-builders' mound in South Huntingdon township has suddenly taken on life and the eight-foot inhabitants of olden days, according to the best-informed scientists, lay down to their eternal sleep, have just as suddenly started stalking out at nights... so strong has become the belief that all is not well within the famous mound, which is 300 feet long and 12 feet high, that Dave Kelly, the high constable and custodian of the peace in and about Gratztown, a mile from the mound, has been asked to investigate.
First news of the stalking of the ghosts of the ancient mound builders- for that is what the night prowlers are believed to be- came on Halloween night... But when on Armistice night Cy Brown and Sue Smith happened to be passing there and saw the same eight-foot apparition, Cy simply stepped on 'er- that is, on the gas, for he owns an auto, and made haste for the Armistice ball. Cy admits he wasn't scared...but those who saw him start home with Sue that night claim he took a five-mile detour to get home.
Some time ago Dr. W.J. Holland and his assistant, from the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, invaded the quietness of the mound-builders' tomb and removed from it one of the eight-foot specimens. Whether this has angered the ancient denizens of the mound is a question the populace hereabouts is unable to determine so far.
You can read more about these native people at Giant Skeletons and Susquehannock History
The Ancient Giants Who Ruled America: The Missing Skeletons and the Great Smithsonian Cover-Up
Giants on Record: America's Hidden History, Secrets in the Mounds and the Smithsonian Files
The Encyclopedia of Ancient Giants in North America
Warpaths: Invasions of North America
