Horned Skeletons?

As you look for more information on Google or on the web in general - you will undoubtedly see stories of not only giant skeletons, but "horned" skeletons as well.

I have read where this horned skeletons story immediately hit the "wires" and was covered by papers across the nation. Click here to read an article (1916) from a local newspaper concerning the "Horned Skeletons."

It seems that when the newspaper articles died down, the story continued with a life of it's own, and was included in many books covering the "strange and unexplained," such as: 

From Robert R. Lyman, Sr.'s (1971) Forbidden Land: Strange Events in the Black Forest, Vol. I. (Coudersport, PA: Potter Ent.):  

"At Tioga Point, on the Murray farm, a short distance from Sayre, in Bradford County, an amazing discovery was made. Dr. G. P. Donehoo, State Historian..., together with Prof. A. B. Skinner of the American Investigating Museum, and Prof. W. K. Morehead, of Phillips Andover Academy, uncovered an Indian mound. They found the bones of 68 men which were believed to have been buried about the year 1200.

 

"The average height of these men was 7 feet, while many were much taller. On some of the skulls, 2 inches above the perfectly formed forehead, were protuberances of bone, evidently horns that had been there since birth."

 

This story has again surfaced quite heavily on the internet as well.

THE TRUTH:

Until recently, I was unable to say exactly where this story had originated and as a result was unable to say whether or not it was true and therefore stated just that on this page.

I have since found that this story was not true.  It seems that there was quite a few people observing the digs at the Murray site in 1916, and this was do in part because the word was getting out that they were unearthing  mysteriously "huge" men. It is easy to see that it didn't take much for a visitor who was already "excited" by what he was witnessing to let his imagination run wild when he heard something like, "There are horns on his head!" from one of the workmen unearthing yet another "giant."

Here is text from an actual witness to the beginning of the "horned skeleton" story: (Louise Welles Murray, 1921)

To read the full article - click here. You will find the text above on page 205.

Use the following links to read more about the giant skeletons that were found:

• Towanda Daily Review - 1897 - "The Grave of a Giant"

• Aboriginal Sites in and  Near "Teoga," Now Athens, Pennsylvania, 1921

• History Of Waverly, Chapter IV, page 7

• Moorehead - Susquehanna River Expedition 1918 - page 49

• Louise Welles Murray -"History of Old Tioga Point and Early Athens -"1908.

• Pennsylvania Archeologist, Volume 61  No. 2  September 1991

• Captain John Smith's Account of the Susquehannocks

• 1882 - Sepulchre Discovered with Giant Skeleton

• Why do we care about these skeletons and the location of the burial sites?
• Author's Note Concerning the Giant Skeletons found in the Area of Tioga Point
• The Story and the TRUTH Surrounding  the "Horned Skeletons"