Posted On: March 24, 2022

The year is 960AD, the place, lovelock cave in Nevada, USA. A legendary tribe of red haired cannibalistic giants were killing and eating the local native tribes. The tribes banded together and drove the giants into lovelock cave and suffocated them all by lighting fires at its entrance.

In 1883 Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, daughter of a Paiute Indian chief advised a tale of Giants In Nevada, A red haired tribe of cannibals her ancestors drove into a cave and suffocated by lighting a fire at its entrance.

The Giants were so fierce they would leap into the air, snatch arrows whizzing over their heads, and shoot them back at their enemies. The Paiutes named the giants Si-Te-Cah, which translates to tule-eaters. The giants wove tules, a fibrous water plant, into rafts to navigate across what remained of Lake Lahontan, so the story goes.

The Paiutes, a Native-American tribe indigenous to parts of Nevada, Utah and Arizona, described the Si-Te-Cah as a vicious, unapproachable people that killed and ate their captives, and told early settlers that after years of warfare all the tribes in the area joined together to rid themselves of the giants.

The fleeing giants took refuge in Lovelock Cave and refused to leave despite demands that they come out and fight. So their pursuers filled the entrance to the cave with brush that was set on fire in a bid to force the giants to come out. The few that did emerge were promptly killed. The giants that remained inside the cavern were asphyxiated.

John T. Reid, a Lovelock mining engineer, said Indians took him to the cave in 1886 and told him the tale of the red haired cannibal giants. But when he entered the cave he found nothing but tons of bat guano.

Reid was unsuccessful in getting an archaeological dig started immediately. But miners, realizing the value of guano as fertilizer, started hauling it out in 1911. They promptly turned up bones, baskets, weapons, tools, duck decoys, various other artifacts and what they described as a 6-foot-6 mummy. James H. Hart, one of the miners, wrote that the mummy, found in the north-central part of the cave about four feet down, had hair that was "distinctly red."

The discovery spurred an archaeological dig in 1912, followed by a second dig in 1924. Thousands of artifacts and about 60 average-height mummies were recovered. Not all the mummies were preserved. One of the best specimens reportedly was boiled and destroyed by a local fraternal lodge that wanted a skeleton for initiation purposes. More studies followed, including radio-carbon dating that showed the cave was occupied from about 2,000 BC to about 900 AD.

My Take: There is no doubt that something happened at this cave. The questions are more, were the red headed giants just large men? Or were they true giants of nine feet plus? There are lots of tales of red headed giants all over the world. Where did they all come from? Where did they go?

Resources: Jennifer Young, onlyinyourstate.com, January 20th, 2016

Posted On: March 24, 2022

The year is 960AD, the place, lovelock cave in Nevada, USA. A legendary tribe of red haired cannibalistic giants were killing and eating the local native tribes. The tribes banded together and drove the giants into lovelock cave and suffocated them all by lighting fires at its entrance.

In 1883 Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, daughter of a Paiute Indian chief advised a tale of Giants In Nevada, A red haired tribe of cannibals her ancestors drove into a cave and suffocated by lighting a fire at its entrance.

The Giants were so fierce they would leap into the air, snatch arrows whizzing over their heads, and shoot them back at their enemies. The Paiutes named the giants Si-Te-Cah, which translates to tule-eaters. The giants wove tules, a fibrous water plant, into rafts to navigate across what remained of Lake Lahontan, so the story goes.

The Paiutes, a Native-American tribe indigenous to parts of Nevada, Utah and Arizona, described the Si-Te-Cah as a vicious, unapproachable people that killed and ate their captives, and told early settlers that after years of warfare all the tribes in the area joined together to rid themselves of the giants.

The fleeing giants took refuge in Lovelock Cave and refused to leave despite demands that they come out and fight. So their pursuers filled the entrance to the cave with brush that was set on fire in a bid to force the giants to come out. The few that did emerge were promptly killed. The giants that remained inside the cavern were asphyxiated.

John T. Reid, a Lovelock mining engineer, said Indians took him to the cave in 1886 and told him the tale of the red haired cannibal giants. But when he entered the cave he found nothing but tons of bat guano.

Reid was unsuccessful in getting an archaeological dig started immediately. But miners, realizing the value of guano as fertilizer, started hauling it out in 1911. They promptly turned up bones, baskets, weapons, tools, duck decoys, various other artifacts and what they described as a 6-foot-6 mummy. James H. Hart, one of the miners, wrote that the mummy, found in the north-central part of the cave about four feet down, had hair that was "distinctly red."

The discovery spurred an archaeological dig in 1912, followed by a second dig in 1924. Thousands of artifacts and about 60 average-height mummies were recovered. Not all the mummies were preserved. One of the best specimens reportedly was boiled and destroyed by a local fraternal lodge that wanted a skeleton for initiation purposes. More studies followed, including radio-carbon dating that showed the cave was occupied from about 2,000 BC to about 900 AD.

My Take: There is no doubt that something happened at this cave. The questions are more, were the red headed giants just large men? Or were they true giants of nine feet plus? There are lots of tales of red headed giants all over the world. Where did they all come from? Where did they go?

Resources: Jennifer Young, onlyinyourstate.com, January 20th, 2016