Kent Hovind and The 1879 Brewersville Giant

CLAIM:  In 1879, a 9'8" human skeleton was uncovered from a stone burial mound in Brewersville, Indiana. (Hovind, 2003, 51:49)

RESPONSE: No physical evidence supports the claim that a nearly ten-foot-tall human skeleton was ever uncovered from a burial mound in Brewersville, Indiana. The earliest mention of this skeleton I could find appears in an anonymous column in the North Vernon Plain Dealer, a local newspaper from North Vernon, Indiana, dated May 22, 1879. (Kell, 2018) The article describes the supposed discovery of a "giant chief" skeleton, measuring at eight feet tall (not ten), dressed in elaborate garments made of mica and "embalmed in charcoal". These descriptions match others commonly reported in numerous sensationalist "giant remains" newspaper articles sparked by the Cardiff Giant hoax of 1869, which had fueled public fascination with tales of prehistoric giants across the United States. (Colavito, 2025) However, these articles were rarely accompanied by physical evidence, and no skeleton corresponding to the Brewersville giant was ever recovered. Without the remains or more reliable documentation, there's no credible evidence the giant ever existed.

It's worth noting, however, that most of the immediate sources I found that agreed with Hovind that the Brewersville giant was real (Jones & Jones, 2012; Roe, n.d.; Taiaiako'n Historical Preservation Society, 2010, p. 4; Wells & Wells, 2022, p. 5) do not cite the original Plain Dealer article. Instead, they reference a much later piece published in The Indianapolis News in 1979, written by Wayne Guthrie. This article, rather than clarifying the original claim, ties the skeleton to the long-discredited Mound Builder myth, and increases the height of the giant from eight feet tall to nearly ten feet as reported by Hovind. This may be due to the fact that, according to Guthrie, some of the giant's bones were stored on a desk in a local office building before being lost in a 1937 flood. Disarticulated or fragmentary bones are notoriously prone to exaggerated measurements. For instance, in early 2024, a skeleton in Ecuador belonging to the Salasaca peoples, initially believed to have belonged to a seven-foot-tall pre-Columbian giant, was measured and found to be less than five feet tall, illustrating how fragmented remains can lead to significant overestimates of stature. (Landol, 2024)

Given the known newspaper sensationalism at the time, the lack of any proper documentation or remains, and the pattern of exaggeration given the giant's supposed height, the Brewersville giant should not be regarded as a good argument for either a giant race of humans or young-Earth creationism.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Colavito, J. (2025) Newspaper Accounts of Giants. Jason Colavito.

Guthrie, W. (1975, November 10) Remains of Vanished Giants Found In State. The Indianapolis News.

Jones, S. & Jones, E. (2012, March) Giants: The Archaeological Record. Ancient Wisdom.

Kell, S. (2018) BREWERSVILLE NEWS COLUMN (Giant mentioned) - 1879. Jennings County INGen Web.

Landol, N. (2024) Measuring the merit of a sensationalist documentary: A critical assessment of the Julcuy "Giant". International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 34(2), e3296

Roe, M. (n.d.) More On Giants. Michael Roe.

Taiaiako'n Historical Preservation Society (2010) Ancient Giants of North America: Midwest Mound Builders. 

Wells, D. & Wells, D. (2022) Mysterious Giant Skeletons in Earthen Mounds. Mountain Stewards.