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"Giantologists: There's One Born Every Minute" or "The Helenwood Devil: An Obvious Fraud" 

3/22/2015

10 Comments

 

PictureThe clay statue of the "giant with horns" built by Cruis Sexton in the 1920s still has cachet among giantologists.
Okay, so I couldn't resist another post related to giants today.  This one, like my last one, isn't going to contain any ground-breaking analysis.  Rather I'm just going to relay the results of some simple fact-checking.

Kristan Harris posted this silly story today with the headline "Human Skeleton with Horns Discovered by Coal Miners Underneath Knoxville, TN."  After an introductory paragraph that asks the pressing question of whether a race of horned humans once roamed the planet, Harris transcribes a 1921 article from the Bismarck Tribune about a petrified 6'4" giant allegedly found in a coal mine in Scott County, Tennessee.  The alert observer will immediately note that, contrary to the headline of Harris' story, the horned being was "petrified" rather than a skeleton, and it was found in Helenwood (Scott County), not Knoxville (Knox County).  But those are trivial details when we're talking about the Devil walking the Earth.  So let's move on.

When I read the Bismark Tribune story, my first thought was "Hey, this is in the 1920s - surely there's a photo of this thing somewhere."  It took me a few minutes, but I found one.  It is on a National Park Service website for the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area along with the story of how Cruis Sexton built the "Devil of Scott County" out of clay and charged people money to see it.  You can find other tellings of the story by Googling "Helenwood Devil" or "Devil of Scott County."  This was an obvious hoax that was used to bilk the gullible. 

And it's still fooling the gullible today.  The story has its own page on the Greater Ancestors World Museum website (without the photo of the clay statue but with the photo that gets passed around as the purported horned skull from Sayre, Pennsylvania, apparently just as an illustration of what a horned skull would look like).  Maybe since I have now made the giantology community aware of this photo and the story that goes with it (it took me a couple of minutes with my phone while I was watching two kids - not exactly serious scholarship), the GAWM can make a replica of the "horned giant" to go along with its replica of the imaginary skull with three rows of teeth.

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Addendum 1 (3/23/2015):  I found this article from the August 11, 1921, edition of The Topeka State Journal. In this article, it appears as though Cruise Sexton was trying to pass off his creation as a prehistoric statue rather than the preserved body of "prehistoric giant:"

"Sexton believes the object may be an image of an old tribe of Indians or cliff dwellers."

So there you go. Even the guy who built knew it wasn't good enough to pass off as actual human remains. But the giantologists of today have promoted it, sight unseen, to a fact of prehistory that they say should upend everything we've been taught.  Good luck making that argument.

Addendum 2 (3/25/2015):  This website about Scott County history reproduces the following article from the Somerset Journal (September 9, 1921), describing the visit of the Helenwood Devil to a fair in Somerset, Kentucky: 

"There was exhibited last week at the Somerset Fair an object that  attracted several thousand people into a small tent.  They each paid 25 cents  admission fee.  Some came out and said the whole thing was a fake, while others  said they would not have missed it for a dollar.  Anyway, it was the biggest  drawing card at the fair.  The object that is attracting so much attention was  found by Crusie Sexton while digging for coal near Helenwood, Tenn.  It has the  appearance of a petrified form, about five feet, ten inches long, large head  with horns, large nose and ears, wings reaching to ankles and teeth showing.   The arms are long and slender and are crossed over the body.  The hands have  extra long fingers and the ankles are enlarged.  Mr. Sexton, who made the find,  was in the city this week and made an affidavit that he found the object in the  ground about five feet below the surface.  He dug it up and removed it to  Helenwood where it created such excitement that he put it in a box and charged  admission.  IT is said that the sum of $25,000.00 has been offered for it.  It  is owned by Mr. J.C. Pemberton of Oneida, Tenn., now.  The form is now reposing  in a box with iron bands around it, four pad locks on the box, nails driven in  the lid and a guard standing watch.  A professor from an eastern university  says it is some ancient idol of an early race.  Anyway, whatever it is, the  owners bid fair to get rich."

10 Comments
Gary
3/23/2015 02:41:14 am

But I'm pretty sure someone told me that people were more honest back then!

But certainly no less gullible.

Reply
Chris L Lesley link
3/24/2015 04:52:49 am

Strawman attacks seem to be a weapon of choice for you. Its good that you mischaracterize oppositions to gov. ed. equally. What else would you prefer? An article of a skeleton, not a sculpture? An example of one over 7 foot, not 6 foot 4? Possibly one that has horns as well just for a nice topping??? Here is my latest find: http://greaterancestors.com/horned-giant-sulpher-springs/

Reply
Gary
3/25/2015 08:44:46 pm

from greaterancestors.com: "or some crazy animal-human hybrid belief. (like the ones from academia, in spite of the lack of evidence)"

Talk about a strawman!

Reply
Andy White
3/24/2015 05:03:03 am

Hi Chris,

This post was about the Helenwood Devil, not a report from Indiana. How does the Helenwood Devil fit into your framework for human origins? I'm curious, since it was made of clay.

Reply
Chris L Lesley link
4/16/2015 04:31:05 am

"This post was about the Helenwood Devil, not a report from Indiana." Yes i do recognize the cherry picking on your part, and your quest for runt hunting. I have made no claims on the legitimacy on the the Helenwood devil, although it is as legitimate as any evidence for so-called "apemen." The Helenwood Devil is on the same level, not unlike Peking man. The Helenwood Devil is equal to Peking Man. The difference is that you (or any other pantheist) stand on anything peer-reviewed even when that which is being reviewed is a sculpture.

I say that we should take a non-political approach to the subject of human origins, we think, instead of being one sided. (Helenwood Devil or Peking Man)
Why don't you write a blog on Peking Man next. How did you put it? . . . "There is (indeed) one born every minute", . . . from this blog to Peking. I have a few appropriate phrases myself: (the pot calling the kettle) ( first pull the beam out of your own eye) (judge not, lest ye be judged) (don't dish it, if you can't take it) all of these would make good blog titles in response to "this post".

Giantology stands strong even when the runts are culled from the herd. Every example of evolution is a runt, academia is a herd of runts with even more pathetic runts calling them peers. When the day comes that you actually start questioning evolution for something better (greater ancestry), you are no longer a sucker.

Thanks for the analysis on the Helenwood Devil, it was sort of a stub on my website, i wish i had the time to followup on each one. Any contribution pro or con without a political or personal leaning is greatly appreciated.

Reply
Andy White
4/17/2015 08:56:53 pm

Hi Chris,

"The Helenwood Devil is equal to Peking Man."

I'm assuming that by "Peking Man" you are referring to Homo erectus, an early human whose existence we can document through numerous fossils recovered from Africa and Eurasia?

I think that statement of equivalence speaks volumes.

Reply
Chris L. Lesley link
6/26/2017 02:06:34 pm

Peking Man is a single skull, actually, its not a skull at all, its plaster sculpture. I am curious how you think making a plaster sculpture of a mythical apeman validates transmutation? Maybe if the Helenwood devil had been an apeman made of plaster, you would be defending it. The problem is no apeman has ever been found, not one. What has been found is the greater ancestors of simidaes (monkeys) you know what that is right? You and that theologian Darwin, believe you had distant grand parents who were monkeys. How do you not hide your face in shame? Don't call yourself a scientist, you are a pantheistic government educator ruining young minds with storytelling and Censorship If Andy White has oppressed your science with his narcissistic beliefs, given you bad grades because he hates whatever group you belong to, I would like to hear about it. .

Reply
Andy White
6/26/2017 02:17:16 pm

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your prompt reply. You don't understand evolution, but I'm hoping you're able to count. There isn't a single "Peking Man" fossil -- there are many. It's usually called "Homo erectus" now, and numerous fossils are known from Asia and Africa.

The "no missing link" argument is silly and demonstrates that you don't get it.

Reply
Lewis Borck
6/26/2017 03:23:57 pm

Is he talking about the Piltdown Man, maybe?

Reply
Chris L Lesley link
11/1/2018 08:28:23 am

And you are a teacher? I think you are overpaid. I find it quite ironic that you say i don't understand evolution,.

~ The first molars found at the site: (plaster molars)

"Since they were lost, for research on the fossil humans found at the site during the 1930s, plaster replicas of very poor quality have been used, as well as the descriptions and sketches that the researcher Franz Weidenreich left us," comments Bermúdez de Castro.


~The first Peking Man Skull (The Original sculpture)

" The original fossils were under study at the Peking Union Medical College in 1941 when, with Japanese invasion imminent, an attempt was made to smuggle them out of China and to the United States. The bones disappeared and have never been recovered, leaving only plaster casts for study."

I understand that the Helenwood devil is a plaster sculpture like Peking Man. At 6'4" Out of 10,000 examples of giants its not a shining example by no means.

~all plaster:
"Between 1929 and 1937, 15 partial crania, 11 mandibles, many teeth, some skeletal bones and large numbers of stone tools were discovered in the Lower Cave at Locality 1 of the Peking Man site at Zhoukoudian. Their age is estimated to be between 500,000 and 300,000 years old. (A number of fossils of modern humans were also discovered in the Upper Cave at the same site in 1933.) The most complete fossils, all of which were calvariae, are:

"Skull II, discovered at Locus D in 1929 but only recognized in 1930, is an adult or adolescent with a brain size of 1030 cc. Skull II.jpg
Skull III, discovered at Locus E in 1929 is an adolescent or juvenile with a brain size of 915 cc. Skull III.jpg
Skulls X, XI and XII (sometimes called LI, LII and LIII) were discovered at Locus L in 1936. They are thought to belong to an adult man, an adult woman and a young adult, with brain sizes of 1225 cc, 1015 cc and 1030 cc respectively.[4] Skull X.jpg Skull XI.jpg Skull XII.jpg
Skull V: two cranial fragments were discovered in 1966 which fit with (casts of) two other fragments found in 1934 and 1936 to form much of a skullcap with a brain size of 1140 cc. These pieces were found at a higher level, and appear to be more modern than the other skullcaps.[5]

Most of the study on these fossils was done by Davidson Black until his death in 1934. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin took over until Franz Weidenreich replaced him and studied the fossils until he left China in 1941. The original fossils disappeared in 1941"

Plaster masters!

The most complete example "one skull" was paraded as the example for "a-monkey-man", common ancestor, hannuman what ever you want to believe, one skull was placed in a successive line with other examples that was the "the most complete example" of Peking Man with: the Nebraska Peccary, The Piltdown Jackalope. The Lucy Jackalope, donkey skulls, dolphin ribs etc. to modern man. The fact that those from Zhoukoudian were plaster examples from sculptures seems to be unimportant as long as you are drinking from Jim Jones cup, with everyone else.

The classification homo-erectus is a group of similar unrelated fossils. Many are just mosaic crushed skulls put back together with a little glue and a lot of artistic-liscensing. Look at the animal sculptures you put together with trash, same thing.

Skull caps of giant-Catarrhine monkeys are something i would expect to find in the fossil record. All creatures have a greater-ancestor there are giant examples for everything, that includes man and monkeys. So while we are looking at the same evidence you have the burden of obeying your parental-peers and keeping with your mandated-curriculum, while i just bear the burden of being correct. I do understand evolutionism better than you Andy White, and that is why i reject it for something much better.

Reply



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