L. A. Times, November 18, 1906.
ANCIENT GIANTS UNEARTHED
Skeletons Eight Feet Long Have Been Found
"On what is known as one of the Illinois River hills, about midway between Cooperstown and the river and eight miles from Mt. Sterling, in Brown County, Ill., has just been made one of the richest and possibly the most wonderful of prehistoric finds. A curious resident of the locality recently assailed with pick and spade an ancient mound in almost the center of the little farm of Mrs. M. Crabtree, a widow and already the results of the exhumation would make the eyes of the archaeologists dance with delight. With the first day's work the mound began to give up traces of the handiwork of past ages and the bones of those who had wrought it and others immediately joined in the search, still going on. Thus far, several skeletons, by actual measurement eight feet long and several pieces of remarkable pottery, beads and curious implements have been taken out. The bones crumbled badly almost as soon as they are taken into the open air. They are so numerous that it is believed a prehistoric burying ground has been found greater in extent and more perfectly preserved than any yet discovered. Under the bones of each of the ancient dead were found pieces of pottery, beneath the fragments of the skulls of some of their great vases. The largest of which would easily hold two gallons. Underneath one skeleton was a curious bowl, in the center of whose basin was the well-fashioned figure of a king seated upon a log and it is thought that these bones may be those of a great leader of the race that once ruled this portion of the continent.
