Large Maritime Archaic Skeletons Uncovered in Maine
Lewiston Evening Journal, July 25, 1919
James Perkins dug the cellar of his house at Popham Beach, on the knoll next north of the Riverside Hotel, the skeletons unearthed, who were, in life from six to seven feet in height, giants in fact. Mr. Perkins took the jaw bone of one of these Indians and placed it on his own face. It completely encased his jaw and he is a pretty good sized man. Mr. Perkins gathered all the bones of these two skeletons together and placed them in a barrel and reinterred them so. It is proposed to dig up the barrel and have the bones set together to illustrate what manner of inhabitants Weymouth and Popham discovered in the earliest years of the 17th century, when they arrived in this section of Maine." Winter Harbor, Islesford, and Sabino." Perkins was also an accomplished portrait photographer and the Penobscot Museum has 530 glass plate negatives of his work. Perkins was reported to have been keenly interested n the history of Maine and had a love for his community, he passed away in 1935. I have contacted countless museums and historical societies on the trail of this mystery but the reality is that the sheer volume of reports makes it a long and painstaking process to hunt down information regarding these finds. I have been in touch with Penobscot Museum and hopefully I can learn more about this matter. Records, diaries and family accounts will eventually add to the body of evidence needed to fill in the gaps of a phenomena alarmingly ignored by those whose job it is to dig for the truth.
James Perkins dug the cellar of his house at Popham Beach, on the knoll next north of the Riverside Hotel, the skeletons unearthed, who were, in life from six to seven feet in height, giants in fact. Mr. Perkins took the jaw bone of one of these Indians and placed it on his own face. It completely encased his jaw and he is a pretty good sized man. Mr. Perkins gathered all the bones of these two skeletons together and placed them in a barrel and reinterred them so. It is proposed to dig up the barrel and have the bones set together to illustrate what manner of inhabitants Weymouth and Popham discovered in the earliest years of the 17th century, when they arrived in this section of Maine." Winter Harbor, Islesford, and Sabino." Perkins was also an accomplished portrait photographer and the Penobscot Museum has 530 glass plate negatives of his work. Perkins was reported to have been keenly interested n the history of Maine and had a love for his community, he passed away in 1935. I have contacted countless museums and historical societies on the trail of this mystery but the reality is that the sheer volume of reports makes it a long and painstaking process to hunt down information regarding these finds. I have been in touch with Penobscot Museum and hopefully I can learn more about this matter. Records, diaries and family accounts will eventually add to the body of evidence needed to fill in the gaps of a phenomena alarmingly ignored by those whose job it is to dig for the truth.
