Was Coronado’s Gun Found in the United Verde Mine?

 

It was late autumn 1900 when a minor cave-in occurred in the giant United Verde mine in Jerome. On December 3, as workers cleared the mess, they were astonished to find a newly exposed cave that contained a mysterious gravesite falloff artifacts. “It was with wonder and awe that the workmen first entered the cave and handled the relics that must have been laid away centuries [ago],” the Jerome News described, adding that it created quite an excitement in the copper town.

A Grave Robber's Remarkable Find

Meet John Love. In his day, at the turn of the last century, he was known as a “relics prospector.” Today he would easily be considered a grave robber. “Those who come in contact with him dub him queer, eccentric, etc., explaining that he was struck on the head in early youth by an iron bar and has suffered more or less seriously since,” the Arizona Republican reported. Still, the same paper also described him as “John Love, the well-known searcher for prehistoric relics…”

Road Crew Finds Giant Skeleton on Sycamore Creek

In February 1913, a road crew started digging "where the grade of the Verde railway passes" over Sycamore Creek in order to facilitate improvements. Soon, they uncovered evidence that they had found a prehistoric gravesite. What shocked them further was the enormous size of the bones located within it.

It was later calculated that this humanoid skeleton must have stood at least 8 feet tall.

1911: Giant Humanoid Skeleton Unearthed in Yavapai County UPDATED

(Not the skeleton found in AZ)

The 1911 monsoon floods had cut a new wash through the farm that Peter Marx had been working since 1870. By chance, this new cut exposed some bones sticking out of its bank. Marx went to investigate and quickly unearthed a large leg bone about twice the size of a human's.

Puzzled, he wondered what animal it could have come from.

He continued to dig, finding more large bones until, about three feet in, he discovered a giant human skull!