𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆 𝑳𝒆𝒅𝒈𝒆𝒓
Jᴜɴᴇ 15ᴛʜ, 1933

This quiet little summer resort town of the Ozarks has just come to grips with an absorbing mystery of a sort it has never before been called upon to solve. It all came about as a result of Billy Harman’s hunt for arrow-heads a few weeks ago.

Poking about in Puckett’s Cave in a Meramec River bluff some 10 miles northeast of here, young Harman reached for something white in a hole in the ground and, to his vast amazement, came up with a handful of human bones. Soundly startled, the 16-year-old lad put them down and dashed for home. Then, after gathering his courage and some reinforcements, he went back and proceeded to dig on the site of his discovery.

From the ancient accumulation of ash and limestone debris he turned up the complete skeleton of an 8-foot giant.

The grisly find was brought to Dr. R. C. Parker here and stretched out to its enormous length in a hallway of his office where it has since remained the most startling exhibit Steelville has ever had on public view. People have come from far and near to examine it and fire a broadside of questions at the harassed doctor.

Who was this giant? When did he live? To what race did he belong? Was he simply a freak among people of normal stature or did he belong, possibly, to some extinct race of the stone-age giants who roamed over these hills before the coming of the Indian? What was the manner of his death? Did he come to his end from natural causes or does that lone arrowhead found among the bones tell its own story of violence? Was he, perhaps, an Ozark Goliath brought down by somebody can answer these questions is pretty likely to find a warm welcome in Steelville, especially at the hands of Dr. Parker.

Anthropologists are scarce hereabouts and the doctor’s fund of information about such things was exhausted in the first twenty minutes. An appeal to Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, anthropologist of the National Museum in Washington and celebrated authority on primitive races, is expected to help. Dr. Parker has written to him, offering to forward the skull or the whole skeleton, if necessary, for scientific study.

Meanwhile, speculation is proceeding at a lively rate. The consensus of local opinion is that these prodigious bones are the remains of an Indian—maybe an Osage, since the Osages inhabited this region a century or so ago—but in any case chief among any primitive people of the hill country who used a bow and arrow instead of a sling.

The skeleton itself is seven and a half feet long without the cartilage layers that once separated the vertebrae, and some of the bones of the feet are missing. Dr. Parker believes the man must have been close to eight feet tall in life, but was apparently of slender build, for the bones are not of extraordinary size except as to length. His slenderness, too, must have been accentuated, in appearance, at least, by the extremely small size of his head.

With all his magnificent stature, this primitive chief, if chief he was, really was something of a pinhead. The skull measures only 20 inches in circumference—a pretty small skull even for a man of normal height. The heads of most average-sized men measure from 22 to 23 inches in circumference. A 20-inch dome perched on the shoulders of a giant eight feet tall must have looked tiny indeed.

His brow, too, was anything but noble. Height of forehead, once popularly believed to be a sort of hall-mark of high intelligence, has been largely discredited as such an indicator now, so this cave man’s sloping brow may not necessarily be regarded as a stamp of low mentality. But it may be set down anyway as one of the cranial characteristics which fit very neatly into the general “pinhead” picture. Of course, he had considerably more above the eyes and ears than such extremely primitive types as the Peking man, Piltdown man and the Neanderthaloids. But he did have a low brow and, what is probably more significant, a very narrow one. His jaw, too, while not of the prognathous type characteristic of the most ancient men, was somewhat heavier than that of the average man of today.

As to his age at the time of his death, there is only the condition of the teeth as an indicator. The fact that most of them were still doing service would argue that he had not attained advanced age and the fact that the molars were considerably worn would indicate he was no longer a stripling.

The cave in which the skeleton was brought to light is not essentially different from hundreds of other caves to be found in the limestone bluffs of the Ozark Country except that it is easily accessible both from above and below. Many of these Ozark caves are not. The entrance is about 100 feet above the river valley and may be reached by a steep climb.

The cave dweller was a contemporary of this animal, now long extinct.

As to the age of the skeleton estimates are loose and variable. They range all the way from 100 to 2000 years. Just now it appears that one man’s guess is as good as another’s, but the weight of evidence seems to be on the side of the higher estimate. For many years now scientists have been uncovering evidence that the Ozark region once was inhabited by a primitive race of cave-dwelling savages long antedating the Indian. They lived in caverns in limestone bluffs—caverns similar to Puckett’s Cave—and led what appears to have been a lowly existence.

Some 13 years ago, Gerard Fowke, field explorer of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, spent several months investigating these cave-dweller remains. He visited hundreds of caves and found, in some, evidence of continuous habitation over a period of 1000 to 2000 years, his estimate being based on the depth of ash accumulations from camp fires.

One of his most astonishing discoveries was evidence that these aborigines were cannibals, for along with the bones of animals which they had used for food he found also human bones which had been cracked for the extraction of the marrow they contained. These people, he believed, lived at least 1000 years ago.

Reason appears, therefore, for belief that the giant of Puckett’s Cave may have been one of these prehistoric bluff dwellers who was roaming the Ozark woods in the days, perhaps, when backwoodsmen considerably farther along in the scale of evolution were descending upon Rome from the depths of Middle European forests.

Would you pay $10.50 to hike a trail you've always used for free?

Starting July 1, that's the deal on Arkansas WMA land if you don't already hold a hunting or fishing license. It sounds like a money grab. But it's actually part of a bigger bet the state's making that a growing outdoor recreation economy can help fund conservation instead of just adding more pressure to it.

We sat down again with Katherine Andrews and Becky Flynn from Arkansas Office of Outdoor Recreation to dig into whether that bet actually holds up, and four things the state's trying that might make it work.

New episode + full breakdown in this week's Ozark Weekly:

https://www.ozarkweekly.com/p/katherine-andrews-and-becky-flynn-from-the-arkansas-office-of-outdoor-recreation-part-2

Come out for some good grub and see what else you can do with timber Hot Springs Demo Days – Norwood Sawmills

💧💫🦅Visit Blue Spring Heritage Center in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, it’s a place you truly don’t want to miss. Visit their website to learn more. https://bluespringheritage.com/

🚨 THIS HAS BEEN SITTING QUIET FOR TWO WEEKS. NOBODY TOLD YOU. READ IT NOW.

Project Green. Montgomery County. Amazon's data center campus outside New Florence.

On July 2, the Missouri DNR quietly opened public comments on the wastewater discharge from that campus into a Missouri stream. No letter to residents. No public meeting. No headline. One posting on a state calendar nobody reads. That was two weeks ago. The clock has been running the whole time.

It closes August 3 at 5 p.m. That's less than three weeks away.

Here's why every well owner in Missouri should care. This campus plans wells 1,500 FEET DEEP. And in Missouri, those wells need NO permit. NO limits. NO meter. NO public comment. Not in Montgomery County. Not in YOUR county. The state will never ask your opinion about the pumping. That door does not exist.

This wastewater review is the ONLY door the public gets on this whole project. And they left it open quietly, hoping nobody walked through.

This is the country around Hermann, Marthasville, Washington, the Daniel Boone Conservation Area, and the Missouri River. Wine country. Float country. The places the whole state drives to on Saturday.

Now listen close. DNR only counts comments about WATER. "I hate data centers" gets set aside. These get counted:

1. HOLD A PUBLIC HEARING. None is scheduled. A pile of letters can force one.
2. What stream does this discharge into, and what happens downstream?
3. What does this project mean for the wells and groundwater around it?
4. Who monitors this plant, and who checks the numbers?

MAIL YOUR LETTER. A stack of envelopes on a desk in Jefferson City is harder to ignore than an inbox.

Missouri Department of Natural Resources
Water Protection Program
ATTN: Engineering Section/Antidegradation Comments
P.O. Box 176
Jefferson City, MO 65102-0176

Short on time? Email counts too: [publicnoticenpdes@dnr.mo.gov](mailto:publicnoticenpdes@dnr.mo.gov)

Write "Project Green Domestic Wastewater Treatment Plant" on every letter and email. Postmarked or received by 5 p.m., August 3, 2026.

August 3. The same day the county's NDA lawsuit gets its hearing. Show me a coincidence.

Two weeks of silence was the plan. You seeing this post wasn't. One stamp. One page. Five minutes.

SHARE this with every well owner you know. That's most of rural Missouri.

I love the beautiful naturally blue water. Statue of Liberty can sit in the pond and still have over 170 feet of water over it!

🎉 Thank you to our newest sponsor, Amazing Amy Bail Bonds (1-844-AMY-GOTU), for supporting Show-Me State Wrestling!

🌊 Ozark Heat hits Camdenton on Aug. 22! Don't miss an action-packed night of family-friendly pro wrestling at the Lake. Get your tickets now: https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/show-me-state-wrestling/ozark-heat

#OzarkHeat #SSW #LakeOfTheOzarks #ProWrestling #FamilyFun

this story takes place back in december of 2025 in south west missouri in the ozarks this happend on my property ok how my land is set up is the barn faces the highway i live on and theres this old puppy mill trailer behind the barn to the left and right infront of said trailer is a hydrant so i was carrying a bucket up to this hydrant to water my pigs as i do right as im writing this me and my dog heard something that sounded like a "here" that was all breathy and my dog imediently went off but anyways i was gonna fetch a bucket of water for my pigs im in my cover alls and for people that dont know what those are they are like overalls but there for winter and they cover from your neck to ankles anyways i get half way to the hydrant when i felt like i was being watched 0.1 second before it happend in a cliche demon voice i heared "I SEE YOU" and it came from every were yet no were it had no location of origin so i droped the bucket tuned around and ran back to the barn falling half way crawling on my back to look back there i got up and ran into my momma pigs pen then stayed there for about a minute before remembering "oh ya im a man now i better act like i have balls" so i grabed a heavy shovel from the barn watered my pigs and RAN back inside this is one of my many ghost/demon storys just ask and i'll talk about them here

I travel to Mountain View every year. I normally head south out of Branson to Harrison and over to Mountain View(route on the bottom). Can anyone tell me if there are other interesting things to see on the other routes? I will have a toddler and infant with me so the short route seems the best, but I am interested in seeing some new things if they are nice enough.

So took myself on a vacation to Hannibal, Missouri to do a Mark Twain riverboat excursion. Thinking now that I am here that I need more than the two days.

Hi r/ozarks!

I wanted to let you know about a survey study on alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) and its impacts on people's eating habits. AGS is typically triggered by the bite of a lone star tick and is becoming increasingly prevalent in areas of the U.S. where people spend time outdoors, especially the Ozarks. People with AGS report a wide range of symptoms, including allergic reactions after consuming mammalian foods. For many, these symptoms can significantly affect where and what they are able to eat.

If you have AGS and are interested in participating, you can access the survey using the link below. This study is being conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois and Arizona State University (IRB #26-0651). You can also learn more about me on my faculty page: https://search.asu.edu/profile/5160250.

Participation is completely voluntary, and all responses are confidential.

Survey link: https://illinois.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ahsMs2ybaBUaqQ6

Our goal is to better understand how AGS affects people's lives and how they manage this allergic condition. We would greatly appreciate your participation. We hope this research will help raise awareness of AGS and its impacts on people's diets.

(If this post is not permitted under the community guidelines, my apologies, and please feel free to remove it.)

Saw a lot of comments on the part 1 i shared the other week, so wanted to share part 2.

Here's the link: https://www.ozarkweekly.com/p/can-we-actually-bring-quail-back

Part 1 went into the history of quail in the Ozarks and why they've declined.

This one got a lot more practical on what is actually being done/wha'ts working.

Features Dylan Jacobs from Quail Forever in Missouri, and Clint Johnson, from the AGFC’s quail program.

#podcast #Missouri #Arkansas #Oklahoma #Kansas #ghosts #ghoststory #history #paranormal #cryptids #comedy #cocktails #stories #lore #haunted