Today's is the fourth post in this series about the redheaded giants of Lovelock Cave, Nevada. In it, I will discuss some points mentioned by Reid and his sources about a local cryptid, and the belief held by Reid that these tule-eating giants were in fact Neanderthals.
This is the full series of posts on Lovelock Cave's "giants"
Post 1
Post 2
Post 3
Post 4
January 2014 post mentioning Lovelock Cave.
Neanderthals
Dorothy P. Dansie published an article in the Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, Fall 1975, titled John T. Reid's Case for the Redheaded Giants. Besides the documents about readheaded giants, she also added some context, mentioning skulls that John Reid believed were Neanderthal skulls.
Dansie notes that Reid was a mine engineer and geologist, however, he didn't have any formal training in anthropology or archaeology, but he was a smart person and sought the advice and support of professional scholars.
She adds that "Reid's research had led him to believe he possessed Neanderthal skulls", so he wrote to the leading antrhropologist in America at that time, Ales Hrdlicka. Hrdlicka together with William Henry Holmes of the Smitshonian Institution, and Thomas Chamberlin of the United States Geological Survey, refused to accept that humans had reached America before the end of the last Ice Age, and placed their arrival around 3,000 to 10,000 years ago. So, when Reid wrote to him about the possibility that the skulls belonged to Neanderthals, Hrdlicka rejected the idea, and "simply referring Reid to Hrydlica's publications on the subject."
But Reid didn't give up. Dansie reports that "Reid had read of unusual skulls having been found in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa and also of General H. G. Thomas's exhumation of skulls in Dakota Territory "... like those of the great gibbon monkey..." So he sought advice elsewhere.
The Dakota Skulls of 1872
I will add some context to this statement about General Thomas and the Dakota Territory skulls.
These remains came from ancient Indian mounds. Cyrus Thomas (1825-1910) had an eclectic career, studying medicine, law, working as a school superintendent, and a Lutheran Evangelist minister. He helped found the Illinois Natural History in 1859 and in 1869, joined the Hayden Survey of the Northern Rockies as an entomologist. In 1873 he was appointed Professor of Natural History at Southern Illinois Normal University. In 1881 he was named Direcotr of the Division of Mound Exploration of the Bureau of Ethnology. (Source). It was during his service in North-Central USA in 1872, that he arrived at what then was the Dakota Territory (now North Dakota), and met General H. G. Thomas there. His account (which can be read in "Thomas, Cyrus 1873 Ancient mounds of Da ko ta. Geological Survey of the Territories for 1873. Government Printing Office, Washington, pp. 655-658) tells us that he was taveling in the Territory of Dakota in the summer of 1872, and learned about some mounds in the area. The local military force led by General H. G. Thomas provided him with support and Sioux guides and soldiers to help him excavate the mounds.
The mounds were, according to Cyrus, 2 miles southeast of Jamestown, North Dakota on Pipestone Creek (now named Pipestem Creek) see the approximate site in Google Maps.
Cyrus unearthed several human skeletons and drew a sketch of the mounds. He found nothing unsual. He also included a text written by General H. G. Thomas who had cut into some mounds before his arrival (Source); below I quote the relevant part of it; the highlight is mine:
"The crowning argument however comes with the skull. It is unlike that of any human being to day alive on this continent the frontal bone being low receding growing narrow and pinched from the brows up the top of the head depressed in the center. The cavity of the cranium is full seven inches long and a scant four and a half inches wide. The orbital ridges or eyebrows are excessively developed like those of the great Gibbon monkey. In fact the whole skull resembles that of the great Gibbon monkey.
HG THOMAS Captain Twentieth Infantry Brer Brig Gen USA"
Thomas believed these were oddly shaped skulls was not that of a modern human being. Of course Reid would believe that these primitive skulls were those of Neanderthals.
So, we will return to our main story, back in Lovelock Nevada.
Neanderthal skulls in Lovelock
Dansie wrote that "during the summer of 1928 Reid was visited by S. de la Rue and Mary Sasse whom he claimed were well informed on the subject, having studied in museums in Europe. They took measurements of the skulls and " ... had no hesitation in pronouncing these Neanderthal. ... " They returned to Lovelock in 1929 and told Reid that they had submitted the skulls to various authorities before depositing them with the Museum of Natural History in New York and that they were more than ever convinced of their first evaluation".
So, these skulls never became part of the collection of the Nevada Historical Society in 1984, who acquired Reid's original collection. They ended up in New York City. I have not been able to find any information about S. de la Rue or Mary Sasse.
Dansie adds that "Dr. Clark Wissler, then Curator in Chief, Division of Anthropology at the Museum of Natural History, in due time informed Reid that the skeletons appeared to be of a type of early man (MS February 1, 1933)."
A newspaper article published in the Mason Valley News, Yerington, Nevada, 02 May 1931, titled Much Interest Taken in Lovelock History reports that Reid had said he'd found evidence of the presence of Mayan people in the region. It also mentions the 7 foot tall skeleton discovered nearby by Lloyd de la Montanya, and Reid's collection and the Lovelock cave redheaded giants, described as "red-heads, known scientifically as the Sid-ucah or Neanderthal race." You can read the article following the link above. Below is a cropped image.
The shape of the skulls
An interesting point is that Reid corresponded with Wissler and sent him bones and artifacts. In a letter dated October 1930, Reid wrote to Wissler about a grave where "another skull had been found, which Reid described as being that of a typical roundhead Indian distinctly different from the longheaded, redheaded people represented by the remains in the shipment (Letter, October 30, 1930, to Mr. Clark Wossler, Museum of Natural History, New York City, New York)."
This is a new fact about the redheaded people. Unlike the typical Indians like the Paiute, who had "round" skulls, that is, brachycephalic, the redheaded tule-eaters had elongated crania, that is, dolichocephalic.
Native Americans have both broad and long headed skulls (brachycephalic and dolichocephalic). Shape varies between regions, time periods, and ethnic groups, but the Paleoindians were mostly dolichocephalic. Only later did the natives shift towards rounder skulls (brachycephalic).
The skulls of Kennewick Man from Washington USA and Luzia, from Lagoa Santa, Brazil were dolichocephalic, and date back to around 10,000 years ago. They were paleoindians. The fact that later and modern Native Americans have rounded crania suggests that a second, more recent wave of migrants reache the Americas, and these were brachycephalic.
Intriguingly, (Boggione et al., 2025) Neanderthals and Denisovans (Qiang Ji et al., 2021) had elongated skulls, just like the ancient paleoindians had.
My next post will look into the local myths regarding a hominin-like monster that lived in that area.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall ©
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