author’s note
The debates triggered by the eighteenth-century discovery of the mysterious incognitum in a salt lick near the Ohio River became a touchstone of the turbulent times. Scholars, clergymen, and political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic offered sharply divergent interpretations of the huge bones and their origins. Whether viewed as a reminder of holy wrath, evidence of a giant race of humans, or a provoking suggestion of a world unknown to man, this monster of the western frontier challenged conventional thinking. The bones took on a uniquely American character—a bit defiant, a bit troubling to European institutions—adding one more piece to the puzzle of the evolving American identity.
incognitumThe ever-inquisitive Benjamin Franklin requested relics of the incognitum to
