Joe Rogan Experience #2563 - Dan Richards · Aired Oct 8, 2026
Claim summary · not a verbatim quotation
In 1959, Dr. Don Dragoo of the Carnegie Museum dug up a skeleton in an Adena mound that was estimated to be 7 feet 3 inches tall based on in-ground measurements.
The finding
What the evidence shows
Don Dragoo of the Carnegie Museum did excavate a very large skeleton, Burial 54, at the Adena Cresap Mound in West Virginia. The figures usually cited are about 7.04 feet measured in the tomb and 7 feet 2 inches, not 7 feet 3 inches. Archaeologists say this was a rough field measurement of the bones lying in the ground, not a scientific estimate of living height, and a Carnegie curator says the seven-foot figure may even be a typo. A page of Dragoo's own report giving 7 feet 3 inches as the estimated living height would flip this verdict.
Read the supporting source · wvexplorer.com ↗Quick answer & review status
Quick answer
Is it true that in 1959, Dr. Don Dragoo of the Carnegie Museum dug up a skeleton in an Adena mound that was estimated to be 7 feet 3 inches tall based on in-ground measurements?
Partly. The claim stretches what the evidence shows. Don Dragoo of the Carnegie Museum did excavate a very large skeleton, Burial 54, at the Adena Cresap Mound in West Virginia. 04 feet measured in the tomb and 7 feet 2 inches, not 7 feet 3 inches. Dan Richards said it (matched by voice) on Joe Rogan Experience #2563 - Dan Richards, aired Oct 8, 2026, at 1:00:46. The supporting source is wvexplorer.com, linked below.
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