Lieutenant Charles Wilkes recorded roughly 3,000 above-ground burials at Mount Coffin, near Longview, Washington, in 1817 — and said everyone buried there had an elongated skull except enslaved people. The site burned after a campfire was left burning, and reports of elongated skulls there stopped. No verified collection from Longview exists in the published record though. 🪦🔥
Wilkes' 1817 Mount Coffin record: ~3,000 burials, nearly all with elongated skulls
Site mentioned
📍 Mount Coffin
Key facts
- Richards cites Lieutenant Charles Wilkes's 1817 sighting at Mount Coffin, near Longview, Washington, of about 3,000 above-ground burials, saying those buried there all had elongated skulls except enslaved people.
- He says the site was destroyed by fire after a campfire was left burning, and that elongated skulls there stopped being reported afterward, though many more were found in the surrounding region.
- Richards notes that no verified, named collection of elongated skulls from Longview is accessible in the published record, and the AI tool could not produce a direct citation for the claim.
- The video says a Chinook chief met by Lewis and Clark, once as well known as Sacagawea, had an elongated skull, and that his remains were repatriated about three years after his death, after a British collector removed the head and sent it to England.
- Both guests describe 19th-century Euro-American grave looting in the Pacific Northwest as widespread, including cases of violence against looters found in the early 1900s.
Sources
Mount Coffinen.wikipedia.org
Lieutenant Charles Wilkes traveled down the river as part of the U.S. Exploring Expedition and he used Mount Coffin to make astronomical observations.
Skulls and Bonesbonitagilbert.com
On the Columbia River, Wilkes and his crew stopped at Mount Coffin (near present day Longview, WA) to conduct observations atop the isolated, 700-foot mount.
Lieutenant Charles Wilkes - Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National ...nps.gov
Charles Wilkes, was the first US exploring and surveying expedition to the South Seas. Six ships carried 346 naval personnel and scientists, who ...
Charles Wilkes, US Exploring Expeditionvolcanoes.usgs.gov
Near the mouth of the Cowlitz is a high conical hill, which has received the name of Mount Coffin, from its having been a burial-place of the Indians
Roy I. Rochon Wilson Commentary: The Tragic Destruction ...chronline.com
He called the rock Mount Coffin. Charles Wilkes of the United States Navy came to the Columbia River to draw river charts. a fire began burning ...
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