Whether it be fact, fiction, or somewhere in between, the giant who'd marked out his treasure hoard with his own bicuspid is a tale not forgot.
Men were as grasshoppers in their sight
As more and more evidence became available online, we have had to take a step back from the fantastical role that giants have always been typecast into. Consider claims from the Piute tribe of old, and modern US service men, both claiming to have battled 25 foot tall red haired giants in remote caves.
Then, consider that the National Museum in Equador has a genuine 30' tall 'giant human' skeleton on display right now as you read this. This is in despite of repeated efforts by the international museum community pressuring the Ecuadorian Government to take the 'evolution-crushing' specimen down.
Remember, it's easier to convince somebody of a lie, rather than to convince him he's been lied too.
Behind the legend
There are many tall tales from the Pacific Northwest. The story of lost or hidden treasure is a common theme in folklore, but we don't often hear the mention of giants or their fossilized teeth.
A poem of unknown origin hinting at where the giant's tooth could be found, and the treasure location, had been sung repeatedly to a few children in each new generation. That is until 2016, when Mario Ibarra found the tooth buried under blackberry bushes while exploring the land that was to become the Riverpass Retreat in Oregon.
For the First time the poem has been published in its entirety here.
'The Legend of the Tooth Covered Gold',
Also known as 'The Giant's Tooth' poem
A legend is told, of the tale of a place,
a story that seldom is told.
It tells of the last of the long fallen race,
and of where they last hid all their gold.
To the North of a river, in a pass of a valley,
between Savage, and Bloody Run Creek,
an old rogue told how the last giants rallied,
to hide what all men still seek.
While resting their feet in the shade of a hollow,
with their heels in the pond of a brook,
two giants prodded the big one they followed,
for a location that no man could look.
As he sat in the sun with one toe in the stream,
near a tidal spring known since his youth,
the big leading giant he started to scheme,
whilst tapping his one giant tooth.
"The best place to hide all our treasure and gold,"
he said, "safe from man's greedy eyes,
is to put it down here, into this spring of old,
covered, yet that we'll recognize."
So all in agreement they cast in their lots
of gems, pearls, and all precious metals,
and then one freshly pulled tooth full of rot,
was pushed down in the gravel to settle.
He said as he stood, wiping away blood and drool,
"I give my tooth, thus, to mark out this land,
yet, I give more than neither you fools"
and slew both, before either could stand.
His tooth he kept there, as a cap on a fountain,
and he dragged the fallen ones East.
Past the desert that is over the mountains,
as a feast for his brood and his beasts.
From behind a Madrona emerged a young man,
who had watched the giants bury their treasure.
Efforts to move it, sank the tooth deeper in sand,
much to his whole tribes displeasure.
The stream course did change and became overgrown,
hidden by briars for years untold.
Water covered the tooth and turned it to stone,
and the giant could not find his gold.
This story was passed from old man to young,
an old man I know once told me.
Some hear the story and say it's just fun,
but to some it's as real as can be.
If you ever find a giant tooth made of stone,
from where water flows over and under,
you may find a bit of gold all your own.
A small bite of the giants lost plunder.