There are many tales of the
Thunderbird that are more recent than the Native American legends. The animal is
almost always listed in the catalogs of cryptozoologists' mysterious creatures,
and although the Thunderbird has been sighted on numerous occasions, a credible
photograph or video of one has never been produced, and one has never been
killed or captured... except perhaps once.
A tale comes out of the
Arizona Territory desert about two cowboys who encountered the giant flying
creature in 1890. As cowboys are wont to do, they took careful aim with their
rifles at the amazing creature and blasted it from the sky. According to an
article in the April 26, 1890 edition of the Tombstone Epigraph, the
cowboys and their horses dragged the lifeless monster into town where its
wingspan was measured at an incredible 190 feet and its body measured at 92 feet
long. It was described as having no feathers, but a smooth skin and wings
"composed of a thick and nearly transparent membrane." Clearly, their
description more readily resembles a pteranodon,
pterosaur or pterodactyl
than a large bird.
Most paranormal researchers
consider this story to be a good example of Old West creative writing on the
part of the newspaper. But there may be a hint of truth in it. In 1970, a man
named Harry McClure claimed that he knew one of the cowboys when he was a small
boy. The real story, as the cowboy told the youth, was that the creature they
shot at had a wingspan of 20 to 30 feet. They did not kill the Thunderbird,
however, and returned to town only with their fantastic story.
One more intriguing element
to this anecdote is that a photo was supposedly taken of the great creature,
held up with its wings spread by several townspeople. Remarkably, many
people recall seeing this photograph printed in Fate, National Geographic
or Grit magazine, or in some book about the Old West, but as yet this
photo has not been produced.
In
his book Unexplained!,
Jerome Clark lists many more sightings, including:
In the early 1940s,
writer Robert R. Lyman spotted a Thunderbird sitting on a road near
Coudersport, Pennsylvania. It soon took to the sky, spreading its 20-foot
wingspan.
In 1969, the wife of a
Clinton County, Pa. sheriff saw an enormous bird over Little Pine Creek. She
said its wingspan appeared to be about as long as the creek was wide - about
75 feet!
In 1970, several people
saw the gigantic bird "soaring toward Jersey Shore [Pa.]. It was dark
colored, and its wingspread was almost like [that of] an airplane."
In 1948, several
witnesses along the Illinois-Missouri border sighted a condor-like bird
about the size of a Piper Club airplane.
Abductors
of Children
The most terrifying stories
about giant birds is that they occasionally attempt to carry away small animals
and even children. This item appeared in the July 28, 1977 edition of the Boston
Evening Globe:
CARRIED OFF
10 year-old Marlan Lowe and his mother Mrs. Ruth Lowe claim that one of two
large black birds with eight-foot wingspans tried to carry Marlan off in its
claws Monday evening in Lawndale, Illinois. Although several birds experts say
that no bird native to Illinois could lift 70 pound Marlan. Mrs. Lowe say that
Marlan was carried 20 feet before the bird dropped him when he struck the bird
with his hand. (UPI)
Despite what the "birds
experts" say, why would a mother make up such an incredible story that
would certainly expose them to ridicule?
In September of the same
year, in Burlington, Kentucky, a small dog was the victim of a similar abduction
attempt. This item appeared in the September 2, 1977 edition of the Cincinnati
Enquirer from a report by the Associated Press:
A five-pound puppy remains
in critical condition today while wildlife experts try to decide whether it
was attacked by an American Bald Eagle. Mrs. Greg Schmitt, Rabbit Hash, Ky.,
said the beagle was snatched from her farm and dropped in a pond 600 yards
away. Mrs. Schmitt said she did not see the incident but that a 7-year-old
neighbor boy did. He said it was a "big bird" which took the puppy
skyward. The veterinarian, Dr. R. W. Bachmeyer, of Walton, Ky., said wounds on
the puppy might have been caused by talons.
In this case, it seems to
have been assumed that the predator was a bald eagle, but could it have been a
Thunderbird?
Other abduction stories
include that of a 42-pound five-year-old girl named Svanhild Hansen who in June,
1932 was carried away by a "huge eagle" from her parents' farm in Leka,
Norway. The giant bird carried her for more than a mile, the report stated,
after which it dropped her unharmed on a high mountain ledge.
In 1838, another
five-year-old girl was snatched from the slope of the Swiss Alps, where she was
playing, by an eagle that carried the child to its nest. Unfortunately, the girl
did not survive the ordeal, and her badly mutilated body was discovered some two
months later by a shepherd. The eagle's nest, subsequently found, was said to
contain several eaglets surrounding "heaps of goat and sheep
bones."
Have You Had a
Paranormal
Experience?
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