All Hail the Thunderbird (Part 6)
KDog on May 27, 2018
THE LOST THUNDERBIRD PHOTO
One of my favorite obsessions is the legend of the Lost Thunderbird Photo. It's a convoluted tale that reveals more twists the further you dig, but here is a simple synopsis of the basic story: In the waning days of the American Wild West, two cowboys were accosted by an enormous flying creature and shot it dead. They hauled the beast - described in different versions of the legend as an abnormally large bird of prey or a prehistoric pteranodon - back to town, where the creature was hung across a barn wall. Several men posed side-by-side, demonstrating the monster's enormous wingspan, and a photograph was taken of this momentous event. This photo has supposedly appeared throughout the following decades in various men's adventure magazines and books on the paranormal. Many people are absolutely certain they have seen this photo - have you? - but the kicker is that no one can find it today.
Library archives have been scoured, but still the “Thunderbird” photo eludes us. If found, it would surely be evidence of the incredible in our midst, more than a century distant but still documented in one murky, mysterious image. Believe it or not, the first part of this story - about cowboys shooting down a flying beast - has been located in the form of a news story that appeared in the April 26, 1890 edition of the Tombstone Epitaph. The story unfortunately did not include a photo, and ended at the point where the cowboys were planning to bring the creature back to town. The notion of a photo, while potentially implied in the Epitaph report, seems to have originated in the pages of mid-20th Century magazines about strange phenomena.
So what makes this legend so compelling? The original news article is a shocking read, but it's from an era when editors weren't unknown to publish tall tales in their papers. Also, why are so many people SURE they've seen the Thunderbird photo? I think there's merit in the idea that it's a false memory, an example of The Mandela Effect. The description of a tintype photo showing a giant bird or pterodactyl draped across a barn and surrounded by a posse is evocative enough to implant an image in the brain, one that feels very familiar yet years removed. Deep down, we want to believe it's real. And we desperately want to find it. It's a key to another, more fantastic version of the universe.
Of course, what if there is a kernel of truth, and the Thunderbird photo is still out there in the dusty pages of a magazine that's been rotting in an attic for 60 years?
First-hand descriptions of the Thunderbird photo vary. Sometimes the creature's hanging on a wooden wall flanked by cowboys or men in top hats. Sometimes it's propped up on a mesa between its killers with monumental rock structures in the background. There are certainly many fakes out there, some of them truly artistic examples of photo manipulation. A couple of (debunked) versions of the photo show the beast on the ground, a trophy for Civil War soldiers. My own version is above, a mix of these legends depicted in my trademark LEGO medium.
But seriously, have YOU seen the Thuderbird photo? Let me know in the comments!
More about the Missing Thunderbird Photo - http://themothman.wikia.com/wiki/The_Missing_Thunderbird_Photo
— This is not an official LEGO comic. This is a tribute.
AmeliaP at 9:10AM, Dec. 17, 2018
haha Oh those cowboys! Shooting everything on sight
man in black at 7:03PM, May 27, 2018
Great page
Jason Moon at 1:04PM, May 27, 2018
That is one mean gunslinger!
KDog at 1:47PM, May 27, 2018
Ronald could surely use him now!
bravo1102 at 3:13AM, May 27, 2018
I know the story and it's right up there with the 1890s flying saucer crash in Texas and the Cardiff giant. The 19th century was a wonderful age of hoaxes of all kinds of wondrous beasts many collected by Ripley for his Believe it or Not which can still be seen in the museum's. I saw a very large bird that was part California condor and some taxidermist magic.
KDog at 7:29AM, May 28, 2018
Yes! A big conspiracy. lol
bravo1102 at 3:08AM, May 28, 2018
Frank Edwards collected a lot of these stories and I devoured them growing up. Now there are the giants, the Romans and Egytian ruins in the Grand Canyon. All carefully guarded by the Smithsonian to keep their image of preColumbian America going.
KDog at 5:44AM, May 27, 2018
There was definitely a wave of yellow journalism that resulted in several stories like the "ranchers kill giant flying beast" story that ran in the Epitaph. The Aurora UFO crash and the rash of airship sighting was a great example. Another legendary case was the Grand Canyon Ruins (look up that one if you haven't heard of it). As you mentioned, there are certainly real photos out there of hunters holding up large (but not abnormal) birds that could have fed into the Thunderbird photo legend. And yes, Ripley was a fascinating character. lol
bravo1102 at 3:15AM, May 27, 2018
Of course there was also the New Zealand elephant bird which was just short of extinction and a large species in South America someone could have shot and posed a picture of.